Sony HC1 and HDV Split

HDR-HC9 (2008). HDR-HC5, HDR-HC7 (2007). HDR-HC3 (2006). HDR-HC1 / HVR-A1 (2005).
Shoulder-mount HVR-HD1000.
glork
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Sony HC1 and HDV Split

Post by glork »

The question is trivial. The HD1 sends HD video over Firewire with the audio transferred separately. However if I use HDV Split does this transfer both audio and video via Firewire or do I still need the audio connection and how should the audio be connected?
Thanks
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Stephan
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Re: Sony HDI and HDV Split

Post by Stephan »

The MPEG2 files, that HDVSplit would capture, carry both video and audio. Not sure which Sony camcorder you're referring to, though.
acgold7
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Re: Sony HDI and HDV Split

Post by acgold7 »

Firewire (Sony calls it i.Link) always sends both audio and video simultaneously, not separately, so any program using it will capture both together. But I too have never heard of an HD1 from Sony. Might wish to double-check your model number and maybe we can be more helpful.

Edit: I stand corrected: Sony apparently makes both a robotically controlled studio cam, the EVI-HD1:

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-EVIHD1/

And a walkman-like music player, the NW-HD1:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-NW-HD1-Netwo ... B0002T3UPG

Do you have either of those? The latter is just a music player, so I doubt that's it ;-). And the first one doesn't have FW, only component and HD-SDI.

Of course, there's always this:

http://www.adorama.com/SOHFBKHD1.html

Or is this what you really mean?

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores ... ber=HDRHC1
Adam
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Re: Sony HDI and HDV Split

Post by glork »

You are right about the HD1 it is in fact the HDR HC1 . I apologise for the error. As I have only used it for connection with a TV I have always had to deal with the separate audio output, but could see no way of doing this with a computer. Thanks for your rapid help.
May I ask one additional question. I have old 8mm film now stored on the same tape used by the HC1 and playable from it. Is there any reason why this could not be handled by HDV split I am assuming that it is in digital format but clearly with no audio and not high definition. I will probably just try it out but thought I should ask. I need to get all of my tapes transferred to hard drives as my camera is repeatedly failing and is too expensive to maintain.
acgold7
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Re: Sony HDI and HDV Split

Post by acgold7 »

So just to clarify, you have an old 8mm movie shot on motion picture film which has been transferred to MiniDV tape, which you have verified plays back fine on your HC1? Not an old 8mm videotape or Hi8 or Digital8 tape?

If the former, I assume HDVsplit should work just fine, but then so will Windows Movie Maker or any other free capture program, as I assume the file on the tape is just an SD AVI format file.
Adam
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Re: Sony HDI and HDV Split

Post by glork »

Yes you are correct about the 8 mm film. I would assume you are correct about the formatting of the tape, however as it was made commercially I have no information about it. I really appreciate your advice and help. By the way would you recommend converting the MPEG4 tapes from the Sony to a better compression MPEG4 subset. Would I lose a lot of quality? I do not know how much space an hours worth of MPEG2 1080i will take. My plan is to have a 3 Tb drive as a permanent repository and add more drives as needed.
acgold7
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Re: Sony HC1 and HDV Split

Post by acgold7 »

Your HD tapes from the HC1 are Mpeg-2 and are already highly compressed. Anything you could convert them to will not restore any lost data; that is gone forever. So it is best to keep them in their native format, which is Mpeg-2 transport stream, or m2t, when transferring to disc. You can never gain quality by converting anything, because you can't add back data that isn't there.

If your old film was transferred as SD DV, it will be in avi format.

Both HD and SD take about 13 GB per hour, as they are compressed differently.
Adam
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Re: Sony HC1 and HDV Split

Post by glork »

Dear Adam, Thanks for all of your great help. My question about compression was really aimed at minimising disk usage without losing even more data. I will keep the present formats. I am afraid I have yet another question. Over the past day I have been attempting to transfer the 8 mm data to a hard drive with singular lack of success both with the HD Split programme and with Sony Vegas. Both seem unable to recognise the HD HC1 though I find the Hd Split seems to if I run the camcorder in the play back mode. I have Windows XP and a 4 year old Intel single core machine with 4 Gigabytes of RAM I have identified the camera in the scanners and cameras section of the control panel and have attempted to update drivers for it. When the HD Split program runs and I have clicked on the video capture button the end result is an empty file in the designated folder. The Vegas program just doesn''t see the camera at all even if it is switched on and playing back. I then have looked at my Firewire controller which is supposedly working fine as are the ports. which I changed after the first firewire ports apparently destroyed the circuit boards in the camera which were all replaced by Sony. I have no other device with which to test my firewire connection. The firewire card is new and has not been used for anything else.I have looked at the camera settings but can find nothing to adjust though I may have missed something.
( The reason why I have not transferred any videos to the disk is because of the past disaster and my hesitation to encounter more)
Thanks in advance
glork
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Re: Sony HC1 and HDV Split

Post by glork »

Dear Adam, I have tested the Hd Hc1 using a high definition tape and found that the camera was immediately recognised by the HDV split programme simply because the HD tape was in the camera. I was also able to transfer the video to the hard drive. Thus I will now have to find whether or not I can find a way to transmit the standard def tapes using the camera.
I will let you know how things work out.
glork
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Re: Sony HC1 and HDV Split

Post by glork »

I changed the firewire conversion setting on the HC1 in which the output was converted to standard definition. With this HDV Split did not work, however I was able to use the microsoft video capturing and editing software to capture the 8 mm film and record it to disc. I chose AVI rather than WMV format But will compare the two. Thus it seems that all is now well and I am to capture the videos I need. I appreciate your kindness in giving me the help to get started.
Terence
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