Forum archive - MPEG2 to DV tape

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MPEG2 to DV tape

tarrickb posted 2007 Aug 14 16:02

Hello everyone, I have a Sony HDD camera that only records in MPEG-2 format but my footage will be broadcasted and they need all videos on tape (DV or miniDV). So, I was wondering what is the best way to go about this? Can I edit in MPEG-2 then somehow print this MPEG-2 to MiniDV (will borrow someone's miniDV camera for this), OR do I need to convert my MPEG-2 footage to DV video before sending to tape. Thanks! (also, i'm not familiar with recording to miniDV tapes, is this done through firewire? and if so at what speeds?)

racer-x posted 2007 Aug 14 16:11

You will have to convert to dv25. The transfer will need go to the camera via 1394 Firewire. You can use Windv for the transfer and it will go in Real-Time speed only...................

edDV posted 2007 Aug 14 16:29

You should ask to speak with their engineering staff. They should be able to accept DVD spec MPeg2. Be prepared to describe exactly what you have. If the levels are wrong, the techs may reject your DV conversion. Larger stations load everything to servers and can deal with this. Smaller stations may still be doing everything from tape. If they breoadcast directly from tape, the tape needs to have spec levels.

tarrickb posted 2007 Aug 14 16:37

hi, and thanks for the replies. Unfortunately, even though the station has facilities to convert DVD to DV, they won't because this is community programming meaning that they are completely hands off. So does this mean that once i have my MPEG2 footage, i should convert to DV, edit, then print to miniDV tape? Or, can I keep the MPEG2 format, edit/render in MPEG2, then print this MPEG2 to tape? If i go down the road of having to convert MPEG2 to DV, I'm planning on using either Sony Vegas or VDUBMod (via whatever DV codec seems to be the best - Panasonic maybe?) Is there anything i have to be careful about regarding this conversion? Thanks.

edDV posted 2007 Aug 14 17:12

tarrickb : hi, and thanks for the replies. Unfortunately, even though the station has facilities to convert DVD to DV, they won't because this is community programming meaning that they are completely hands off. So does this mean that once i have my MPEG2 footage, i should convert to DV, edit, then print to miniDV tape? Or, can I keep the MPEG2 format, edit/render in MPEG2, then print this MPEG2 to tape? If i go down the road of having to convert MPEG2 to DV, I'm planning on using either Sony Vegas or VDUBMod (via whatever DV codec seems to be the best - Panasonic maybe?) Is there anything i have to be careful about regarding this conversion? Thanks. Is this cable "community programming "? In that case they could care less about quality. Over air broadcasters have tighter spec requirements. They might have their million dollar transmitter explode if everything is clipped to white. Use Vegas if you have it. Vegas won't chop off the whites. Import MPeg2. Vegas will internally convert to RGB but maintain levels. Edit in Vegas and then output to a DV-AVI file or directly to the camcorder over IEEE-1394 ("Print to tape" under tools). I'd do both but if your computer is weak, go to DV-AVI first. The computer can take its time. If strict levels are an issue (broadcast spec), you will need to lower white levels from 255 to 235. If that is an issue let me know. If cable video is too hot, nothing will blow up. It will just cause analog audio to buzz when video weights toward whites.

tarrickb posted 2007 Aug 14 17:39

: Is this cable "community programming "? In that case they could care less about quality. Over air broadcasters have tighter spec requirements. They might have their million dollar transmitter explode if everything is clipped to white. Use Vegas if you have it. Vegas won't chop off the whites. Import MPeg2. Vegas will internally convert to RGB but maintain levels. Edit in Vegas and then output to a DV-AVI file or directly to the camcorder over IEEE-1394 ("Print to tape" under tools). I'd do both but if your computer is weak, go to DV-AVI first. The computer can take its time. This is NOT over air broadcast so you're correct in that there isn't a tight spec to follow (however, I want the best quality possible for the show's integrity). So you agree that using Vegas to edit the MPEG2 then printing directly to tape is the best option (just built a quad core machine, do you think I should still do the intermediate DV format conversion?)

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