Capturing with MiniDV into one long file

[Jacksoneon]

I am attempting to capture & digitize old MiniDV tapes into one file, from a Sony DCR-TRV25 to my Mac. Premiere Pro is able to recognize the camera and control it, however, when I start capturing, it stops recording on the first dropped frame. I have unchecked "Abort capture on dropped frames".

When I enable "Scene Detect" the recording continues past dropped frames, but the clips come in lots of separate files rather than one large file. Does anyone know if there is a way to capture MiniDV as one long file without splitting, in Premiere Pro or any other Adobe software?

[Averdahl]

I have no solution if you are Mac-only, but can confirm the issue. If you have a Windows machine, download ScenalyzerLive and capture with it. This software is flawless when capturing DV-tapes and nowdays it´s free as well.

In Premiere Pro on Windows one can capture several clips and put them on a matching DV timeline and export that to DV. No re-compression or quality loss when doing that unless you add any filter to the video. By doing this one can get one (1) file out of let´s say 50 individual clips without any quality loss. I am not sure how it works on a Mac. Worth trying maybe.

[Jacksoneon]

Thanks for your help Averdahl,

Re-rendering into one file isn't ideal but that's what I'll do. Can I ask what PPro render settings you find to have the least quality loss? When I use uncompressed 8-bit I get a file size 8x as large, but DV25 (25mpbs) renders at a similar size.

Thanks,

[Averdahl]

As Ann said, stick with DV25. If you just place the files on a matching timeline and do not add any effects the files will be untouched and not re-compressed. Premiere Pro just stitch those clips together without re-compressing them. You will lose no quality.

If you add any effect filter to the clips, they will be re-compressed. But never if you not add any effect filters.

I have personally used this workflow for years when DV was king. 🙂

[Ann Bens]

If you stick to DV25 there will be no compression provided there are not effects what so ever applied.

You can check this by superimposing the exported file over the captured file and set blending mode to Difference.

If its all black there is no compression.

[Jacksoneon]

That's great to know, thanks so much for your help!