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Sony HDR-HC7 HDV Camcorder
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Here Is An Adaptor From AIS Hot To Cold Shoe $30 + S&H
Just a reminder there is another forum for the Sony HC-7 at SonyHDinfo.com where I quickly found the answer.
Here is an AIS-FLAT Adaptor from AIS Hot to Cold Shoe for $30 + S&H.
Just a reminder there is another forum for the Sony HC-7 at SonyHDinfo.com where I quickly found the answer.
Attachments
When I take a still of someone with my HC7 (automatic embedded flash) in an indoor totally dark environment, the subject (the person) gets blurry, out of focus.
However if I focus my hc7 in a light environment few seconds before I take the pic in the dark environment, the picture gets great.
1) Am I missing something?
If I press the photo button half-way down, and wait for the flashing green light to become steady, then I'd suppose to have the focus but this not always happens. Sometimes the pic still gets blurry even with focus light green.
I need to get this thing up because I will travel to a different country (vacation) in a few days and intend to take a lot of pictures also in dark environment.
However if I focus my hc7 in a light environment few seconds before I take the pic in the dark environment, the picture gets great.
1) Am I missing something?
If I press the photo button half-way down, and wait for the flashing green light to become steady, then I'd suppose to have the focus but this not always happens. Sometimes the pic still gets blurry even with focus light green.
I need to get this thing up because I will travel to a different country (vacation) in a few days and intend to take a lot of pictures also in dark environment.
No offense, but I'm taking Lethal's side on this. The video encoder in a DV camcorder or deck is built to handle DV intraframe compression, not HDV's MPEG-2 interframe compression. The streaming processor outputs via FireWire a DV stream with PCM audio, not HDV's transport stream with MPEG-2 video and MPEG-1 Layer 2 audio. (However, HDV camcorders -- being designed after both formats were developed -- are able to handle either.) Anyway, I don't believe the issue is simply the capture software.
DV Backup must be transcoding data files into the DV format in order to record it to a DV camcorder, basically "tricking" the camcorder into thinking it's getting video instead of data files. If so, that's quite a trick!
That aside, I'm very eager to get a look at what the HC7 can do.
I've seen a number of decks and cameras fail and need service at the post houses I've worked at. I recently had my deck serviced and it came back working better than new. Even though my heads and transports hadn't failed, they had worn down over time (so slowly that I never noticed) and getting them replaced made a night and day difference for how my deck performed.
It all depends on how much you use your equipment though. If you only run it a few hours a month that's nothing. But if you run it for 10-12 hours a day then it will wear out a need service much sooner. I don't know if consumer gear has ratings like this, but pro gear typically has a service schedule for how many hours particular parts are designed to be run before they need to be serviced/replaced.
According to the DV Backup FAQ tapes made on NTSC equipment are not compatible w/PAL equipment, and vice versa, which, IMO, is another indication that the cameras/decks have to be "understand" the signal on the tape and aren't just "dumb" devices that can send/receive any type of data via the FW port. Also, the DV Back FAQ states, in regards to a Q about normal vs. strict mode, that "Strict mode generates the DV video stream in a different way to suit certain cameras which don't accept the normal format." Again another indication, IMO, that the camera needs a DV signal, not just any old data stream, in order to function properly.
The theory behind this I don't think is much much different than the theory behind a modem (data->dv steam->data as opposed to data->audio frequencies->data). Also, there is already non-image data embedded into video signals such as closed captioning, date/time stamp, timecode, and sync data. NTSC is made up of 525 vertical lines, but only 480 of them are used for the actual picture.
Lethal
Problems with this camcorder
Don't get me wrong, the footage itself is amazing, but I've been having a lot of problems trying to capture it, i've spent the last month or so trying and failing in fact.
I've followed various sets of instuctions on various forums. I've got a sony hdr-hc7e and a power-mac. I'm probably doing something dumb, missing important advice thats already been given but i've got to the stage that i cant see the woods for the trees.
I worked for 2 years full time, saving everything i could to get the money to make a short film and buy the kit to do a low res edit (someone who actually knows what they're doing needs a guide before they do the final one), got the hd masters transferred on to mini-dv tapes so i could capture in to final cut pro 5 via my sony camcorder and it wont work. I cannot even begin to emphasise how frustrating this is! the best i can get is footage that glitches visually every few seconds, if the programme even recognises the camera at all, which is a bit hit and miss despite tinkering with every setting i can think of.
