Getting double images on Mini DV transfer to Mac

[TinRobot]

I have old PAL Mini DV videotapes I am transferring in using the mini DV cable via a Canopus ADVC100 to my Mac Studio. It looks pretty good most of the time, nice and sharp, but on faster moving motion, the video displays a double ghost image and I'm wondering why. This is not interlace combing, but a ghost image, as pictured below.


[Attachment 84656 - Click to enlarge]

Here's another example which shows the slow moving balloons sharp, but the man walking by has a double image.


[Attachment 84657 - Click to enlarge]

When I view the video on my old DV camcorder screen and freeze frame, I don't see this ghost effect at all, so it's something to do with the transfer. I have tried using analogue instead of DV cable, but it doesn't help. Any idea why this is happening and how to fix it?

[aramkolt]

This probably techincally isn't it, but if your switches are set to NTSC when the content is PAL, I could see something like that happening. Might want to check your switches.

Not that it would necessarily cause a ghosting problem, but all of my ADVC110's/100's have had bad SMT capacitors inside, so I'd recommend you replace them all if able for more "like new" performance.

Also, you really shouldn't need an ADVC device at all if you have DV tapes to begin with, just have the DV output from the digital 8 camcorder go to a firewire to thunderbolt 2 then thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) adapter. The firewire adapters are pretty pricy, but I'm sure you can resell for roughly what you paid if you just need to complete your single transfer. That, or use an older Mac that has firewire already.

[dellsam34]

Upload a small sample.

[TinRobot]

This probably techincally isn't it, but if your switches are set to NTSC when the content is PAL, I could see something like that happening. Might want to check your switches.

Not that it would necessarily cause a ghosting problem, but all of my ADVC110's/100's have had bad SMT capacitors inside, so I'd recommend you replace them all if able for more "like new" performance.

Also, you really shouldn't need an ADVC device at all if you have DV tapes to begin with, just have the DV output from the digital 8 camcorder go to a firewire to thunderbolt 2 then thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) adapter. The firewire adapters are pretty pricy, but I'm sure you can resell for roughly what you paid if you just need to complete your single transfer. That, or use an older Mac that has firewire already.

Thanks. I did check the switches and they are correct for PAL. You are right that I don't need the converter box for DV, but it just so happens that while I do have the old firewire cable out and converters to get it to Thunderbolt 3, I don't own DV cable to firewire, so I just patched it through the box. I just ordered a cable so that I can avoid the ADVC-100 entirely, so I will see if that fixes it and report back.

[TinRobot]

Upload a small sample.

I will do that if the direct cable option I will try today does not work. Thanks.

[TinRobot]

Okay, I seem to have solved the whole problem in a way I did not expect. Importing using Quicktime is the culprit. Not the hardware or cables. If I import using Final Cut Pro, I don't get the ghosting. No idea why QT is doing this or how to fix it using QT. The problem with importing with FCP, however, is that it wants to break every single shot into a different file and with shaky camera movement, it seems to make loads of different files even though they are, in fact, the same shot. So is there an app for importing video which does it as one long file and does not create the ghosting QT does?

Also, an odd thing. The file is PAL, so it's 720x576 25i. I created a project in FCP which is the same pixel dimensions, but when I output, I get black bands top and bottom, as pictured. Why am I outputting a different frame size? It shouldn't have any black bands.


[Attachment 84681 - Click to enlarge]

[Bernix]

Probably because MiniDV has not square pixels. If so, avidemux handle it properly afaik.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio


Maybe somebody can confirm it is it.

[dellsam34]

Use a PC if possible and you shouldn't have to worry by using WinDV or Sclive, Mac has been, is, and will always be a pain in the @ss for tasks like these.

[TinRobot]

Maybe Windows is easier for this, but there must be a simple way to do this on a Mac too. I don't have access to a Windows PC.

[Bernix]

How about to try 768x576 resolution in FCP. Unfortunately i don't know this software. Avidemux got nice calculator in swresize to suggest resolution based on PAR.