HDVSplit 0.75 - utility for capturing HDV with scene split by timestamp

[paviko]

Hi!
I've not found any free utility that is able to capture from HDV camcorders and split to scenes like it is common for DV camcorders. So here it is my approach to HDV capturing - HDVSplit. Utility that allows Windows users to capture and split their HDV footage to scenes.
To download and read "How To", look at my home page (http://strony.aster.pl/paviko).

TODO:
- Simple cutting of m2t files with GOP accuracy

Version changes:
Version 0.75 - 05.03.2006
- fixed crash on exit when MPEG2 decoder could not be found
- added detection of dropped frames/packets during capture
- added elapsed time of capturing session
Version 0.7 - 19.02.2006
- preview added (3rd party decoder needed, e.g. free ffdshow)
Version 0.55 - 05.02.2006
- saving user preferences to file
- possibility to choose date and time format
Version 0.53 - 25.01.2006
- fixed serious bug with line artifacts in frames introduced in 0.51
Version 0.51 - 08.01.2006
- added option to synchronize audio and video (thanks to domain for pointing it out!)
Version 0.5 - 31.12.2005
- new feature: direct capture from camcorder
- fixed incorrect split when non-video packet appeared during search for split
- hack for strange behaviour (noticed with HC1) - sometimes wrong timestamp is written to tape ?!
Version 0.1 alpha - 10.12.2005
- first release

Regards

[bb]

This is good news for the HDV camp. Unfortunately I don't own an HDV camcorder, so I cannot test your program. Maybe someone else can post his / her experience?

bb

[paviko]

New version is out.

Version 0.51 - 08.01.2006
- added option to synchronize audio and video (thanks to domain for pointing it out!)

Not much interest here, but I'll keep posting info about new version. Maybe HDV will be more common later. Other threads related with HDVSplit:
http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/showthread.php?t=3577
http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/showthread.php?t=3728

[TachyonEagle]

thanks! great free utility!
v 0.52 works flawlessly with sony hdr-fx1e ;)

update : and now it seems that even with sony hvr-z1e , version 0.75 seems just a little bit confused when tape position is just after dv part has ended and there is yet no hdv timecode, anyway capture seems ok

[paviko]

Version 0.53 - 25.01.2006
Fixed serious bug with line artifacts in frames introduced in 0.51
In version 0.51 I've decreased internal buffer from 10MB to 4MB. Unfortunately it caused that some frames have artifacts, because some packets were lost during capturing.
Internal buffer is not used when capturing without scene split or when scenes are split from file. So this functions were not affected.

I really apologize for this bug :( In version 0.53 size of the buffer has been increased back to the size from 0.5 version.

Regards

[bb]

[...]I really apologize for this bug :( [...]
Such is life - no need to apologize. We have to be thankful that you share your program with us - even for free!

bb

[paviko]

Version 0.55 - 05.02.2006
With same simple new features:
- saving user preferences to file
- possibility to choose date and time format

Regards

[paviko]

Version 0.7 - 19.02.2006
- preview added (3rd party decoder needed, e.g. free ffdshow)

Preview will only work if there is MPEG2 decoder available. ffdshow - is very good, fast, great quality free decoder. Instruction how to configure it is at my homepage.
I don't recommend previewing if you don't have dual core system. It's very easy to lost packets transfered between camcorder and computer.

Regards

[Backwoods]

Very nice, thank you for the constant updates.

[krisq]

Superb stuff paviko, thank you :D

[paviko]

Version 0.75 - 05.03.2006
- fixed crash on exit when MPEG2 decoder could not be found
- added detection of dropped frames/packets during capture
- added elapsed time of capturing session

I hope new feature will be usefull for you as it is for me. No auto recapture of scenes with drops yet, but at least there is no need to watch and search for artifacts that came during false transfer. If they occur they are displayed in HDVSplit and for now manually you can recapture the tape/scene.
There is also one option - "Do not treat mid-scenes as dropped frames". If it is selected (default), then heuristic is used to not accidentialy treat undecodable fragments as dropped frames. This undecodable fragments can be caused by reusing tapes - mix of old scenes and new scenes.
The heuristic is not available when scene split is disabled, because there is no information about scenes.

