Can finally capture from 20+ yr old D8 tapes! Anything I should know first?

[pappymcpoyle]

Hi all,
Finally, after chasing a used camera (mine broke), finding my dv cable and connecting 3 adapters, I can finally capture to my MacBook Pro.
I was very happy to see Super Cut immediately recognizing the camera with both video and audio.

• Is there anything I need to do to get the best import quality?
• Should I be using a different software?
• Are there easy solutions for upscaling the video and/or improving quality?

I appreciate your help.

[dellsam34]

Not a Mac guy, and very few here are, But if it was a PC, I would strip the DV codec using vdub2 into uncompressed AVI (or lossless compression such as HuffYUV), upsampling to 4:2:2 in the process, do all the trimming if needed at the same time, Then de-interlace with QTGMC, resize to 1440x1080 while setting rec.709, You can do optional color correction or restoration. From here you can upload directly to a video sharing platform or encode to h.264 for manageable HD files for direct file playback.

[DB83]

Me neither. But I suspect you are not capturing/transfering as native DV.

Upload a small sample of your captured video as an attachment.

[pappymcpoyle]

Thanks for responding. I don't have a PC.

Here is file captured with the default setup from Final Cut.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8xlufb67zmcoag1iovvoi/2001-07-26-15_32_50.mov?rlkey=svk...9zke8xqeo&dl=0

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks

[DB83]

Dropbox states "Item Deleted"

If this is under 500 mb just send direct to here as an attachemnt (click on Upload files.....)

[pappymcpoyle]

Hi. I had the wrong clip originally. I updated the URL in the message above.
But it's also here:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8xlufb67zmcoag1iovvoi/2001-07-26-15_32_50.mov?rlkey=svk...9zke8xqeo&dl=0

and also attaching here

[DB83]

Well video is standard DV - that screenshot of the software I assumed you were using sure threw me.

Audio is somewhat over the top since you only need 2 channel @1536 kbps and not 4


Oh. And I assume you are in NTSC land (French commentary ?) since you have not stated your location etc.

[pappymcpoyle]

Yes, it's standard DV - I am capturing with FCPX. Since the quality from DV is so low compared to current, I am wondering what's the best way to capture to minimize any more loss. If the default setting will do it?


There was multi-language commentary since was an international competition, but that was in South America. It's NTSC.

One problem I am having is that it's often making a bunch of very short capture clips (2 or 3 seconds), even if I leave the import turned on. What could be causing this?

And is there any software for upscaling?

Thanks

[Bwaak]

Is this a true DV recording? I wonder does it show "D" icon or maybe "Hi8 -> D"?

If this is a Hi8 tape, there are no four audio channels there, at best there are just two. Some will suggest capturing analog recording from SVideo instead of Firewire, but I think this looks pretty good, I would keep your setup and capture as DV-MOV as you did. I would shift chroma one pixel up and one pixel left.

I am sure FCPX has an option to split scenes/takes into separate files, or to capture continuously into one file.

Vegas was able to load four audio tracks, the first two are slightly different, the other two have no audio.

And is there any software for upscaling?

You were advised above to use an Avisynth/Vapoursynth script:

de-interlace with QTGMC, resize to 1440x1080 while setting rec.709, You can do optional color correction or restoration. From here you can upload directly to a video sharing platform or encode to h.264 for manageable HD files for direct file playback.

Deinterlace into 60p and upscale to at least 720p to force YouTube to enable 60p.

[DB83]

Well there is not much you can do quality-wise. Your software will capture exactly what is on the tape.

Now if you were on a PC I could suggest software to cancel the 'short clips' which are caused when you start/stop the camera recording.


You may be better off contacting admin - see link at bottom of the screen - and have the topic moved to the Mac forum for more help re this software. Same goes with Mac compatable upscaling.

[Cornucopia]

True DV as recorded on tape, onto either miniDV/DVcam/DVCPro or D8, has the capability of recording 2 channels (in the case of 32, 44.1 or 48kHz Samplerates) or 4 channels (in the case of 32 kHz, 12bit).

However, AFAIK there are no known instances of capture software being able to actually capture all 4 channels simultaneously, so to get all 4 requires 2 passes, with post synching.

No surprise then that some of the audio channels are blank/silent. What is odd is that there are 3...was this perhaps the additional analog longitudinal cue/overdub track? That was only available in the DVCPro format, IIRC.

If you transferred from DV via Firewire previously, you very likely will NOT get a better transfer doing it again with different equipment. And while s-video may not be a visible loss, it will be a minor data loss compared to what you already have, assuming you kept your originals.

I recommend you move those over to a PC, do processing & doublerate deinterlacing in AVISynth, then export to a good digital intermediate SD format (lossless or virtually lossless) and redo your edits in FCP/Premier/Resolve, etc. Then save to a good distribution format (avc/hevc in mp4), in either original SD rez, or upscaled to HD rez or both.


Scott

[pappymcpoyle]

I have captured some of it before in older computers and has since been lost.

I won't have a PC for this.

I will try posting in the Mac forum. Thanks.

f you transferred from DV via Firewire previously, you very likely will NOT get a better transfer doing it again with different equipment. And while s-video may not be a visible loss, it will be a minor data loss compared to what you already have, assuming you kept your originals.

I recommend you move those over to a PC, do processing & doublerate deinterlacing in AVISynth, then export to a good digital intermediate SD format (lossless or virtually lossless) and redo your edits in FCP/Premier/Resolve, etc. Then save to a good distribution format (avc/hevc in mp4), in either original SD rez, or upscaled to HD rez or both.

[dellsam34]

Just from playing back the file and judging from the top edge of the frame it looks like there is something wrong with the field order, and it's in a MPEG-4 container, Is this this a Mac thing? Yah too bad you don't have access to a PC, you would have had a shot at making a better transfer and better processing of the files.