I've got a documentary shot on the sony camcorder to edit and a documentary that im actually getting paid for to do in the next couple of months so the backlog is really building up.
Is there any way someone could post up or link to a comprehensive idiots guide to the correct settings for camera and computer to make succesful capture work? I would be pathetically grateful. The only bribe i can offer is a link to the film when its done, but it would mean the world to me to be able to get this thing finished...
I'm trying to capture both HD and DV footage through the sony camcorder and realise this would require different settings in each case. any ideas?
Don't get me wrong, the footage itself is amazing, but I've been having a lot of problems trying to capture it, i've spent the last month or so trying and failing in fact.
I've followed various sets of instuctions on various forums. I've got a sony hdr-hc7e and a power-mac. I'm probably doing something dumb, missing important advice thats already been given but i've got to the stage that i cant see the woods for the trees.
I worked for 2 years full time, saving everything i could to get the money to make a short film and buy the kit to do a low res edit (someone who actually knows what they're doing needs a guide before they do the final one), got the hd masters transferred on to mini-dv tapes so i could capture in to final cut pro 5 via my sony camcorder and it wont work. I cannot even begin to emphasise how frustrating this is! the best i can get is footage that glitches visually every few seconds, if the programme even recognises the camera at all, which is a bit hit and miss despite tinkering with every setting i can think of.
I've got a documentary shot on the sony camcorder to edit and a documentary that im actually getting paid for to do in the next couple of months so the backlog is really building up.
Is there any way someone could post up or link to a comprehensive idiots guide to the correct settings for camera and computer to make succesful capture work? I would be pathetically grateful. The only bribe i can offer is a link to the film when its done, but it would mean the world to me to be able to get this thing finished...
I'm trying to capture both HD and DV footage through the sony camcorder and realise this would require different settings in each case. any ideas?
One bit of advice lots of people seem to miss is the following:
Have the camera playing back HDV material before you start Final Cut Pro.
Of course you already have your camera in HDV playback mode, and it's already connected by FireWire to your Mac and all that. Playing back HDV material before and during starting up / launching FCP makes FCP recognize the camera as an HDV deck.
After that, use an Easy Setup for the material you're loading. When your camera is set up as an HDV device, you can load HDV. To switch over to loading DV, I'd save the project in FCP, quit FCP, change the mode on the camera, play back DV material before and while FCP launches, load the appropriate Easy Setup, and capture your DV material.
Sony HVL-10NH - Maybe a MalFunction?
I receaved recently a Sony HVL-10NH Light Unit and it seems that has a malfunction.
According with the manual this unit operates with 4 batteries and it has to be Sony NiMh. Other kind of batteries may not work.
I have tried 2 types of brand new batteries: Sony 2500 NiMh rechargeables and sony 2700 NiMh rechargeables.
The light turn on for a few seconds and then shutdown with the battery lamp blinking red light.
Does anyone has this problem?
[EDIT]: All the batteries were full recharged after I unpacked them.
I receaved recently a Sony HVL-10NH Light Unit and it seems that has a malfunction.
According with the manual this unit operates with 4 batteries and it has to be Sony NiMh. Other kind of batteries may not work.
I have tried 2 types of brand new batteries: Sony 2500 NiMh rechargeables and sony 2700 NiMh rechargeables.
The light turn on for a few seconds and then shutdown with the battery lamp blinking red light.
Does anyone has this problem?
[EDIT]: All the batteries were full recharged after I unpacked them.
Problems with capture
Thanks for that. Still got some problems though if any of you have the patience!
If I have the camera playing footage when fcp boots up it locks and wont finish loading until i press stop on the camcorder.
I'm trying to capture dv footage in to fcp through a sony hdr-hc7. I have all the settings on the camera correct, and in fcp easy setup is on dv-pal, which seems to be the one the mac recognises for dv footage from this camera. When i go to the capture window it says that a preview is unavailable, but that vtr is on. the footage plays fine in the viewing window of the camcorder, but all i get on the mac is still images each time i stop the tape.
When i try to actually capture i get moving footage on the mac screen for about half a second before it locks on a still image. it still seems to be recording though. Im using the CAPTURE NOW command. When it finishes recording the mac locks up until i press stop on the screen of the camcorder. FCP then tells me that its finished capturing succesfully. a few seconds later it prints up a message saying that frames have been dropped from the end of the recording. a bit of swirly wheel of death later and my newly captured file no longer seems to exist anywhere on my hard drive.
