Capturing PAL miniDV on NTSC DV camcorder fia 1394

[eman2003]

Today I tried capturing a PAL miniDV tape via an NTSC DV camcorder connected via firewire. It didnt' work. I tried Scenalyzed, Premiere and Vegas.

Technically this should work no? Since out the firewire it's only 1010101101010 etc... digital signal so it shouldn't matter. BUT I think the design of this particluar camera is flawed. It wants to play the footage on the LCD everytime you play it back. If it THINKS there's not footage or the tape is blank etc.. it won't play anything and neither will firewire (ie.. won't capture a blank NTSC tape)

Obviuosly the cam cannot play the footage (PAL). I get a green blocky image for a second on the computer then nothing. In premiere it doesn't even capture.

Any experienced people here know what to do? Should I just try capturing from another NTSC camera and see if that works, if not, just rent a PAL camera or deck for a day?

Let me know

[Coopervid]

Hi,

I don't think this will work at all. Personally I can only speak about Digital8 and the NTSC D8 camcorders cannot play back PAL tapes at all. However, a European PAL D8 camcorder can play back NTSC D8 tapes. Therefore as an European in the US I bought a PAL D8 camcorder so I can still send VHS videos to my relatives over there and for myself I put it on DVD-R and play it back on a multi-norm DVD-Player.

[eman2003]

Hi,

I don't think this will work at all. Personally I can only speak about Digital8 and the NTSC D8 camcorders cannot play back PAL tapes at all. However, a European PAL D8 camcorder can play back NTSC D8 tapes. Therefore as an European in the US I bought a PAL D8 camcorder so I can still send VHS videos to my relatives over there and for myself I put it on DVD-R and play it back on a multi-norm DVD-Player.

hi8 will be different because the camera has to actually read the data, send it through the ANALOG port and the computer picks up the ANALOG signal. When digital signal is the culprit, I don't think format should be an issue. again I'm not sure. salesmen don't know jack either

[Coopervid]

I have also a Firewire connection to the PC. The problem however is that the camera cannot read back data from the tape recorded in the other standard. It's just not implemented. Only the other way around. The PAL type camera can read back NTSC. It's the same what you see here in the US with VCRs. The can only read NTSC. Most European VCRs can also read NTSC and play it back as PAL60.

[Richard_G]

hi8 will be different because the camera has to actually read the data, send it through the ANALOG port and the computer picks up the ANALOG signal. When digital signal is the culprit, I don't think format should be an issue. again I'm not sure. salesmen don't know jack either

But he isn't talking about analogue Hi8, he's talking about D8, the Sony proprietry Digital 8 format that uses the same tapes as Hi8 but records in the same format as DV.

I think the problem here is the US 'Not Invented Here' mentality. European equipment, which is primarily PAL, acknowledges that there are other standards and will work just as well with an NTSC or even SECAM source. US manufacturers often don't acknowledge that anything other than NTSC exists so you don't have the same compatibilty.

It's not a problem with the Firewire data, which as you correctly say is just a data stream, the camera simply cannot read what has been written to the tape. You could try a different NTSC camera to see if you can find one that will read a PAL tape, otherwise renting a PAL camera or deck appears to be your only option.

[astronaut]

i have a reversed situation here ...

can i capture NTSC miniDV on PAL DV camcorder via 1394 ?
i am sure that my PAL DV camcorder can play but when i capture the tape ...the screen become abnormal ...is there anything i need to set first ?
i am using Song PAL DCR-PC5E

thx