Regards

[PrimeHD]

Hi Paviko,

Thank you for the fantastic utility, HDV Split.

I use it to capture HDV over firewire from my Sony Z1U, while monitoring the capture full-screen in real time with your HDVSplit.

One thing is missing though - waveform monitor.

Of course, DV Rack folks provides HDV upgrade and it does have waveform and all the bells and whistles. But these bells & whistles are costly, and a total overkill in my case.

I was wondering if you have a version of HDV Split with waveform monitor built-in?

[paviko]

Hi Alex.

I have never been using waveform monitor. After looking at wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waveform_monitor), implementing it needs quite a lot of time.

Regards

[agilpwc]

Great program, used it this weekend to record direct to disc several hours of footage at a dog show.

Is it possible to get the source code?
I'd liked to make a couple simple improvements for myself or if not maybe you could add the features in?

1) option for a pause button that would stop recording, then when you hit it again, continue recording to the same file
2) an option for when you hit stop, it would automatically increment the name of the file, so you can hit record again without having to manually rename the output file.

Thanks Eric
agilityvideo at gmail dot com

[agilpwc]

You can add JVC GR-HD1 to your list of supported camcorders.

[agilpwc]

Feature request:

For HDV Split to start and stop recording when the record button is pushed on the camera and make them separate files.

Regards
Eric

[paviko]

Hi agilpwc.
1) option for a pause button that would stop recording, then when you hit it again, continue recording to the same fileGood point.
2) an option for when you hit stop, it would automatically increment the name of the file, so you can hit record again without having to manually rename the output file.
I think it can be done now when you select scene detection and choose count (with radio buttons) then every time you start new recording file has added count number.
For HDV Split to start and stop recording when the record button is pushed on the camera and make them separate files.That's quite interesting. I think it can be done. What you mean in second part of sentence "and make them separate files"?
You can add JVC GR-HD1 to your list of supported camcorders.
Thanks a lot for checking with JVC. Is scene splitting working or just capturing ?

Regards

[agilpwc]

Hi
On the JVC only capture works, not scene splitting or preview.

You were asking about the second part of the sentence 'to separate files'. I just meant that each push of record and stop on the camera would result in a separate clip and thus file on your harddrive.

Another interesting possibility, is in Virtual Dub capture tools, it has camera controls. You hit record in virtual dub and it activates the camera through firewire and starts recording on tape in the camera.

I would think somewhere in that same code would be the capability to reverse that and record on the computer when the record button on the camera is pushed.

I know that a signal is sent from the camera through firewire each time record is hit. As long as there is a tape in the camera.

Thanks for a very useful program.

[paviko]

Thank you agilpwc for information and suggestions. It's possible to check the status of camcorder so if it's recording you can also start recording automatically at computer. I think I've read in MSDN documentation that some signals are send when camcorder status has changes so looks like this feature is possible.

Regards

[Backwoods]

Would it be possible to include stop motion capture? Such as every click of the mouse creates a new frame? There doesn't seem to be any programs that can see my Sony FX1 and can do this.

[WBL]

Hello,

great tool for capturing!
I have a request: would it be possible to output to PS (mpeg) instead of TS (m2t) ?This way one does not need to use another program to convert the clips to mpeg files so these files are usable in other programs like vdub.

If such an implemetation is not easy to do does someone know a good converter which can do batch conversion as well and does not mess up the mpeg files like capdvhs does ?

thanks
Werner

[Backwoods]

Look into HDTVtoMPEG2, I'm pretty sure it can batch process.

[WBL]

no, HDTVtoMPEG2 cannot do batch process - it can load multiple files, but can only output to one file - in fact HDTVtoMPEG2 joins all clips to one file.

greetings
Werner

[Korben]

Hi Paviko
you can only capture with HDVSplit, but the splitting doesnt work.

[Backwoods]

What type of error are you getting? I've used the scene split feature without problems. Also are you trying to cap and scene split or scene split an already captured file?

