How do you guys transfer footage?

W

w1nd

Member
What is the best way for me to transfer footage to my computer, without losing any quality?
 
agreed with firewire
also - use a cheap handy cam to upload through, just so you dont use your heads as much
 
Firewire. I have a cheap panasonic camcorder to transfer but the audio is always out of sync,,,so I end up using the DVX anyway
 
Also, If i'm using firewire, do I need to have tapes? I heard that using onlocation you can just real time transfer the footage to your computer?
 
w1nd said:
Also, If i'm using firewire, do I need to have tapes? I heard that using onlocation you can just real time transfer the footage to your computer?
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The files produced by OnLoction are what is produced by a tape capture. You're essentially there.

As for tape transfer you can capture from any NLE through firewire from your DVX during playback. I have a deck for that myself but some people buy a dirt cheap camcorder that has firewire and use that as their deck to save wear and tear on their DVX heads.
 
I'm new to all this, so this is what I'm getting.
I buy a dirt cheap camcorder with firewire, connect the DVX and the camcorder via firewire, playback whatever is on my tape in the DVX, record to the camcorder. Then connect the camcorder to my computer and go from there?
 
w1nd said:
I'm new to all this, so this is what I'm getting.
I buy a dirt cheap camcorder with firewire, connect the DVX and the camcorder via firewire, playback whatever is on my tape in the DVX, record to the camcorder. Then connect the camcorder to my computer and go from there?
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NO. Your firewire connection from your DVX is plugged into your computer. The NLE when running, controls your DVX when you go into the NLE's capture mode and it produces the files which you'll use in the NLE will use when its in its editing mode. OR You use a cheap camcorder that has firewire and use that in place of the DVX for capturing to your NLE.
 
w1nd said:
Can you elaborate on the handycam idea?
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I believe what Dvx Kid was saying was - using a cheap handycam that accepts MiniDV tapes to capture your footage to your computer is better than using your DVX to capture the footage in the sense that you will cut down on the amount of contact between the heads inside your DVX and the tape.

craigbowman said:
OR You use a cheap camcorder that has firewire and use that in place of the DVX for capturing to your NLE.
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Just get a cheap one. As long as it uses miniDV tapes you should be ok, panny, sony, canon,,,,
 
Sounds good. Another question, i've read up on anamorphic squeeze and whatnot. Is squeeze an actual option on the 100b, or is it a lens? If it's an option, how could I go about turning it on/finding it?
 
Sorry for my late entry to this, but I record(capture) straight to a laptop. I use the firewire connection sometimes, but I have a more elaborate setup that I favor. I connect to the S-Video and then capture analog footage I made a post about that here:

S-Video

I do record to tape as a backup just in case, technically redundancy, but better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

However the good thing about recording straight to a computer is you can watch your footage immediately without having to transfer/capture from any device. You'll know right then and there how good a take was. I only recommend this for production shooting, if you're shooting vacation footage or anything spur of the moment for fun then my setup is way too extreme.
 
w1nd said:
Sounds good. Another question, i've read up on anamorphic squeeze and whatnot. Is squeeze an actual option on the 100b, or is it a lens? If it's an option, how could I go about turning it on/finding it?
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Do you have Barry Green's book? You should, and it's all in there.

No special lens needed for Squeeze (you may be thinking of the Anamorphic Adapter).
Menu->Camera Setup->Aspect Conv-> Squeeze

As far as capture, Firewire is digital audio and video; S-video is analog, and carries no audio.
 
groveChuck said:
Do you have Barry Green's book? You should, and it's all in there.

No special lens needed for Squeeze (you may be thinking of the Anamorphic Adapter).
Menu->Camera Setup->Aspect Conv-> Squeeze

As far as capture, Firewire is digital audio and video; S-video is analog, and carries no audio.
Click to expand...
Just in case that sentence was in reference to my post, I hope I didn't have to really state that I used the audio connections?

By the way I mainly record my audio through a separate mixer.

I only use the tape on the DVX as back-up.
 
I generally capture tot he tape in the cam and capture live to the laptop using fire wire at the same time. there is always a risk the comp will stop or drop frames or glitch up in some way so if using the direct firewire method i recommend sticking a tape in as a back up. I would agrree if digitizing afterwords a cheap camera is a great idea. I have a 150 dollar Panasonic that is use for digitizing. Since minidv is digital you should not have any quality lose although some report audio sync going off. I have never experienced this. I normaly do dual camera lecture soots so my cam with audio go strait in the laptop live and the second gets digitized in post with my 150 dollar cheepo cam. Once my laptop glitched and digitized the main tape in post with no audio problems.
 
jscottprice said:
I believe what Dvx Kid was saying was - using a cheap handycam that accepts MiniDV tapes to capture your footage to your computer is better than using your DVX to capture the footage in the sense that you will cut down on the amount of contact between the heads inside your DVX and the tape.
Click to expand...

I have a couple probably too simple questions, but here goes:

Do I need a video-capture card if I have an inexpensive little camcorder to transfer data from MiniDV tape to computer?

does "NLE" stand for non-linear editor?
 
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