Mini DV tapes and Firewire

[jstuart1]

...The camera still works after being flooded? Was it sea water or fresh? Sea water is VERY CORROSIVE. My camera that got about a cup of sea water was toast. Completely gone. Lesson learned on that one...

What everyone here has said is good advice... I know that you were asking about LANC in your other thread, so any SONY camera with LANC would work in your housing, since LANC is the same for all SONY's that have it.

I hope this helps... Feel free to ask any other questions.

Yes the camera still works fine. The sea and sea housing for this camera has alot of dead space so the camera never actually sat in water. Once I figured out what that wierd moving line was I turned it off and kept it level. When I got back to the boat and opened the housing 1/2 cup water was inside. I sent the housing off for repair but since the camera seemed to work fine I didn't send it but may in the near future. I took the right side cover off where all the boards are and see no signs of water entry. None shows anywhere except on 1 screw on the left side at the very front of the camera for the left side cover. I'm keep looking at the newer smaller camcorders but am afraid if I buy one I'll never dive the VX1000 again since it's huge!

As for any camcorder with lanc working in my housing this is probably true though the lanc port would have to be close enough for the cable to reach. Also the video output port would have to be near the front. Many newer cameras don't seem to have the video out port anymore.

 

[HowardE]

Judy,

The LANC cable is just a 1/8" TRS (tip ring sleeve) connector (some people call them stereo, but they sort of mean the same thing). You should be able to buy an extension for that at any radio shack. As for the video out port... What type of connection do you need? Do you know if your video conection is RCA or also an 1/8" "mini" jack?

I ask, because a lot of cameras now have video out in one form or another, and finding an adaptor shouldn't be all that hard. So, newer cameras may not have exactly the same connection you need, but they should have something, and converting to what you need shouldn't be all that hard.

 

[jstuart1]

Wow thanks for the info. The video out I think is RCA. It's the standard red, yellow and white ports that are on the front of many TV's and I think game consoles.

 

[HowardE]

Wow thanks for the info. The video out I think is RCA. It's the standard red, yellow and white ports that are on the front of many TV's and I think game consoles.

Yes... that is RCA, and that is uncommon with newer cameras. However, they (new cameras) usually come with adaptors to go to RCA since that's how most people would connect their camera to the TV for viewing... So...adapting should be NO problem...

BTW - I used to do sound for large rock concerts, and I toured with a band as their sound engineer... This is my knowledge base for cables and adaptors of all kinds.

Good luck.

 

[drbill]

Sony makes (or at least made 5-6 years ago) two mini DV tape decks (one I think was the GV-300?). I used to use one to capture video from in the days I edited with a Casablanca. Now I just use an inexpensive Sony or Canon camcorder to do so (much less expensive and it gives me a backup camera if I need it).

I used to use a VX1000 but I don't remember if I used it for capture to Premiere or not. Mostly the mini DV deck.

 

[diversteve]

Wow thanks for the info. The video out I think is RCA. It's the standard red, yellow and white ports that are on the front of many TV's and I think game consoles.

Hi,

The VX-1000 only has a 4-pin Firewire port so I'm not sure you can do camera control with it, I thought you needed a 6-pin connector to use the camera control functions in your software because the other two pins carry the control signals. Premiere might be stupid and just be sending the signals w/o checking for this so you won't see any error on the s/w side. At least that's the way I understood it works.

You should be able to manually start the VX-1000 and capture DV footage though.

You could buy one of the previously mentioned LANC controllers off eBay and control your camera functions that way, or just use your remote. I used to do that to capture DV from a VX-1000 using an earlier version of Premiere.

You also have a round S-video jack above the Yellow composite jack, but I'd still use the Firewire since it's a Digital signal and the others are analog.

Do you have the owners manual for your CCD-VX1000? PM with your real e-mail address if you need one, I have it in Acrobat PDF format.

I liked using that camcorder - it had such nice balance and excellent low-light(4lux) performance.

hth,

 

[jstuart1]

Hi,

The VX-1000 only has a 4-pin Firewire port so I'm not sure you can do camera control with it, I thought you needed a 6-pin connector to use the camera control functions in your software because the other two pins carry the control signals. Premiere might be stupid and just be sending the signals w/o checking for this so you won't see any error on the s/w side. At least that's the way I understood it works.

You should be able to manually start the VX-1000 and capture DV footage though.

You could buy one of the previously mentioned LANC controllers off eBay and control your camera functions that way, or just use your remote. I used to do that to capture DV from a VX-1000 using an earlier version of Premiere.

You also have a round S-video jack above the Yellow composite jack, but I'd still use the Firewire since it's a Digital signal and the others are analog.

Do you have the owners manual for your CCD-VX1000? PM with your real e-mail address if you need one, I have it in Acrobat PDF format.

I liked using that camcorder - it had such nice balance and excellent low-light(4lux) performance.

hth,

Premier Pro has drivers for the VX-1000 now and seems to control the camera ok. The repair site I found for it says that I should assume the firewire wasn't working correctly from the getgo since this is a common problem and why so many of them are sold "working". Apparently the 6 pin PC end of the cable can be plugged in backwards which can actually burn a hole in the circuit board and fry the firewire chip. Cost for the board is 400.00. I don't think this is my problem though since it will capture, it just seems picky about tape tension. I don't have problems capturing from tapes the VX1000 recorded other than tension but I still can't get it to capture from the tape recored on a PC100.

With the info you guys have given me, I think I can buy a new camera and adapt my housing to fit it. I might have to use a different mounting plate to get the lens closer to the dome port and cable extentions but I think it will work. Since I don't know how to use all the manual controls anyway, not having them won't be a big issue.

 

[lai_rallos]

first of all, i would like to assume that your system matched the system requirements of adobe premiere pro 1.5 (like RAM, disk space, video card, etc), because premiere pro 1.5 is RAM dependent, you should have atleast 1Gig of RAM in your system. Of course, the higher the RAM, the better...If you have Pinnacle, its also an advantage because it supports Premiere pro 1.5.

Also I have a tape recorded on a newer camcorder (not mine) that will not capture at all. It just shows a black screen.

it shouldn't show a black screen, unless the format of the camcorder (thats not yours) is not NTSC.

I'm assuming that my VX1000 is to old to use to capture the newer tape?

i also use the vx1000 to capture tapes eventhough i use a vx2100 to shoot, i never had difficulty. but since the vx1000 is an old model, i think you should have your camera checked by sony coz there might be some defects already.

for more troubleshooting:
1. check your premiere project settings
2. you should have more than 2 firewire cables to check if its a cable problem

good luck!

-lai-

 

[lai_rallos]

There is PAL and NTSC, but I don't believe this is a consideration of firewire capture. The firewire cable and the computer don't care about broadcast standards.

Broadcast format is a consideration in capturing and editing. If the tape is recorded in PAL and you are using an NTSC camera, you definitely cannot view the tape because of the lpf and fps difference. There is also an option when you open premiere if you are going to edit in NTSC or PAL. Of course, it depends on what broadcast system you are using in your country...

-lai-

 

[PerroneFord]

lai,

If this setting was set incorrectly, would he get black screen, or garbled capture. I could try it later today and see. I'm guessing he would not get black screen.