Wedding video to my fav format

[bombart]

Hey Guys. I was hoping I could get some help off you gurus here re. this problem I have.

I recently got married and we had a professional videographer take the video for our wedding. Now, he records in DVCAM format. I know this is "better"(don't know exactly why.... more lines of reso... better audio... maybe??) and would like to keep this quality preserved. Now, he's editing the video on his PC and putting it onto DVD for me. What I would like is to have the finished, edited wedding video on either DVCAM or MINIDV... so that I can capture it to my PC later and do as I feel with it. The problem is, he says he can only put the finished movie onto DVD and/or DVCAM, not MiniDV. I have Adobe Premiere and would like to use that to edit it further for our purposes. Generally, I connect my MiniDV player to my PC via firewire and then do some basic editing. Without the movie on MiniDV, I don't know how I can get the movie into premiere and then edit it and then put it onto DVD or MiniDV?

Any help would be GREATLY apprciated.

Thanks a lot all.

Cheers.

Bt.

[Vejita-sama]

So I assume that the DVCAM source is not useable at your end? If so I would take the DVD source and just use that. Yes there will be some slight quaility lost as you go from DVD -> avi(uncompressed/huffyuv) -> DVD but it should be fairly small.

The only other choices I can think of is to ask if you can bring by your miniDV camera and record from DVCAM source, but in the end I think the quaility will be 'about' the same as using the DVD source.

[vandakeg]

He's not being honest with you. Ask him what cameras he uses, b/c most, if not all, DVCAM cameras can also record in DV mode (on a mini-dv tape).

Although it is possible his particular cam may not have this feature, any reputable wedding videographer will have AT LEAST one mini-dv camera. In which case, all he has to do is capture his dvcam, then export to tape (onto a mini-dv)... I would be shocked if he doesn't have a mini-dv cam (Sony PD-150/100, VX1000/2000. Canon GL1/GL2, XL1/XL2... you get the picture.)

It sounds to me, he just doesn't want to do the extra work (which isn't much).

If he gives you trouble, let me know, and I might be able to do something for you. Ethically, however, it should be his responsibility, after all, YOU paid for that footage!

[bombart]

Hey Guys. Thanks for your replies.

Yes vandakeg, I don't think he's being totally honest with me. I spoke to him again and he said that he would only be able to put on 20 mins or video onto the MiniDV from the comp... and so that would require him to "babysit" the whole time.. changing tapes and stuff.. whereas he doesn't have to do that with the DVCAM.

Is he just yanking my chain?

Vejita-sama: In your opinion, what is the best way to "from DVD -> avi(uncompressed/huffyuv) -> DVD but it should be fairly small. "

Thanks so much for your promt responses everyone.

Bt.

[vandakeg]

You DON'T want to edit from DVD, if it's at all avoidable. Mpeg2 is designed to be a delivery format video, not editable (like DV).

When he says he can only fit 20 minutes of DVCAM video on a min-dv tape, he's flat out lying. I hate to be so harsh, but it's the truth. It is true that DVCAM uses a faster tape speed, but not to the extent he's claiming. You can fit 40 minutes of DVCAM footage on one mini-dv tape.

DVCAM cassettes are, essentially, a high grade DV tape. Same basic format but higher density recording material, heavier binder, better shell and superior album box. They basically are the same thing, just one is 'Pro Grade' and one is 'Consumer Grade'.

Unless he gave you a great price on your wedding, I really don't understand why he is being so stingy about this.

[bombart]

vandakeg: Thanks for that clarification. So if he can fit 40 mins of DVCAM footage onto one MiniDV tape, he's just being lazy!!! We've paid him a lot of money for this wedding... and he now wants more because of this MiniDV thing. I even told him I'd buy the MiniDV tapes and give them to him, so he doesn't need anything else but to spend a little time putting it onto MiniDV.

Is the fact that I can fit 40 mins of DVCAM footage onto one MiniDV tape posted on the internet anywhere? cause when he gives me that nonsense, I want to pull that web-page up for him.

First of all, he's already 15 days late giving this movie to us(he told us 1-2 months... it's been 2 1/2 months and he's still not done.)

Maybe there is another option... Can I capture DVCAM onto my computer the same way I capture MiniDV.... or an quivalent way where I don't loose any quality? So maybe what I can do is rent a dvcam player and capture it into Premiere and the export it to MiniDV tape??????????

Thanks a lot in advance.

Bt.

[arcorob]

You know, I do wedding videos as my side business, and I have a booming business. There is something I cannot figure out. Why does it take these guys MONTHS to finish their video's when I have mine complete in 2 weeks (3 max) ? I use multiple camera's and have the added work of having to match up video streams and also color matching since I have three streams.

So , what am I doing wrong ???? LOL

I bet I charge half too...Sigh.

[bombart]

Hey Guys. I have an update. After telling the guy what you guys told me, ie, that he could fit 40 mins of video onto a MiniDV from his DVCAM player, he agreed to put the whole wedding video onto MiniDV for me. CHEERS!

However, I have another problem now. These Mini DV tapes won't play properly on my MiniDV player. I know now that the DVCAM player records 40 mins of footage onto a 60 min MiniDV. That means that the DVCam player is obviously spinning faster than my MiniDv player would. So now, these tapes that he gave me with my wedding on it player slower on my MiniDV player. YIKES! (When I hit play, I can see the video, but it's all slowed down and choppy.)

Since I would love to have the video onto REGULAR MiniDV, what would I have to do? The only way I can see now is by somehow getting a DVCam player(I'm assuming it has a firewire port like MiniDV) and capturing it to Premiere and then export to a MiniDV tape on my MiniDV Player. Is this the only way?

I don't even know how I'm going to get my hands on a DVcam player!!

Please advise!!

Thanks in advance to everyone.

Bt.