9 second clips

MarkCambridgeEngland wrote on 7/18/2006, 10:59 AM

Hi there

I am new to video editing and this is a steep learning curve for me. I have transfered my digital video (2 1/2 hrs worth) to my Sony Vaio PC using the capture software in the Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 6.0 software. I am transferring from A Sony handycam DCR-TRV30E (mini DV tapes) via iLink. The problem is it has divided the tapes into over 800 very short video clips. Most are 9 seconds long - and a few are 1, 2 or 4 seconds long. Ive made no changes to defauly settings - apart from telling software to capture in PAL.

When I tried to play the video clips back (.avi format) some of them have slightly distorted sound at the begining - i.e. the sound speeds up and returns to normal - lasting perhaps just 1 second.

Please can someone help me resolve this - I cant find info in the instructions for capturing software.

Thanks
Mark

Comments

rustier wrote on 7/18/2006, 3:32 PM

1) do your clips appear "normal" playing straight from your camera?
2) were your DV tapes virgin or used?
3) how many actual clips or takes do you have?

without knowing more I would suspect a bad tranfser (from the sound clue) - perhaps a bad cable or tape

are you sure the software is set properly for your region?

MarkCambridgeEngland wrote on 7/19/2006, 5:16 AM

Thanks for the response. Ive tried recapturing now, and all seems OK - I have areound 30 clips from 2 1/2 hours video - much more manageable.

In answer to your questions -

When I play the 9 sec clips they do look OK playing from camera
The DV were all virgin tapes
I had over 800 clips

When I redid the capture - i made no changes to software - yet this time it just worked? Gremlins?

thanks
Mark

rustier wrote on 7/20/2006, 7:32 AM

It may have been gremlins . . . did you toss salt over your shoulder to ward them off?

I believe the software may interpret a dropped frame (gap in information) as the end of a clip so it's probably safe to say
you must have been dropping frames in the first capture due to:

>a cable that's not quite seated
>a loose jack
>another program running on your computer vying for attention at the same time
>a stray cat hair
>solar flairs
>or your standard gremlin

glad you got it working
good luck with it

Russ