Over the weekend I shot some great footage with my XHA1. At the moment, I dont do my own editing so I am unable to capture the footage to a computer. Whats the best way to back up these tapes in the event that something happens to the original? Also, is there a way to back up the tapes without losing the quailty of the image?

Well, it's probably no help to you, but we did this by hooking two Sony edit decks together by iLink and duped this way....probably you could play back out of your camera and into an hdv deck if you can borrow one. You can also output downconverted sd video letterboxed from the XHa1 to a standard vcr or video card on your computer, but obviously you're loosing a lot of quality that way. How's your project coming, did you solve the settings quandry? / Battle Vaughan

Battle thanks for the reply. If I hook up to an HD deck, will I lose any quality or will it come out the exact same? As far as the project is concerned, its coming along well. I tried the settings both ways and the sound came out great both ways. Probably because it was such a controlled enviroment and the mics were only 3 feet away from the group. I even used two different brand of mics and the sound was still great! I'm gaining more and more confidence with this camera and its only a matter of time before I can help others with my posts in the same fashion that you and the rest of the fourm members have helped me. Please let me know I will lose quality if I hook up to a hd deck. Thanks!

You can hook up two hdv camera, one play and one on record, and the digital file will be transferred exactly from one camera to the new tape. 1's and zeros is what is being tranferred, and would be an exact copy.

Chris, does that mean i can simply rent another XHA1 and make back up copies that way? If so, How do I connect them? Also, what do you mean "1's and zeros is what is being tranferred"?

Kevin... Even if you don't have editing software, you still can capture your footage to your hard disk. Here's one workflow for PC. You'll need to figure out if it's effective for you.

1-Download and install HDV capture utility (http://strony.aster.pl/paviko/hdvsplit.htm). It's free and works wonderfully well.
2-Connect your camera to your computer via 1394.
3-Capture files to local hard drive using scene split option.
4-Write files out to DVD as a data disk (not video).

One can also substitute an external hard drive for DVD in step 4 but there are some risks to data if you just disconnect the hard drive and stick it in a closet somewhere. Hard disks don't like sitting idle for long periods of time.

Kevin,

I thought you were running a trial version of vegas? If so, you can capture there. If not, Tripp's solution would be the way to go if you are just looking to backup the footage. (Thanks for sharing, Tripp)

PS Glad to hear your filming experience went well!

Michael

Yup, I am indeed running the trail version of vegas but I have only been experimenting with the sample footage that it comes with, so I have not had to try and capture video. My concern with using veags was what happens if I dont purchase the program after the trial period ends. Would I not have access to my footage?

Tripp: Thanks for the info. I was going to take the tapes locally to a camera shop to have them make a copy. My only concern was that the various types of lubricants from other tapes that may have been duplicated before, may affect my tapes. This footage may be once in a lifetime stuff and I' a little paranoid about giving it to someone else. I keep thinking about the old days when my tape recorder would eat an audio cassette. That would be disasterous!

You won't loose your footage. When you capture footage, you are just using vegas as a means to get the footage onto your hard drive.

You will only run into a problem if you are in the middle of editting and the trial period runs out....your'e editting will be for naught unless you buy the program. Even so, your original captured footage will still be ok.

So, capture with vegas to store it on your hard drive....no problems....just tell the program where(what drive/directory) you want the files stored.

With your captured footage, You could have a go editing in vegas with your personal footage.

For a REAL Philly Steak and Cheese, I'll edit it for ya. lol

Don't free programs like movie maker and imovie capture HDV.. they are free you can look at the footage on a monitor and also back it up

apologies please delete

Really? Does windows movie maker capture hd?

I'm sure it does... try it

Ok, this weekend i'm going to rent an HD camera so that I can back-up my tapes. I'm just going to take Chirs suggestion and hook up two cameras, one on play and the other on record. The orginal footage was shot on a XHA1. If I use a different HD camera (like a sony) to record to, will the back-up tapes look like my xha1 footage or will the image have the look of the cammera that i'm recording to? Also, can someone tell me how to connect the two cameras? Thanks!

Window movie-maker with Vista will capture HD, but the XP version won't. I did try the vista version, it worked, but I was less than impressed with the quality.