Getting Footage from Tape to Computer

1. cpliler
   Member

   
   What are some recommended ways of getting the footage from the tape to the computer for editing? We've shot on Sony HD Mini DV tapes and have been told it isn't good to set all out in-out points via the camera's VCR functions to save wear & tear on the camera. We've purchased and returned the Sony GV-D1000 Video Walkman because it doesn't play the Sony HD tapes, but we cannot find an alternate device. Should we just purchase a consumer HD camera for this use or is there another stand-alone tape deck we can use? We are new to this and smack in the middle of the learning curve where we make every mistake at least once. Any advice is welcome. Thanks in advance.

   Posted 5 years ago #

2. compusolver
   Member

   
   Is there a reason you don't want to connect via firewire and let your NLE capture your footage?
   
   Rather than mark in and out points, most NLEs can automatically split your tape into clips based on where your record sessions began and ended. This is how I capture all my footage.

   Posted 5 years ago #

3. cpliler
   Member

   
   We've done the same, but there are times when we've taken much more footage than we need and don't want to store it all on the hard drive. The tape becomes the archive and we only bring over what we need for the project. We could just use the VCR on the camera to navigate through the tape to find the footage we want, but we've heard that this can become too much wear on the tape mechanism over time so we should use an external tape deck. The Sony model I mention above is the only one we've found. I'm hoping there are other choices out there. Or is everyone just storing all footage on RAID?

   Posted 5 years ago #

4. compusolver
   Member

   
   I can only speak for Premiere Pro 2.0, but I assume that other pro NLEs have similar options -
   
   It is too time consuming to mark in and out points, in the camera. I use "auto pilot" to capture my clips. When my project is complete, if I want to archive it, PP has a way to save just the used materials into another folder. I can archive this folder, (with only the clips I've actually used) and then delete the original folder with all the captured clips and other files.
   
   I have over a terrabyte of harddrive space, including three internal drives and several external drives. I can quickly remove an external drive and insert a new drive in the case, for accessing archived projects. All drives are SATA.
   
   When I first got back into video, several years ago, we used to review tapes in their entirety and either manually select live capture or mark in and out points. It took just one time for my NLE to "forget" the in/out marks that it took us hours to select, to make me swear off this time-consuming practice. I've never looked back. You have to review everything at one time or another, why not just do it all at one time - during editing?

   Posted 5 years ago #

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