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  1. Member
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    Hi, I am trying out a Betacam Compact Player J-30SDI that has not been used some years. I connected it to my MacBookPro via the FireWire 400 cable, opened up Final Cut 7 and it recognized it. But when I put in a tape no image and no timecode appear, on the deck and also on the Laptop. Any suggestions? There is filmed material on the tape. Thank you!
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  2. Capturing Memories dellsam34's Avatar
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    The best way to capture Betacam tapes in their full original format is to use SDI output, then use SDI to USB 3.0 adapter, DV is a bottle neck for the format, Essentially the player down convert lossless SD SDI to a lossy DV for convenience when DV tapes were used by semi professionals, it does make no sense nowadays to use such port at all, That's the reason I got the J3-SDI instead of the J30-SDI because that's the difference between the two units, a useless firewire/DV card.
    Possibly you got a bad firewire card in the player, try other outputs and see if they are working.
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    Thank you dellsam34! I only have this deck and have to make it work. My main problem is that when I put a tape in the deck and press play, no timecode runs. I have tried several tapes. Thank you for your ideas.
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  4. Capturing Memories dellsam34's Avatar
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    There is a button for 3 types of timecodes press it and it will go from one to another, also try another output like composite or S-Video to make sure the tape has contents.
    I didn't say get another deck, I just said use SDI out instead of DV port.
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  5. Member
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    Thank you! I will try it out tomorrow.
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  6. Member
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    Thank you for your answers, they were very helpfull. Now I would like to know what software do you recommend to capture on MAC?
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  7. Member
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    Hi Dellsam, I have now my USB3.0 SDI Capture device. I have tried to use it with QuickTime Player and OSB Software but in both cases I only get to choose the audio device and not the video device. I can hear the sound of my Betatapes but cant see video. Can you help me with your knowledge? Thank you!
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  8. Capturing Memories dellsam34's Avatar
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    What SDI stream card you got? I'm no fan of MAC so I'm afraid I'm not going to be any help for that, Most SDI USB devices come with their own streaming applications just use them or use Vdub.

    I would like to mention that you havn't resolved the video display problem, haven't you? If your deck is not reading the video data then SDI device is not going to help. In post 4 I suggested to use another output for video viewing did that step passed the test?
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  9. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    What kind of tapes do you have?

    I only ask because many non-professionals do not understand that there is a difference between:
    Betamax, SuperBeta, ED-Beta, BetaCam, BetaCamSP, DigiBeta, BetaCamSX, and MPEG IMX. The deck you have ONLY covers the last 5 types, not the first 3.

    Also, it could be a matter of PAL vs. NTSC vs. SECAM standards differences. USA was NTSC (now ATSC). Peru was NTSC as well, though with a different mains voltage (now using ISDB-T), but for tape use both still primarily support 525-line SD material. The good thing about that deck is that it is switchable. What is the provenance of your tape(s). Make sure the deck's settings match the TV system of those tapes - look in section 7-8 of the manual. Also make sure that the capture card/device AND capping software are similarly set in accordance with the tape standard!!

    I also agree w/ dellsam34 in that - since you do NOT have any formats that make use of any form of (compressed) DV - you do not want to be using the DV/iLink/Firewire transfer method, as it will be transferring a lossy-compressed, color-subsampled, lower bitrate version compared to what you would get out of either Analog Component or (preferably) SDI.

    Scott
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  10. Capturing Memories dellsam34's Avatar
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    J-30SDI is a Betacam machine and it plays Betacam, Betacam SP, DigiBeta, Betacam SX, and MPEG IMX small and large cassettes PAL and NTSC with setting change, If it's wrong tape it could either be a Betacam HD tape or he has wrong setting for the PAL/NTSC, As far as Betamax I strongly believe he knows that.
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  11. Debo indicar que el mejor hardware para esta tarea es blackmagic, pero basándonos en lo que tienen debo indicar que primero debe identificar el codec de video que emite su convertidos SDI to USB, una vez sepa en que formato de video está recibiendo el flujo en FCP 7, deberá configurar los ajustes de la captura en el mismo formato de video. Algo que debe tener presente es que su hardware debe ser compatible con FCP7, por tanto tiene que instalar los plugin adecuados pata que FCP 7 reconozca el hardware.
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  12. I'm a Super Moderator johns0's Avatar
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    Thread moved to the mac forum where you can get more help.
    I think,therefore i am a hamster.
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