Amateur trying to make a documentary

P

pbrmoney

New member
Hey all,

So I've got the equipment (Mac Pro & Final Cut Pro 6) and I've got the camera (DVX100B) and I've got 35 hours of footage.

Now it's time to make the documentary, right?


Half of this probably belongs in a Mac forum, but what the heck.

Batch capturing. Loading the footage onto the computer in pieces instead of full tape by full tape. I'm not quite sure how to do this, but I know it's in the back of Final Cut's first manual.

This requires me to view the tape, write down the time code segments I want captured to the computer, and then run the tape back through the computer again while it captures "batches" of clips?

Is that the basic idea?

It seems to me like that's asking the camera to do a lot. I literally only have 32 hours of use on the camera. Doing this will double that number, at least.

I'm thinking maybe that puts a lot of unnecessary wear on the heads? Or is the DVX strong enough to withstand it.



Naively I was under the impression that there would be a secondary device, not a camera, but a dock rather, like a miniDV vcr I could put the tapes in and transfer them to the computer. But I haven't come across anything like that.

Thanks for your help!

Cheers!

ADam
 
The miniDV VCR things you talk about cost a LOT of money from what I've been hearing. your better off buying a really cheap miniDV camera with a firewire cable to capture from. also, if you're interested in minimizing head wear, you can connect your DVX to that same firewire miniDV camera and using it to capture what your DVX sees.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=142362

also, im not so sure this post should have been made in the DVXuser "News" Section.
 
Yeah this probably doesn't belong in the dvxuser news thread but oh well...

On the capturing and wear on the heads, 32 hours wont be that big of a deal, I used to be concerned about the same issue way back in the day when I first got my DVX but I began to realize it only really matters if you continue to do this over and over and over again for years, then you are better off getting another minidv to just import, which is the other option you have, if you know someone you can borrow any minidv camcorder to just import with it's fire wire
 
Your camera is not going to be stressed by this, just make sure it's not precariously balanced where it might fall down off your computer desk or whatever during the transfer. I have a little mini DV handicam for this transfer work, but I also end up using my main cam a lot of the time.

Anyway, the important this to talk about here is the batch capture process, because you've got a funny idea going on. What you want to do is hook up the camera to the computer with your firewire cable, make sure you set the scratch disk that you want, and set a logging bin, and then open the log & capture window. Scroll through your footage and set in and out points for a clip with the "I" and "O" keys.

Now, instead of hitting the "capture clip" button on the right side, hit the "log clip" button off to its left, outside the box, and give it a name in the popup dialog and hit "OK". Now, instead of captuing the clip immediately, it lets you continue logging clips. Do three clips as a test to familiarize yourself, and then go to the file menu and select "batch capture", then you *may* have choices to batch capture all items in logging bin, offline (not yet captured) items in logging bin or just the items that you select. Fire it up and go make yourself a sandwich while FCP does your capture.

image

Oh, I just found a link that shows it, should've searched first: here it is
 
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The DVX is a professional camera and it's built accordingly. The amount of capture time you're talking really isn't a problem. That being said, I tend to baby my DVX so the cheap little cameras I have laying around do 99% of my capture work. Heck, it's about all they're good for anyway.
 
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