Z1 Capture to External Hard Drive

HDR-FX1000 / HVR-Z5 (2008). HVR-Z7 / HVR-S270 (2007). HDR-FX7 / HVR-V1 (2006). HDR-FX1 / HVR-Z1 (2004).
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PatsyJohn
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Z1 Capture to External Hard Drive

Post by PatsyJohn »

Hello, I am hoping for some advice. I have a Sony HVR-Z1P HD MiniDV tape camcorder, now, I have many tapes, taped in High Def 1080i, what I want to know is how do I transfer/capture the videos directly to an external hard drive. I have a Windows PC, and I have Adobe Premier Elements 4, which I use to make DVD's. But is there a way to get the video files onto the ex. hard drive, with out compression, so far I can only get it over there as a premier elements movie file. I need the video file to be able to be read & uploadable to my brothers Mac computer. I have formatted the new Ex. hard drive to exFat. Thanks in advance.
PatsyJohn
acgold7
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Re: Z1 Capture to External Hard Drive

Post by acgold7 »

You can't. Neither the Z1 nor HDV in general are designed for that and neither are the files they generate. And Hard Drives are dumb and wouldn't know what to do if you plugged a camcorder into them anyway.

You must use proper capturing software -- like Premiere or another program designed solely for capturing like HDVSplit -- and capture to the PC within it. You could set your captured file location/destination to the external HDD or copy the captured files to it as a backup.

This isn't like card-based formats where you could technically just drag the files from the cam or card directly to a disk. And even that's not a great idea. And even there you have to use a PC of some sort.

Once your video is on tape, it is already highly compressed and you can't retrieve the data that has already been lost. HDV generates m2t files but they must be converted as they are captured to PC disk, which is why it called capturing rather than transferring. They are not complete files until the PC software is done with them.

Newer HDV cams like the V1, Z5 and Z7 have HDMI out, from which you can get uncompressed video, but it lacks timecode so is difficult to edit unless you have a capture card that generates its own TC. But this is valid only during live shooting, not retroactively from tape, which is, again, already compressed.

There is a version of Premiere for the Mac which your brother could get, which should be able to read the m2t files. Or there is likely a piece of software out there which could convert HDV .m2t to .mov files on the fly as you capture (or retroactively afterwards), which should be readable by iMovie or FinalCut or whatever your brother has. Obviously the best solution is to just send him the tapes and let him do the work.

Note that there used to be some Direct to DVD recorders that Sony used to make -- the final version was called the MC10 -- where you could just plug in your cam and they'd copy data files over to DVDs directly for you. But these were converted to AVCHD files, I think. They've all been discontinued but may be available on eBay. But read the specs and manuals carefully -- the last one, the MC10, does not support HDV tape in HD mode and does DVDs for viewing in SD only anyhow.
Adam
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Doughie
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Re: Z1 Capture to External Hard Drive

Post by Doughie »

What Adam said!
PatsyJohn
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Re: Z1 Capture to External Hard Drive

Post by PatsyJohn »

Thanks Guys for your replies, very helpful. I have been given this task, as brother is 75 and has difficulty understanding most things computer, ( more so then I),. Do you suggest that I complete making the videoed mini tape into a movie, thru Premier elements, as I usually do before I put them onto DVD, and then just put the final movie onto the seagate external HD. Can it then be used his end, on his Mac, if needed later for other uses, like putting together, with bits of other videos, a promo for a TV channel, that have shown interest in his ten years of beautiful work. Thanks again. PatsyJohn
acgold7
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Re: Z1 Capture to External Hard Drive

Post by acgold7 »

No, because then you will have to render to a display format that isn't editable, with even more compression.

I would highly recommend Googling HDVSplit. I would find out if it can capture to a drive you define (i.e. an external drive); can capture to a format the Mac can understand (i.e. .mov or Apple's Intermediate codec); and is free. If it meets those requirements, and I believe it meets at least two if not all three, then I think you are off to the races.

Z1 --> PC/HDVSplit --> Ext. HDD
Adam
PatsyJohn
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Re: Z1 Capture to External Hard Drive

Post by PatsyJohn »

Thanks acgold7,
I'll give that a go, thanks for giving me your time.
Patricia
acgold7
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Re: Z1 Capture to External Hard Drive

Post by acgold7 »

Let us know how it goes.
Adam
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Stephan
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Re: Z1 Capture to External Hard Drive

Post by Stephan »

If you can capture m2t files (a.k.a. MPEG2 Transport Stream) on your PC, then you will be able to use ClipWrap (www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap) on your brother's Mac to rewrap m2t files into Quicktime container files that can be edited there. Been there, tested that. Hope this helps.
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