Capturing from the Sony HVR Z1E

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:30 pm

Hi Guys
After a few months of filming with my new Sony Z1E in both HD and standard DV, I tried to capture the movies withy MSP 8 video capture.

Unfortunately the first half of the tape shows blank in the capture window (although the camera's monitor is showing the footage) but it sees the second part of the tape, filmed over Christmas. However when I ran it back to double check the footage showing blank and ran it forward again to the bit it sees, the images were like lots large pixelations. This is the first time I've got round to downloading from the new camera and I wonder if anyone has had the same experience and can advise me on what's wrong?

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:05 pm

Hi Guys
All of a sudden MSP capture is seeing the first part of the tape, but it is playing in slow, jumpy, motion and any movement has motion blur. I tried to check my capture properties but it is greyed out. Is this normal for HD or are there some adjustments I can make somehow???

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:41 pm

Hi Guys
PLEASE can anyone help me. I have now got all the settings in place for capturing all my tape at last.

Although the basic picture looks good once imported into video editing, I get some really bad distortion (zigzag lines making any stright edges look like corrigated cardboard) on anything that is moving or when I panned the camera. It looks like a settings problem but I cannot, for the life of me, see how or where.

The properties on my captured clip are:

File size - 1,333,068KB
Duration - 42 sec

Video
Video type - Mpeg 2 Video upper field first
Total Frames - 10,633 frames
Attributes - 24bits, 1440x1080, 16:9
Frame rate - 25 fps
Data rate - 2500 kbps

Audio
Type - Mpeg Audio Layer 2 Files
Total Samples - 20,415,360 samples
Attributes - 48000Hz, 16bit, Stereo
Layer 2
Bit rate 384

My editing properties were using the HDV 1850/50i template
PAL (25fps)
Mpeg files
24bits, 1440x1080, 25fps
Upper field first
Mpeg 2, 16:9
Video data rate 25000Kbps
Audio Data rate 384Kbps
MPeg Audio Layer 2, 48 KHz, Stereo

I cannot see any mismatches, so can anyone see where I am going wrong that creates these zigzag lines or has anyone any ideas on what I can do to correct this problem? Have I used the wrong template or should I tweak it?

rwernyei · Post by **rwernyei** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:22 pm

Gra,

I'm sure these were just typos.

The properties on my captured clip are:

File size - 1,333,068KB
Duration - 42 sec

Video
Video type - Mpeg 2 Video upper field first
Total Frames - 10,633 frames
Attributes - 24bits, 1440x1080, 16:9
Frame rate - 25 fps
Data rate - 2500 kbps

My editing properties were using the HDV 1850/50i template
PAL (25fps)
Mpeg files
24bits, 1440x1080, 25fps
Upper field first
Mpeg 2, 16:9
Video data rate 25000Kbps
Audio Data rate 384Kbps
MPeg Audio Layer 2, 48 KHz, Stereo

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:14 am

Hi Rwernyei
Yes, you are right it was a typo and the data rate in my capture setting is 25000KBps (the same as my editing settings). Any ideas why I am getting this movement distortion?

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 7:05 pm

Hi Guys
Has anyone got any ideas or can help, please??? I really am a bit lost.

pyvo · Post by **pyvo** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:11 pm

Hi Gra,
On my humble Sony HC7, the instructions indicate that to capture footage, you should set the VCR setting on the camera's menu to either HD or DV - not 'auto'. There is a table in the camera's instructions giving explicit details of settings for capture and printing back to tape.
Is this the same for Sony Pro cameras such as Z1 ?
pyvo

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:29 pm

Salut Pyvo
Merci!

I'm not sure if yours is the same but the Z1E offers HD,DVCam and SDV options for filming but (if I have understood correctly) the secret is in the output. I have filmed in both HD and SDV and set the output to PC as SDV using the Ulead HD plug-in (which I thought output everything out to PC as standard DV). Is this the same as yours or has anyone else any experience or can see where I am obviously going wrong (or has everyone else left the sinking ship of MSP?)

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Mon May 18, 2009 5:12 am

Gra wrote: Is this the same as yours or has anyone else any experience or can see where I am obviously going wrong (or has everyone else left the sinking ship of MSP?)

I abandoned ship a looong time ago! But thought I'd pop in to see if the old tugboat is still chugging, and to my surprise it's not beneath the waves yet!

I had exactly the same issue when I captured the first HD I shot into MSP8. Turns out it was a field order problem. Try to capture with the field order reversed.
Did you mix formats on the same tape? You can only capture either HD or SD at one time. You need to set your camera to output either SD or HD from the firewire, and then connect to the computer. It will connect as a different type of device depending on whether it's HD or SD. Once it has connected and made the little connect noise, open the capture program and select the appropriate plug in.

But in all seriousness, you should really ditch MSP and get a newer version of editing software, MSP never really handled HD very well.

Good luck, might pop back in here in a year or so...

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Mon May 18, 2009 5:15 am

I should have added:

If you set your camera to output HD you MUST capture in HD and like wise for SD. Don't output SD from the camera and try to capture in HD!

Gra · Post by **Gra** » Mon May 18, 2009 6:42 am

Hi Troppo, I thought you'd headed off in to the bright blue yonder!?

Many thanks. Yes, I did capture first in HD, then a second movie in SD! So I'm keeping that as a spare to tape over if I need to in future. I found I could improve the finished movies from that tape by setting deinterlacing on final output.

It's all a bit 'last one to leave turn out the lights' here these days and yes, I'm soon to leave this sinking tugboat as well for premierPro and Corel can say goodbye to any more of my money! Shame that; I've been with MSP since I started this editing lark and probably would have stuck around if Corel would have invested, but now it's started to play a role in my income I need something a little more professional.

See you on your next visit in a year.