[Korben]

For capturing I used "Scenes split" and "Synchronize audio and video", also the option "add to file name" is set on "Date and time".
My camera is detected properly, but the scene splitting doesnt work, the filename is test-noTime-0000.m2t.
Any ideas?

[Backwoods]

Hmm, what is the exact error and what camera are you using?

[paviko]

My camera is detected properly, but the scene splitting doesnt work, the filename is test-noTime-0000.m2t.
Any ideas?
Hello Korben. I was lazy and HDV parameters have been harcoded by me for Sony camcorders. For JVC it's not finding timestamp. In free time I'll change the code to be more universal.

Regards

[WBL]

Hello Paviko,

is it possible to add a little feature: when splitting to single scenes and using the counter it would be great if the couter itself is not located at the end of the filename it should be possible to place it within the filename. Example: when choosing the filename "video_####_name" HDVsplit should use the "#" and replace them by the counter so this gives files like:
video_0000_name.m2t
video_0001_name.m2t
and so on
The number of "#" written in the filename could also be used to define how many numbers are used for the counter. example: "video_##_name" gives a counter from 00 to 99 whereas "video_###_name" from 000 to 999

thanks in advance
Werner

[Korben]

Hi Paviko,
I am using JVC GR-HD1.

[billou2k]

hi! Has it been tested on the Sony hc3?

[Richard Iredale]

Yes, I think someone posted that it worked with the HC3 over on the other forum.

[paviko]

@Korben
I'll try add support for JVC and Canon in free time.

@billou2k
I have not tested it myself with HC3. But it's so long since HC3 release and noone reported that it's not working with HC3.

Regards

[Backwoods]

I can confirm the HC3 works with HDVSplit.

Paviko, any chance of HDVSplit being able to capture one frame at a time from cameras? For stop motion purposes. Such as, each time you click a button a frame will be recorded. Thanks.

[redindian]

does it work with JVC HD100? (HDV 720p/24/30)

[documentaryman]

Thanks for a great utility. But when importing captured files into Premiere Pro, I noticed that the source timecode was missing. This is a problem for editing. Is it very difficult to implement?

David

[tomos]

just started using this today. worked perfectly on my new sony HD cam.

thanks paviko :)

[Korben]

Thanks a lot Paviko.

[BabaG]

paviko,

great utility. one major thing missing for me and those i'm working
with: timecode. when i split the files from an existing master file i
lose the timecode. this would be a very valuable feature to those
of us in a multi user environment, or even for things like batch
capture. if i had timecode i could place all of the split files on a
timeline and create an edl which would double as a batch capture
list. that way i could easily delete files i think i might not need but
recapture them if i was wrong. and i could avoid having to capture
the entire tape again. i could just recapture the individual clips.
no timecode means i can't do this. it also means i can't make an
edl anyone else can use. please consider this. it would be a
great enhancement to an already great little app.

thanks,
BabaG

[jesus2099]

Hello Paviko!
I like the interface and simplicity of your soft very much.
I am a user of standard plain DV.

Would you think it would be difficult to make your tool compatible with DV ?

It would be so nice. :)

[paviko]

@Backwoods
Paviko, any chance of HDVSplit being able to capture one frame at a time from cameras? For stop motion purposes. Such as, each time you click a button a frame will be recorded.
I'm thinking about such feature :)

@redindian
does it work with JVC HD100? (HDV 720p/24/30)HDVSplit should work with JDV HD100 but without scene split and preview, only capture.

@BabaG and @documentaryman
But when importing captured files into Premiere Pro, I noticed that the source timecode was missing.
Timecode, like timestamp, is stored in .m2t file, so with proper tool you can read the timecode from .m2t file captured with HDVSplit or CapDVHS. So as I understand when you are capturing clips using e.g. Premiere it is storing timecodes, but in separate file and it's not able to read it from m2t file, right ? Or maybe you've meant something else ?
... if i had timecode i could place all of the split files on a
timeline and create an edl which would double as a batch capture
list. ...BabaG, you want HDVSplit to generate EDL file, e.g. CMX 3600 compilant ? I'm a bit lost, because how would you like to have timecode otherwise, in file name ?

