capturing on sony hdr-hc7 NTSC Tape / PAL Camera issue ?

[DKmickey]

I have a problem that i just cant figure out how to fix..

A friend send me some movies he shot on his US(NTSC?) HD camera - when i play the tape on my EU(PAL?) HD camera i can see the movie play just fine on the LCD screen but as soon as i try and rip the movie it only comes out as being all jumbled like when you try and capture a NTSC tape with the tapedeck on PAL settings..

I have looked around in the camera but cant find a setting that change the output it sends when outputting the movie through the I-link (firewire) - I have tried to capture the movie with both WinDV and WindowsMovieMaker but the result is the same..

I have to add that i normally only work with Standard Def through a good old sony tape deck that can capture DVmini tapes, this is my first encounter with capturing HD of any kind so i dont know if the NTSC/PAL problem is an issue when working with HD etc but i figured it might be...

So my question is what can i do to fix this problem besides getting a US HD camera or is the problem somewhere else entirely ?

[JohnnyMalaria]

Before launching your capture software, put the camcorder in play (or pause) mode.

When the tape isn't playing/paused, the camcorder identifies its video format using a certain hardware-level protocol. Once in play/pause, it uses the video stream to identified the format. For NTSC tapes in an NTSC camcorder (and PAL in PAL), this is never an issue. When you have an NTSC camcorder and the tape is stopped, Windows will see the camcorder as NTSC. Once the tape plays, it sends PAL video. The capture software expects NTSC. The resulting AVI file ends up with the wrong header info and the DV frames themselves end up truncated. The playback looks jumbled because the AVI file has the wrong information in the header and NTSC and PAL have quite different ways of laying out the blocks in the frame. The fact that you get anything at least tells you the video is being sent via FireWire.

I'm a bit confused, though, since you mention WinDV and WMM but also mention capturing HD. Are the tapes HD or SD? If HD, are you using the camcorder's iLINK convert (or whatever it's called) to convert the HDV to DV?

[DKmickey]

The Tapes are from a HD camera recording in HD..

i have played around with the i.links convert and if its not on the HDV -> DV settings the computer doesnt think the camera is connected , so the settings in the status are currently:

VCR HDV/DV:
HDV

COMPONENT:
1080i/576i

I.LINK:
On(HDV->DV)

TV TYPE:
16:9

if that makes any sense ?

[DKmickey]

update.. the trick with starting the video before opening the capturing software works...

no my only question is , are the settings i described above allowing me to transfer the contents of the tape in HD or is it SD when it hits my computer ?

[JohnnyMalaria]

Glad the trick worked.

Right now you are getting a DV signal from your camcorder (WinDV etc only work with DV). The HDV>DV setting is causing this. You need to turn it off (I can't remember the exact setting - I have the similar HC1). Then you'll need to find other software to capture the HDV (VLC can do it, for example). You may need to play the same trick, too, in order to fool the software into thinking it has a PAL source.

If your final target is not HD (e.g., DVD, typical web etc), using the DV version may be much more straightforward and less aggravating than capturing as HD and converting it afterwards.

[DKmickey]

Thank you very much for your help and time Johnny, everything you have been saying here have been right on the money and extremely helpfull..

i figure out how to capture the movie using the software that sony shipped with the camera and its in m2t (HDV) after having played a bit with the HDV->DV settings on the camera..

The end target isnt HD so think you are right when saying that i shouldnt spend the time on working with the HD version, will just cause me to have to convert again later on, so think i will just work with the DV version.

but wanted to know how to rip both as you never know what i would want to do down the road...

again, my hats off to you for the help you provided here in this topic.. thanx mate.