HDV internal capture questions

mbryant wrote on 5/9/2006, 2:40 AM

I’ve captured and edited some small files, but now I’m doing my first real project in HDV.

I understand the issues with using lots of m2t files, and I’m not bothered about scene selection, so I’m using the Vegas internal capture application. My plan is to capture the m2t, and render to CineForm intermediate (using Gearshift for convenience).

I seemed to capture the files OK, then told Gearshift to render the 3 files while I slept. It rendered one of them, then seemed to crash the PC shortly into the second render (the PC had rebooted when I checked it in the morning).

Hard to tell of course why it crashed, but it left me wondering if my original files were OK – and wondering how I can tell?

Specific questions:

1. Does the internal capture provide any feedback on dropped frames? I know it doesn’t have any obvious real-time feedback (like a dropped frames counter), but if there were dropped frames would it tell me at the end of the capture? (I didn’t get any notice of any dropped frames, so can I assume the capture was OK?)

2. Does the internal capture have a maximum file size or length? One of the tapes has a full 63 minute tape. It captured 61 mins and 58 seconds as one clip, then put the rest in another clip. Is that normal?

Thanks,

Mark

Comments

riredale wrote on 5/9/2006, 8:30 AM

I don't use the internal capture option, so I can't comment on dropped frames.

If you are willing to go an alternate route at this point, you might try using HDVSplit to capture instead. Not only will it automatically split the HDV input into multiple short clips based on timecode, but it also has a "dropped frames" counter so you can see if everything came across okay.

My suggestion would be to pull everything in using HDVSplit, and then do a batch conversion over to Intermediate using GearShift. After that, you can keep the m2t files on your computer or delete them--you won't be using them again.

You can then work in Intermediate or use GearShift to make DV proxies of them, and work with them. At the end, if and when you want to go back out to HDV tape, Vegas will build a single humungous m2t clip for you. For this it won't need and won't use those original m2t clips, which is why you don't need to keep them.

mbryant wrote on 5/9/2006, 9:18 AM

Thanks - briefly tried HDVsplit some time ago and had some problems, but maybe it is better now. Actually these tapes are all one scene per tape (it was of a church service, and I just kept the camera running, except to change tapes), but I like the security of a dropped frames counter.

If anyone has had the internal capture app tell them they have dropped frames I'd like to know.... if it does then I can assume my capture is OK as I didn't get any error.

Mark

riredale wrote on 5/9/2006, 1:06 PM

HDVSplit went through a flurry of updates a month or two ago; apparently there were some issues. It seems surprisingly stable and useful now. Current version is 0.75, I think.

mbryant wrote on 5/10/2006, 12:56 AM

Ok - I downloaded the new version and will try to capture with it tonight.

I tried again last night with the files I captured with Vegas, this time I told Gearshift to create proxies only. There were 3 clips.. again it converted clip 3 OK, then crashed while creating the proxy of clip1.

The strange thing is: The original m2t of clip 1 is about an hour and ~11 GB; so would expect the proxy to be similar. But after the crash there was a partial proxy file of 7 GB size, but when I load this on the timeline it is only 4 minutes long.

Anyway, the fact that it keeps working file with the first clip then crashes on the second makes me think something went wrong in the capture, so I'll try it again with HDVsplit.

Mark

mbryant wrote on 5/11/2006, 12:35 AM

I captured the "problem" tape with HDVsplit, and with this one I can create a proxy and an intermediate with Gearshift with no crashes...

Something must have gone wrong with the previous attempt at capture with the Vegas internal capture app.

For now I think I'll stick with HDVsplit - I like the fact that you can configure it to stop if it gets dropped frames... (and it reports them). I didn't actually use or need the splitting capability as each tape had the camera rolling continuously.

Mark