Transferring Footage from Sony HDV-HC1 to Sony PMW-F3 via iLink

[Zarrir]

Hello! My first post in this forum. I own both cameras and i heard it is possible to transfer footage from an old HDV-HC1 to the SxS card inside a PMW-F3 using the iLink (firewire) ports on both of them. I read the manual on this specific feature of the Sony F3 but found it very confusing and could not figure out the exact steps for doing it. Anybody can help? Thanks in advance

[Doug Jensen]

I have no idea if that kind of transfer is possible or not, but I sure would like to know WHY you want to do it. What's up?

[Zarrir]

Dear Doug, I have no PC and no firewire ports to download the videos i have recorded on the Sony HDR-HC1 long ago. Since the manual describes it is possible to do it from camera to camera through iLink, that would be perfect for me. I would simply transfer the footage, grab the SxS card and there the files would be, already in MP4 format.

[Doug Jensen]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you are never going to be able to do something like that.

[Zarrir]

At least the PMW-F3 manual says it is possible provided the source camera has an iLink port (the HC1 does). However, the instructions are not particularly well written so i thought i could ask it here. Maybe someone who has done that before can shed some light.

[cyvideo]

Just to be sure here. The HC1 could record in both DV and HDV. If the tapes you have were recorded in DV mode then there is no way of transferring them via firewire to an F3 or any of the other Sony cameras that had this functionality as the F3 and most of the other cameras only supported HDV in this transfer mode. From memory, it was only the PMW-300 that could select between HDV and DVCam on the incoming firewire signal. If the tapes were recorded in HDV 1440 x 1080i in either 60Hz (usually NTSC) or 50Hz (PAL) or any other HDV format supported by the HC1 then technically it should be possible to record to SxS cards in the F3. NOTE! The F3 must be set to exactly the same HDV record format as the incoming HDV signal. I don't think this is possible with SD cards in adapters in the F3. Not 100% sure on that so I could stand correction on that.

You need to go to the VIDEO SET menu and select the SDI/HDMI/i.LINK I/O option and set that selection to iLINK. If there is a compatible IEEE 1394 (HDV) signal present you should see the incoming image displayed on the screen of the F3. You can monitor the audio via headphones connect to the F3. To record that image you MUST use the REC START/STOP button on the handle NOT the grip as that is disabled in this iLINK mode. If the record icon starts to flash that means firewire connectivity has been lost. Just let the transfer continue as it may be a jump in the incoming signal. If a new signal is seen the F3 will start recording again and start recording a new clip. Good luck sir

Chris Young

Page 129 of the F3 manual covers the above procedure in more detail.PMW-F3 external record.jpg

[Zarrir]

WOW! I canīt thank you enough!! This is more than i expected and yes, the tapes were all recorded in HDV, max. specs. Next week i will give it a try and will post the results as soon as possible. THANKS!!

[RealJEDI]

Hi,

IMHO you think a little too complicated. If you have a thunderbolt port on your PC/notebook, then simply get a firewire to thunderbolt adapter and capture it with HDVSplit (a windows freeware tool).
A while back I had to capture old HDV recording (from my FX1) and I did it this way.

https://www.videohelp.com/software/HDVSplit

Cheers,
Alex

[Zarrir]

Thank you sir! No thunderbolt ports but i will probably buy a second hand laptop with built in firewire port (Vaio maybe) for this job.

[RealJEDI]

Hi Zarrir,

Did it work out?

Alex