Do I Need a Capture Card?

I have a Mac Pro with Final Cut 6, and I'll need to capture mini DV tapes recorded in 1080i mode.

Should I be able to capture either straight from the camera (via firewire) or from a deck, if I'm able to rent one, or would I need a capture card to effectively capture the footage?

Also, what capture settings would you recommend? The goal/end result is to make a short to be viewed online.

Mini DV? Capture from a deck or camera that has Firewire. Chances are your camera has firewire so all you need is get a FW cable and attach camera to the computer. The problem with using the camera is starting and stopping all the time during capture and thats not good for the camera.

Michael Horton
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Thank you for the quick response...

So it wouldn't matter that the tape is recorded in 1080i?

Michael Horton Wrote:
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> Mini DV? Capture from a deck or camera that has
> Firewire. Chances are your camera has firewire so
> all you need is get a FW cable and attach camera
> to the computer. The problem with using the camera
> is starting and stopping all the time during
> capture and thats not good for the camera.

Nope. What camera did you use? This HDV?

Michael Horton
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Michael Horton Wrote:
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> Nope. What camera did you use? This HDV?

This hasn't been shot yet, but the shooter is planning to use a Sony HD Z1U camera.

Do you think that the quality be degraded if I use the camera to capture instead of a deck?

This is HDV, NOT MiniDV. Same tapes, but different format. The format is HDV 1080i60, and that is important to know for when you go to capture in FCP.

NO quality difference between camera and deck. Firewire connection and playback. And no, you do not need a capture card, unless you want to capture HDV into another format like DVCPRO HD. You can even capture HDV as ProRes via firewire.

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