DHVSCap to MPEG problem
 

Hi Everyone (and especially my guru Tim),

I guess I captured my footage using DVHSCap. I say "I guess" because there are files created on my external hard drive that have the same name as the file name that I set for capture in DVHSCap.

However, when I click to open the files on my hard drive, MPEG Streamclip opens but it gives me a "File Open Error - Can't Find Video or Audio Tracks" error message. I tried to just open MPEG Streamclip and then import the file, but that didn't work either.

Any thoughts or ideas on what I am doing wrong?

Thanks for hand-holding me through this.

Cheers,
Sharon

First off, what are you planning to transcode to once in MPEG Streamclip so we can help you with that.

Second, you can download the free "VLC" player, which plays back MPEG-2 files. This should tell you whether or not your files were captured with DVHSCap correctly.

I have never had any problems capturing from the HD100 into DVHSCap before, so can you give us more info. Like is the tape playing back in camera correctly? What frame rate are you using? Also, try re-installing MPEG Streamclip.

Let us know if they play in the VLC player though, and we can take it from there.

Hi Steve,

I am just following the steps in Tim's thread at:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=83228
So in those steps, I am to capture my footage as a .m2t file through DVHSCap. Then open the m2t file using MPEG Streamclip. Then export to Quicktime. And it goes on from there. So I am just trying to do this step by step.

I shot at 24fps. I am using my deck (BR-HD50) firewire to my PowerBookG4 Mac OSX 10.4.8 laptop. I run the applications from my laptop and save the files on my Lacie harddrive.

I will try and dowload that other application you are talking about and see whether or not I can see the video.

Thanks,
Sharon

Well downloaded VLC player and tried to play my .m2t files off my hard drive and nothing happened. So, I will trash MPEG Streamclip and redownload it.

I sure am gaining a lot of applications today!

Cheers,
Sharon

Alright, reinstalled MPEG Streamclip and that did not solve the situation.

Help please.

Issue might be the tape. I dubbed footage from a Beta SP to a mini-DV and for some reason it runs the course of the amount of time of the Beta SP but I don't think there is video on it or coming out. I can't see the video play back on my camera.

So, back to the drawing boards. I am going to try some tape that I know I can see in my camera playback. I am going to try and ask the people that did the dub, if they did it right.

I am just writing this all down in case anyone is following this thread and can learn from my mistakes.

Cheers,
Sharon

Hi Sharon,

Just out of curiosity... did you shoot in HDV or DV? Or is this the NTSC BetaSP dubbed to DV that you are trying to capture.

If the format is NTSC DV, you won't need any of these third party applications because the MPEG codec is not involved in any way. You can simply use Final Cut Pro to capture NTSC-DV.
Of course, you will need to tell FCP that you want to capture NTSC DV.
The easiest way to do that is to select "Easy Setup" from the Final Cut Pro menu and choose DV-NTSC.
Then just go to log & capture (? + 8) and capture using any method you like.

As always Tim, you are right on the ball. I actually realized a bit ago that the tape might not be playing back since I have the camera to output HDV and not DV. I think my mini is a DV dub. I am so tired though - been waiting for the MPEG application to export to Quicktime (took quite awhile) - so I will check out this theory in the morning.

However, so far, the whole work around work flow you suggested using the DVHSCap and MPEG Streamclip to Quicktime is working.