I'm not really sure where to go from here. As a stopgap I think im going to look at capturing the footage to an external hard disk connected to my pc, and hope i can find a format that fcp likes. But I can't escape the feeling that i shouldn't have to do this.
Don't get me wrong, I think the footage that the camera takes is wonderful, but if the cost of being on the bleeding edge tech. wise is seeming to need a degree in nuclear physics to make the camera work with the most widely used editing package in the world then I think Sony have a bit to answer for. I can't be the only person having this problem can I? Apologies to sony if its still me being an idiot!
Once again, any help much appreciated. I don't want to have to go through my pc every time i need to capture footage, so any ideas as to how to get my camera to play nice with my mac would be really wonderful.
Thanks for that. Still got some problems though if any of you have the patience!
If I have the camera playing footage when fcp boots up it locks and wont finish loading until i press stop on the camcorder.
I'm trying to capture dv footage in to fcp through a sony hdr-hc7. I have all the settings on the camera correct, and in fcp easy setup is on dv-pal, which seems to be the one the mac recognises for dv footage from this camera. When i go to the capture window it says that a preview is unavailable, but that vtr is on. the footage plays fine in the viewing window of the camcorder, but all i get on the mac is still images each time i stop the tape.
When i try to actually capture i get moving footage on the mac screen for about half a second before it locks on a still image. it still seems to be recording though. Im using the CAPTURE NOW command. When it finishes recording the mac locks up until i press stop on the screen of the camcorder. FCP then tells me that its finished capturing succesfully. a few seconds later it prints up a message saying that frames have been dropped from the end of the recording. a bit of swirly wheel of death later and my newly captured file no longer seems to exist anywhere on my hard drive.
I'm not really sure where to go from here. As a stopgap I think im going to look at capturing the footage to an external hard disk connected to my pc, and hope i can find a format that fcp likes. But I can't escape the feeling that i shouldn't have to do this.
Don't get me wrong, I think the footage that the camera takes is wonderful, but if the cost of being on the bleeding edge tech. wise is seeming to need a degree in nuclear physics to make the camera work with the most widely used editing package in the world then I think Sony have a bit to answer for. I can't be the only person having this problem can I? Apologies to sony if its still me being an idiot!
Once again, any help much appreciated. I don't want to have to go through my pc every time i need to capture footage, so any ideas as to how to get my camera to play nice with my mac would be really wonderful.
1. did you record it in pal or ntsc?
2. you shouldn't have to have the tape rolling while fcp is loading; it should only need to be turned on for final cut to recognize an external device is present.
3. do you have timecode breaks in your footage? ie, did you do a bunch of recording, then stopping, then rewinding to view the footage on the camera, then trying to fast-forward to the end of the clip you just recorded to record some more? if so, these breaks will cause you many headaches. it doesn't sound like this is the problem, anyway...
4. do you have your scratch disk set to an external firewire drive? this can sometimes lead to capture problems.
2. you shouldn't have to have the tape rolling while fcp is loading; it should only need to be turned on for final cut to recognize an external device is present.
3. do you have timecode breaks in your footage? ie, did you do a bunch of recording, then stopping, then rewinding to view the footage on the camera, then trying to fast-forward to the end of the clip you just recorded to record some more? if so, these breaks will cause you many headaches. it doesn't sound like this is the problem, anyway...
4. do you have your scratch disk set to an external firewire drive? this can sometimes lead to capture problems.
I agree, but that's the workaround I have to do for HDV material from an HDV camcorder (JVC HD10U, Sony HC3). Otherwise they are recognized as DV devices. I understood Bigman's problem to be with loading HDV stuff, which apparently is not the case as he or she is trying to load DV stuff.
update
Thanks for the responses. I'm a he if that saves you some keystrokes in future! Hope this is of some use.
I'm trying to capture both hd and dv and getting the same problems with both. i figured since capturing the dv footage is more urgent i'd ask about that and hope that the same fix worked for both formats.
Its a PAL recording, and im capturing to my internal hard drive, not an external one. Thought i'd try to cause myself only one headache at a time!
There arent loads of breaks in the recording- well there are a few but i'm having problems before fcp encounters any of them...
