Recommendations for Hi8 -> DV

[defaulk9]

I'm attempting to transfer a lot of Hi8 footage to DV so that I can edit it. I have over 200 hours I would guess.

First, I'm looking for a recommendation for storing this as DV. I need to be able to get to it all so I can bring it up at any time for editing. My thought is to use tapes. They seem to be most economical and I should be able to access the footage relatively easily that way. Anyone disagree?

Assuming I use this method, I will have another problem. I need to be able to capture from that DV and split it by scenes. I have Premiere Pro 1.5 which as far as I know does not use optical scene detection but uses the DATECODE imprinted upon the tape. If I do a direct dub from my Hi8 tape to my DV tape, Won't the entire tape have a continuous datecode and therefore not have any scene detection?

I am hoping there is a way of writing the datecode as I see fit onto my dv tape using the computer as an intermediate step between the Hi8 camera and the DV camera. Does anybody have any input on this?

Thanks. I know this is a big set of questions, but I've got a big job ahead of me, so any direction in this will be helpful.

[bb]

[...]First, I'm looking for a recommendation for storing this as DV. I need to be able to get to it all so I can bring it up at any time for editing. My thought is to use tapes. They seem to be most economical and I should be able to access the footage relatively easily that way. Anyone disagree?
No, as long as you want to keep it in the DV format, tape seems to be the most appropriate medium to me.

Assuming I use this method, I will have another problem. I need to be able to capture from that DV and split it by scenes. I have Premiere Pro 1.5 which as far as I know does not use optical scene detection but uses the DATECODE imprinted upon the tape. If I do a direct dub from my Hi8 tape to my DV tape, Won't the entire tape have a continuous datecode and therefore not have any scene detection?[...]
I have no idea whether Premiere Pro 1.5 has an optical scene detection or not, although this should be available in an NLE program of that size and price...
As far as I know Hi8 doesn't have timecodes, so I guess you're right assuming that the datecode will be continuous after the capture. I further assume that you do the conversion with a Digital8 camcorder.

bb

[defaulk9]

I have no idea whether Premiere Pro 1.5 has an optical scene detection or not, although this should be available in an NLE program of that size and price...
As far as I know Hi8 doesn't have timecodes, so I guess you're right assuming that the datecode will be continuous after the capture.

It apparently does not have optical detection, but otherwise I like the program and use it for all editing. I'd rather not try a different program, especially if I will have to pay for it.

So I guess this is the big problem then: how do I put everything onto a DV tape with discreet datecode?

I further assume that you do the conversion with a Digital8 camcorder.
No. I have an old Hi8 camcorder which has an S-Video output. From there, I had experimented with using the Analog-DV pass-through capability on my DV camcorder. But I wonder if it might be better to use a capture card of some sort?

[bb]

[...]No. I have an old Hi8 camcorder which has an S-Video output. From there, I had experimented with using the Analog-DV pass-through capability on my DV camcorder. But I wonder if it might be better to use a capture card of some sort?
If I were you I'd borrow a Digital8 camcorder. It's the best way to convert your Hi8 to DV, and regarding the many hours of footage you have, you should definitely go that way.

Regarding scene splitting, you might want to try Scenalyzer - which is not free, though. If I remember correctly, there's an older version which can still be obtained for free.

bb

[defaulk9]

If I were you I'd borrow a Digital8 camcorder. It's the best way to convert your Hi8 to DV, and regarding the many hours of footage you have, you should definitely go that way.

Okay, good to know. What if I want to run filters on the footage? Is it still better to go this way? I would be encoding to DV, processing the video, and then re-encoding, right?

Regarding scene splitting, you might want to try Scenalyzer - which is not free, though. If I remember correctly, there's an older version which can still be obtained for free.

bb
My trouble is not splitting the scenes optically-I can even use vdub for that I would think. I need to be able to store all video on DV tapes and capture it from the DV source in Premiere. I guess if you don't have Premiere it wouldn't have been obvious to you, but since premiere allows you to offline your video, I need to capture it from Premiere so that it remembers where it was on the tape. At least this is my understanding about premiere. So I'm thinking that the only way to achieve this is by writing that datecode, right?

bb, Thanks for your help...I appreciate your advice.

[bb]

Okay, good to know. What if I want to run filters on the footage? Is it still better to go this way? I would be encoding to DV, processing the video, and then re-encoding, right?[...]
Yes, you'd need to reencode, but there's not much loss.

The alternative is to capture the analogue way to a lossless format (e.g. Huffyuv). You'll probably have more loss this way, because the analogue capture process is more error prone (frame drops, audio synch, time base correction, etc.), and you'll need a lot of space on your hdd. If you decide to use a lossy format, e.g. MJPEG, then the advantage is gone completely. You may also consider to apply filters during the capture process, but the options are very limited because of the realtime requirement.

Regarding the Premiere timecode issue, I'm sorry, but someone else will probably be more competent.

bb

[fRUTTiFrESH]

Hi,
I transfered 10 Hi8-Tapes with a SONY DCR-TRV110E (via the DV-Out port). Converting into a DV-Stream is done by the cam! I used scenalyzer (http://www.scenalyzer.com) to transfer the tapes to my computer, it also has an optical scene detection and the (DV) files can be stored back to the cam (via a DV-IN port). It´s easy to use and the quality is great.

Reencoding isn´t needed if you simply store the files on your HDD and backup the files to another Cam (media) with scenalyzer.

[defaulk9]

Ultimately, I will need to be able to tell premiere where the scene changes are on the tape itself, since that's the only way I effectively do offline editing. You see, I have much too much footage to store all on hard drives throughout the entire project, and yet I'd like to be able to edit footage across tapes as I please.
For this, I think I will need either:
A) a way to store all that DV on a tape such that the datecode is not continuous (so I can store scene breaks on the tape), or:
B) a way to tell premiere where the scene breaks are directly (so basically writing a batch capture log of some sort that premiere can use to know where the scenes break).
C) ????

[fRUTTiFrESH]

Why do you need to be able to tell premiere where the scene changes are on the tape itself ?

I used the optical scene detection from Scenalyzer which works quite well (nearly 100% detection). The Output was a DV-Stream (avi) splited in 200 - 400 scenes (depends on scene changes). I think this way it´s ok to manage a project with a screenplay or a Media Manager (Vegas)... Premiere shouldn´t have problems to handle many (video-) clips !?

[defaulk9]

Why do you need to be able to tell premiere where the scene changes are on the tape itself ?I need to use Premiere's offline editing. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's where you can delete the bulky DV footage off your hard drive and edit with smaller stub clips. Then when you're done editing, Premiere can re-capture just the stuff you used, because it knows where all the footage is on the DV tapes and can match it up with your stubs. And I need this due to the sheer bulk of material I have.

But (as far as I know) in order for Premiere to know where everything is on your tapes, you have to capture from the dv tapes using Premiere. No problems there except Premiere would capture such a tape as one big clip. Not cool.

[Davis]

defaulk9, try HandySaw DS from Davis Software (www.davisr.com)
It can generate many types of result. One of them PSQ for Adobe Premiere 6. It can be imported in AP 1.5