@jesus2099
Would you think it would be difficult to make your tool compatible with DV ?
It would take some time to make it DV compatible and there are better program for DV already, also free - WinDV http://windv.mourek.cz/

Regards

[Backwoods]

Great to hear paviko, looking forward to it.

[BabaG]

thanks for the detailed response paviko. here's my situation with
regard to timecode.

i have a lot of full hdv mpegs captured mostly in premiere pro 2.0.
generally the timecode for the tapes was set specifically for each
tape. for example, tape 12 would start at hour 12, tape 13 at hour
13, etc. when i use hdvsplit to break the full-tape-file into its
individual scenes i find that all of the new files start at hour 0.
00;00;00;00 to be precise. are you saying that if we'd captured
these tapes using hdvsplit instead of premiere this would not
be the case? that would be great to know.

and as to the edl question, i was only using that as an example.
if all of my broken down files start at 00;00;00;00 i can't use
them to make a batch capture edl for premiere to recapture my
media. i have to capture the entire tape again and break it down
again. but if the broken down files retained their timecode such
as:

file-001.mpeg = 12;00;00;00
file-002.mpeg = 12;00;37;12
file-003.mpeg = 12;01;03;21
file-004.mpeg = 12;04;13;02
file-005.mpeg = 12;06;49;16

i could set them on a timeline in order by start time and export
an edl which would serve as a batch capture list for recapturing
the tape. by editing the edl i could recapture only select scenes
as well. if all of my files start at 00;00;00;00, however, they
bear no time reference to the original tape. i was just using this
as an example of how retaining the timecode for files would be
useful. i wasn't requesting edl functionality in hdvsplit.

on the other hand, and maybe it already does this, if hdvsplit
output a batch list when it captured, that would be a great thing!
it already can scene detect, isn't that true? if it keeps a list as it
captures and scene detects, that would be the best of everything.

thanks again,
BabaG

[paviko]

when i use hdvsplit to break the full-tape-file into its
individual scenes i find that all of the new files start at hour 0.
00;00;00;00 to be precise. are you saying that if we'd captured
these tapes using hdvsplit instead of premiere this would not
be the case? that would be great to know.
Nothing will change, because timecodes are inside .m2t file and are added by camcorder, not Premiere or HDVSplit. So proper timecodes are in all your captured files with Premiere (when output is m2t) or captured/splitted by HDVSplit.
BabaG, do you know where Premiere stores timecodes for a clip ? I think this problem is specific to video editor. Premiere probably is not reading timecodes from file, but is associating timecodes with clips only when they are captured from Premiere. I don't know Premiere, but maybe there is possibility to import EDL file or batch list and then Premiere can properly associate timecodes. Will have to install trial version and experiment.
Currently HDVSplit is not generating batch list, but I agree this would be usefull :)

Regards

[BabaG]

paviko,

i believe premiere does store timecode in its own place somewhere.
it may be in the file header someplace. there is dv software for
coverting various dv formats called dv conversion suite. it was
written by attila mezzei (hope i spelled right). his app offers the
possibility of 'add premiere timecode'. this leads me to believe the
code is in the file itself someplace premiere specifically looks at.
premiere also offers the possibility of changing the timecode
for a file. it's done by selecting the media in the project window
(not the timeline) and going to file--->timecode. i hope i'm
remembering that right. this also leads me to think it rewrites a
header or something. i have had email contact with attila and he
seems very helpful. you might be able to get some info from him.
here's a link to the folks distributing his app now:

http://www.focusinfo.com/solutions/catalog.asp?id=8

i read a post in the sony forum linked on your hdvsplit site that
describes the same issue i'm talking about. the poster described
how the first file of a splitting session retained the timecode but
all the subsequent files split out of the same master started at 0.
i'm not sure if the poster was using premiere or not.

so, if i capture with hdvsplit, the fornat the file is captured to is
.m2t? am i right in that? premiere captures to .mpeg file extension.
if i understand correctly, you're saying that capturing with hdvsplit
should retain the timecode as it scene detects and creates
individual files from a tape because it is saving in .m2t format.
is this correct? it would likely solve my problem. this seems to
contradict what the sony forum poster was saying, though. a batch
log as this is done would be great, though.

anyway, thanks for a great app and the quick attention you're giving us,
BabaG

[BabaG]

nope. just captured some scenes with scene detect on and
they are all read by premiere as starting at 0.

