DVCam to MiniDV

[bombart]

Hey Guys,

For my wedding, my wife and I used a professional videographer. One of the deals was that after he edited the video (he uses Premiere), he would give me the whole video onto MiniDV. However, he used his DVCam player to put the video onto DVD. Someone here advised me that he would be able to fit 40 mins of footage onto a MiniDV tape using his DVCam player.

I have a problem now. These Mini DV tapes won't play properly on my MiniDV player. I know 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.

[tonyp12]

On my SHARP450U I have two speed settings.

It will fit more minutes if I leave out a second sound track.

So tell the video guy to re-record it to miniDV tape again and
this time with the "other" speed setting.

[bombart]

Hey Tony. Thanks for your response. Unfortunately, this guy isn't going to do anything more for me. He's quite a punk actually. Even wanted to charge me more for putting this video onto MiniDV in the first place. So is my only option somehow getting my hands on one of these DVCam players?

Bt.

[Kaktus]

If you have the Dvcam tape, try to find someone with a Sony dv camera.

Most Sony dv cameras can play Dvcam tapes.

Both my Sony PC100E and TRV50E plays Dvcam tape. I put a Dvcam tape in one of the cameras, a blank tape in the other. Using at FW cable between them I can make a digital copy. The copy gets a "standard" miniDV tape and can be played in most cameras and VCRs.

Good luck.

[thayne]

Even wanted to charge me more for putting this video onto MiniDV in the first place.

And why is he a punk for that? Why should he do it for free? Unless he said he would provide you a copy in that format in the first place there is no reason why he shouldn't charge you for it.

[energy80s]

DV CAM is a more professional version of miniDV with better timecode. It runs at a slightly faster speed which give 40 mins on a 60 min tape. I'm not sure if you just want to have miniDV masters or if you want to re-edit the tapes yourself, but either way get hold of a DV CAM deck (the more expensive Sony's) and just firewire it as normal. The DV CAM deck will automatically give you a standard DV output that you can use for any miniDV application.

And I don't blame the videographer for wanting more money for transfers, I do the same myself. In fact think yourself lucky that you got the rushes tapes at all, I wouldn't have supplied you with them!!

[bombart]

Hey Guys. Thanks for all your responses. Actually, I did pay the guy $100 extra in the initial package for putting them onto MiniDV. However, later on, he wanted to charge me again because it was harder than he expected. So I protested it.

Yes, it seems I'll have to get my hands on a DVCam Player. I'm sure I can get my friend's Sony DV player for the day @Kaktus: I didn't know they would play MiniDV tapes that were recorded on a DVCam player. That is most useful

Thank you so much for all your help, responses... I really appreciate them!

Cheers.

Bt.

[bombart]

@energy80s: Yes, I would like to edit the movie myself and also create my own DVDs with my own menus. His are extremely basic and the wife was not pleased. Plus, it skips on my standalone player However, I think thats more of a media issue. I'll have to check it out soon.

Also, there were some scenes that the wife doesn't want in the video that are included at the moment. I would like to take them out of there. We would've/should've told the guy to do them(like he said he would) but he was already a month late in giving the product and wasn't answering our calls for weeks on end. We were just really frustrated at the end of it.

Thank God we had it in writing that he would put the tapes onto MiniDV for us He said "I don't remember promising you that" and we promptly took out the invoice. VERY SKETCHY!

Anyways, thanks for all your help once again.

Cheers.

Bt.