Problem with importing from MiniDV to HDD. NTSC maybe ?

[antoinel]

Hello,

I am trying to import a movie from a miniDV tape that my brother taped from me. The camera I am using is a Sony DCR-PC105E PAL. When I play the tape with the camera a 'NTSC' sign displays on the screen, that's I think because the movie was filmed with another camera, possibly NTSC. Having said that the movie plays fine on the camera, or on a TV if I hook it up.

Now, I can't import this movie into my HDD. I have Vista, so as soon as I plug in the camera to the computer using the cable it recognizes it and proposes to import the movie. But see in the attachment, the image looks all pixelized. I have tried to change the import settings to NTSC (they were PAL by default) from Vista, but it still does not work.

Any idea what's wrong ? I am a total beginner in this DV thing, but the movie is of my wedding, so I'd really appreciate your help !
Thanks
Antoine

[minidv2dvd]

i'd give winDV a try at transferring the tape.

did you check the actual file that vista imported? it may just be the preview display that is whacky.

[antoinel]

ok, great, it seems to work better, thanks for the tip Now, do you know why WinDV produces small files of 100 mo each instead of a big one ? The movie is not that long, 7 minutes I think, can't I get one file only ?
Thanks so much again !

[minidv2dvd]

go into the "config" portion of winDV and set the options to 0 for discontinuity threshold and set the max size of the avi to 1,000,000

that should create one file.

[JohnnyMalaria]

The weird behavior is because the camcorder is tell Vista that it is PAL. When you start the tape, the signal it sends in NTSC but Vista still thinks it's PAL.

Simple solution - put the tape in play/pause before launching your capture software.