I borrowed a friends dv camera last night and was trying to capture the same (dv) footage through that. same errors, and this was a JVC camcorder not a sony one, so i think the problem is something to do with how im using final cut. which means i guess i should apologise to sony
I'm going to carry on tinkering away at this and see what happens when i change settings around in fcp, but i'd be very grateful if anyone has any bright ideas...
Thanks for the responses. I'm a he if that saves you some keystrokes in future! Hope this is of some use.
I'm trying to capture both hd and dv and getting the same problems with both. i figured since capturing the dv footage is more urgent i'd ask about that and hope that the same fix worked for both formats.
Its a PAL recording, and im capturing to my internal hard drive, not an external one. Thought i'd try to cause myself only one headache at a time!
There arent loads of breaks in the recording- well there are a few but i'm having problems before fcp encounters any of them...
I borrowed a friends dv camera last night and was trying to capture the same (dv) footage through that. same errors, and this was a JVC camcorder not a sony one, so i think the problem is something to do with how im using final cut. which means i guess i should apologise to sony
I'm going to carry on tinkering away at this and see what happens when i change settings around in fcp, but i'd be very grateful if anyone has any bright ideas...
Update
Thanks for the tip.
I unchecked the box and then tried to CAPTURE NOW.
I got a swirly wheel of death for a while, and just got a still image on screen of the start point of my tape.
The escape command didnt work so when i wanted to stop capturing after a couple of minutes I had to repeatedly press stop on the camcorder.
fcp caught up eventually and it told me that the clip had been captured.
When i looked at my newly captured file i found a still image from the start of the clip and the final still image i finished capturing on with nothing in-between.
Does this count as progress
Any ideas?
Thanks for the tip.
I unchecked the box and then tried to CAPTURE NOW.
I got a swirly wheel of death for a while, and just got a still image on screen of the start point of my tape.
The escape command didnt work so when i wanted to stop capturing after a couple of minutes I had to repeatedly press stop on the camcorder.
fcp caught up eventually and it told me that the clip had been captured.
When i looked at my newly captured file i found a still image from the start of the clip and the final still image i finished capturing on with nothing in-between.
Does this count as progress
Any ideas?
slow motion footage recording
hi guys..
i am an australian filmmaker and want to shoot some surfing footage on the hc7....
i am used to shooting film and the whole digital revolution is a new learning experience for me..
does the hc7 have a function to record footage at a different speed ie 50p or f
and then play it back at regular spead 24 25f/p..
still tryin to get my head around the digital world so when i say f or p i dont really know what i am talkin about..
ultimatley the goal is to have some great slow frame surfing footage and is iot better to shoot this with camera settings (as one would do when shooting film) or is it better to effect the speed in post..??
any help would be much appreciated..
cheers
m
hi guys..
i am an australian filmmaker and want to shoot some surfing footage on the hc7....
i am used to shooting film and the whole digital revolution is a new learning experience for me..
does the hc7 have a function to record footage at a different speed ie 50p or f
and then play it back at regular spead 24 25f/p..
still tryin to get my head around the digital world so when i say f or p i dont really know what i am talkin about..
ultimatley the goal is to have some great slow frame surfing footage and is iot better to shoot this with camera settings (as one would do when shooting film) or is it better to effect the speed in post..??
any help would be much appreciated..
cheers
m
Raw m2t playback
I finally accomplished something that I have been curious about for a while. Don't flame me, but I recently bought a Dell/Vista machine. I captured raw m2t files from the hc7 and burned one onto a data dvd which I put in my playstation 3. It played the file perfectly and it looked amazing on my 46" Sony lcd. It is amazing that I was able to accomplish this with a data dvd in all of 5 minutes, when it takes 3 or 4 hours to burn a far inferior traditional dvd.
Considering this, I am much more optimistic about the prospects of blu-ray burners and players.
I finally accomplished something that I have been curious about for a while. Don't flame me, but I recently bought a Dell/Vista machine. I captured raw m2t files from the hc7 and burned one onto a data dvd which I put in my playstation 3. It played the file perfectly and it looked amazing on my 46" Sony lcd. It is amazing that I was able to accomplish this with a data dvd in all of 5 minutes, when it takes 3 or 4 hours to burn a far inferior traditional dvd.
Considering this, I am much more optimistic about the prospects of blu-ray burners and players.
Sony HC7 or SR1 or ???
New to list and would like some basic opinions.
