Premiere Pro and Betacam

[crys94]

Hello. I have been using Premier Pro 1.5 on my eMachines T6212 capturing miniDV tapes through my camcorder and now need to capture and record to Beta SP tapes. I will be purchasing a Sony UVW-1800 Betacam SP, a Sony PVM-1350 13" Monitor and a Mackie 1202-VLZ Pro Audio Mixer. Will I be able to capture/record to the Betacam deck with my system now? Do I need to purchase a Decklink card for capture? What cables will I need to have these items work with my computer?

Thanks in advance for any help!!

My computer specs are at this site:
http://www.e4me.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_T6212
Plus added 1 GB of RAM.

[edDV]

Hello. I have been using Premier Pro 1.5 on my eMachines T6212 capturing miniDV tapes through my camcorder and now need to capture and record to Beta SP tapes. I will be purchasing a Sony UVW-1800 Betacam SP, a Sony PVM-1350 13" Monitor and a Mackie 1202-VLZ Pro Audio Mixer. Will I be able to capture/record to the Betacam deck with my system now? Do I need to purchase a Decklink card for capture? What cables will I need to have these items work with my computer?

First, the UVW-1800 does not have a DV IEEE-1394 interface, let alone SDI . You are dealing with analog, but the quality can be very good.

Second, there are various ways to interface Betacam SP, composite (cheap but lower quality), S-Video Y/C or component Y, R-Y, B-Y that will take more hardware on a PC.

The choice depends on how the tapes were recorded and your quality needs. If these tapes are camera originals, or if they were recorded from component sources, then you would benefit from a component Y, R-Y, B-Y interface.

Otherwise use the S-Video Y/C connector. Third, use composite NTSC/PAL.

The overall quality level of your various components indicate a minimum strategy of Canopus ADVC-100 or equiv. (for S-Video).

Premiere Pro seems to only support a limited list of non-DV capture cards these days.
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/6cards.html

Ask in Premiere forums for analog component interface recommendations.

[crys94]

Thank you for your quick reply.
A friend recommended the UVW-1800, so that is why I chose that Betacam deck. Is it a bad idea to get a betacam deck with no DV IEEE-1394 nor SDI? Would a Sony PVW-2800 be a better choice? Is there a Betacam deck that you recommend?
If I do stick to the UVW-1800, I will be purchasing the Decklink SP.

[edDV]

Please explain your process. Are you trying to edit material brought to you on Betacam SP or are you starting fresh? The PVW decks are also limited to analog composite and component I/O.

Either could be interfaced with the BlackMagic DecklinkSP for YUV capture but you would only have manual control of the deck.
http://www.dvshop.ca/cards/decklink.html
http://dv411.com/decklinksp.html

DV formats offer many advantages over Betacam SP. See here:
http://www.flyingpictureslive.com/cameras/DV-BetaSP.html
DV format decks offer simple interfacing through IEEE-1394 (including machine control).

A Digital Betacam deck is superior and has the SDI I/O that you could interface using BlackMagic or other SDI cards to the PC and Premiere Pro. It will also play analog Betacam SP tapes. But Digital Betacam is very expensive.

[crys94]

I will be editing material brought to me on Betacam SP. So, I cannot batch capture with the DecklinkSP, correct? Is there a card I can get that will do batch capture or will I have to be stuck with manual capturing with the UVW-1800? Thanks again!

[edDV]

I will be editing material brought to me on Betacam SP. So, I cannot batch capture with the DecklinkSP, correct? Is there a card I can get that will do batch capture or will I have to be stuck with manual capturing with the UVW-1800? Thanks again!

You will need to add hardware and software to control the deck through RS-422. I'm sure there is a solution that works with Premiere, but it's not a small task getting all this working in batch capture mode. Better to ask for recommendations in Premiere dedicated forums like DMN.

[crys94]

Well, I tried the DMN and Adobe forums, but no response from anyone! Now, I'm debating whether I should go the cheap route or the expensive route. Cheap choice: Pyro Av-Link Pro with the ProVTR from Pipeline ($520). Expensive choice: SD-Connect ($1595).
Thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate it!!