Capturing with Sony HDR-HC9: How know if DV vs. HDV?

[jonsm]

Hi, I've been trying to capture videos from a Sony HDR-HC9 to my 1 year old desktop Mac. I'm using the iLINK (IEEE 1394) to Thunderbolt. I had trouble until I upgraded the OS and FCP but once I did that, it was easy with my test tape UNTIL . . . I started trying to grab a bunch of a relative's tapes, some were filmed with this camera (as its hers), some filmed with other cameras. I obviously don't know what tapes were filmed with what camera nor when nor what the settings on the camera were.

So, with several tapes I started getting the message: "no output image in VCR HDV/DV. Cannot chge during i.LINK". I ended up following the "Guide" touchscreen option and switching VCR HDV/DV to "DV". And that works. My question, however, based on reading the forums and my initial difficulties is . . . can I assume these tapes really were filmed in DV? Is that why it works? Or is it downgrading them to DV? I guess I should assume that it is not downgrading them since i.LINK CONV is off. Anyway, I think I am just suspicious because of my problems up to this point but is there a way to tell if something is DV vs. HDV format?

Thanks,

Jon

[turk690]

If the tapes were shot on that HC9 & it doesn't play back unless camcorder is set to DV mode then those tapes were shot in DV mode. A genuine HDV tape can be viewed in HDV mode and if you choose to, downsampled on the fly by camcorder to DV. If its was a genuine HDV tape and something was wrong, it most likely wouldn't play back at all, HDV or DV modes alike. I could say grab another DV camcorder and try playing them there; if everything was working, obviously only DV tapes will play. But this scenario is a whole other can of worms: playing DV/HDV tapes in camcorders other than the one used to shoot the tape can be an unpredictable process, especially if the DV tapes were shot in LP mode.