90/120 minidv scewing up everything HELP W/TAPE SPEED

[wixmmm]

ok, i'm loosing my mind here,

i'll settle for using any program to get the capturing to work, but at the end of the day i need to use premeire to edit.

i had some 90 minute minidv tapes and now i'm having trouble capturing those and other 60 minute ones i used that same day. I recorded on all of these with an xl1 and now i'm just using a consumer minidv to capture.

my problem is it appears that the whole thing is playing choppy and too slow, but i think its actually chopping it up and playing it too fast, even though the timecode says its playing normal speed.

by clicking around in virtualdub i've gotten it to play smoothly for a while but then it tells me i can't export it to avi and then it goes back to the choppiness again.

I have the panasonic dv codec that i think i'm tring to use.

i just need to figure out how to get this tape to play and capture at the right speed....period.

[gadgetguy]

What program did you use to capsfer?

[daamon]

@ wixmmm: A few questions:

* Do the tapes play OK in either / both of the DV cams?

* Did you transfer to the PC using firewire? You should be...

* If you used virtualdub to transfer, you should know that virtualdub doesn't transfer DV AVI - it's not designed to do it. Use WinDV - it's free and specifically designed for DV AVI transfers.

Having the Panasonic DV Codec installed won't make any difference to the actual transfers. Getting DV AVI from tape to PC is exactly that - a transfer. It's like transferring a file from a disk to the PC hard drive - a direct copy, no codecs required.

P.S. Welcome to the forums, finally. Joined June 2004 and this is your first post? Don't be shy, we don't bite...

What program did you use to capsfer?

Fantastic new word: "capsfer"! Nicely done... Kinda encapsulates the misuse of "capture" while using the correct term "transfer" at the same time. I shall probably end up using that in future - you never know, it might even make it into the glossary...!!!

[gadgetguy]

Fantastic new word: "capsfer"! Nicely done... Kinda encapsulates the misuse of "capture" while using the correct term "transfer" at the same time.

Glad you like it. I came up with the word because I don't think either Capture or Transfer is quite right. Capture implies that the incoming signal is being converted from analog to digital so it isn't correct. Transfer makes it seem like there is a file on the tape, and it's like moving a file from one folder to another, which isn't true either. So I coined the term 'capsfer' to convey that there are elements of both capturing and transferring in that the data is being transferred as a stream that the computer must capture to a file fast enough so as not to lose data or drop frames.