I would like to buy an HD camera for basic non-professional video and was about to go with the Sony HDR-SR1 until I found out that there is no editing software for MAC that will work with AVCHD format. I liked the idea of a hard drive rather than DVD or Tape media but if I can't edit in HD what's the use? Now I'm consdering the HC7 or the Canon. I also want remote mic capability.
All I want to do is take HD video, playback on HDTV, edit on my IMAC, burn copys (SD for now) on DVD. Eventually I would like to get a HD/DVD burner/player.
Where to turn, what to do? Oh My!
Thanks.
New to list and would like some basic opinions.
I would like to buy an HD camera for basic non-professional video and was about to go with the Sony HDR-SR1 until I found out that there is no editing software for MAC that will work with AVCHD format. I liked the idea of a hard drive rather than DVD or Tape media but if I can't edit in HD what's the use? Now I'm consdering the HC7 or the Canon. I also want remote mic capability.
All I want to do is take HD video, playback on HDTV, edit on my IMAC, burn copys (SD for now) on DVD. Eventually I would like to get a HD/DVD burner/player.
Where to turn, what to do? Oh My!
Thanks.
With the help of this forum I finally bit the bullet and bought my camera.
So I just bought an HC7!!! And this is a list of the stuff I got to go with it.
-TIFFEN 37mm UV Protector Filter
-HD-5050PRO 0.5x HD Super Wide Angle lens
-Sony BCTRP Battery Charger
-Sony VCT870RM Tripod w/Remote
-Sony HDR-HC7 6MP MiniDV High Definition (Of course the camera)
-Sony Mini-DV DVM 63 Minute High Definition Video Tape."5 Pack"
-Sony NPFH100 H Series Actiforce Hybrid InfoLithium Battery
-Sony ECMHW1 Bluetooth Wireless Microphone
$14 poor mans stedi cam
-Two year Amazon camcorder warranty
Here is a question however, I am planning on buying a videolight that fits in the AIS, but if I am using the bluetooth wireless recorder, can I fit another device in the Active interface shoe? Basically, can I use both the video light and the bluetooth mic at the same time?
Also, I bought a tripod that utilizes LANC, does this mean that I can connect say a Sennheiser shotgun mic (for improved stereo) to the tripod? How would that work?
Thanks so much, sorry if these answers are in here somewhere, but I have read through eleven forum pages and didnt see what I was looking for so I thought I would post.
PS-God bless the starter of this thread, best resource I could find.
So I just bought an HC7!!! And this is a list of the stuff I got to go with it.
-TIFFEN 37mm UV Protector Filter
-HD-5050PRO 0.5x HD Super Wide Angle lens
-Sony BCTRP Battery Charger
-Sony VCT870RM Tripod w/Remote
-Sony HDR-HC7 6MP MiniDV High Definition (Of course the camera)
-Sony Mini-DV DVM 63 Minute High Definition Video Tape."5 Pack"
-Sony NPFH100 H Series Actiforce Hybrid InfoLithium Battery
-Sony ECMHW1 Bluetooth Wireless Microphone
$14 poor mans stedi cam
-Two year Amazon camcorder warranty
Here is a question however, I am planning on buying a videolight that fits in the AIS, but if I am using the bluetooth wireless recorder, can I fit another device in the Active interface shoe? Basically, can I use both the video light and the bluetooth mic at the same time?
Also, I bought a tripod that utilizes LANC, does this mean that I can connect say a Sennheiser shotgun mic (for improved stereo) to the tripod? How would that work?
Thanks so much, sorry if these answers are in here somewhere, but I have read through eleven forum pages and didnt see what I was looking for so I thought I would post.
PS-God bless the starter of this thread, best resource I could find.
HC7 to Mac - how to transfer video?
Sorry if this has been already mentioned in this thread, but I'm having a terrible time figuring out how to dump the video from the Sony HC7 to my Mac. Obviously the i.link-USB cable works for transfering stills, but what connection is used for transfering video? There is no fire wire connection on the HC7 that I can find. Is it HDMI that I use - if so how does that go into the Mac? Thanks!
Sorry if this has been already mentioned in this thread, but I'm having a terrible time figuring out how to dump the video from the Sony HC7 to my Mac. Obviously the i.link-USB cable works for transfering stills, but what connection is used for transfering video? There is no fire wire connection on the HC7 that I can find. Is it HDMI that I use - if so how does that go into the Mac? Thanks!