[paviko]

nope. just captured some scenes with scene detect on and
they are all read by premiere as starting at 0.
I've just said that timecodes are inside m2t file (e.g. use DGIndex and you see them while saving .d2v project) and Premiere can't read them. So we need to tell Premiere about timecodes somehow - e.g. utility that reads them from already captured files (no need to recapture) and placed them in batch list.
so, if i capture with hdvsplit, the fornat the file is captured to is
.m2t? am i right in that? premiere captures to .mpeg file extension.
if i understand correctly, you're saying that capturing with hdvsplit
should retain the timecode as it scene detects and creates
individual files from a tape because it is saving in .m2t format.
File extension can be anything. I was writing about .m2t as MPEG TS format. If you can capture from Premiere (with .mpeg extension) and then HDVSplit is able to split this file, then Premiere also uses MPEG TS and timecodes are inside files, but still not readable by Premiere :(

Will look at this DV Conversion Suite apps, thanks.

Regards

[BabaG]

thanks paviko.


use DGIndex and you see them while saving .d2v project


could you provide a bit of detail on how i do this to see the timecode?
i know it's a bit out of your way but i'm very interested in this and
would very much apreciate the help.


So we need to tell Premiere about timecodes somehow


been complaining about this for years.

thanks again,
BabaG

[documentaryman]

Paviko, it's most likely that Premiere Pro stores the timecode in a different location when it's writes the header. If you want I can send you a small captured Premiere file to examine.

[paviko]

could you provide a bit of detail on how i do this to see the timecode?
Probably it won't be much usefull for you, because the timecode is displayed live in DGIndex. But you can check that a tool can be written that will read in and out timecodes for certain clip (maybe I'll write it at this weekend). To see timecode:
1. Download DGIndex (or as I see it's named also DGMPGDEC)
http://neuron2.net/dgmpgdec/dgmpgdec148.zip
2. Start it.
3. Choose "File"/"Open"
4. Enter "*.*" and select .m2t file you want to open.
5. Detect PIDs (it's need to be done only once):
5a. Go to "Stream"\"Detects PIDs: PAT/PMT"
5b. Select 0x810 and click Set Video
5c. Select 0x814 and click Set Audio
6. Choose "File"\"Save project"
7. Click "Save"
The dialog will open with "Timestamp" label (in "Audio group"). The timestamp is changing while DGIndex is processing a file, so it's not much usefull (also it's cut to the seconds for easiness). This only shows that .m2t files have timestamps preserved.

Paviko, it's most likely that Premiere Pro stores the timecode in a different location when it's writes the header. If you want I can send you a small captured Premiere file to examine.
Thank you. But if it's writing timestamp inside mpg file, then it won't be compatibale with other editor.

Regards

[documentaryman]

a tool can be written that will read in and out timecodes for certain clip (maybe I'll write it at this weekend).
...............................
Thank you. But if it's writing timestamp inside mpg file, then it won't be compatibale with other editor.


If you can write the tool to read in and out timecodes from your captured m2t files they can be copied and pasted into PPro's project manager and the problem can be solved that way. It would be very helpful if it's not too much work.

Thanks, Paviko.

[BabaG]

thanks paviko. a tool like that would indeed be a lifesaver.
would probably encourage a lot of users as well. i followed
the instructions you gave for dgindex and, while i don't
really know what much of it means, i can see that there
does seem to be a timestamp there. another indication
that your proposed indexing tool would be of great use.
as i think about it, probably the best way to implement
such a tool is as a part of hdvsplit. perhaps something
like a checkbox option to save a list as a text file as the
capture, split, or capture with split is happening. that
would be ideal.

thanks again,
BabaG

[paviko]

I don't have good news :(
I've spent some time with timecodes. There is special place in MPEG header (not only with TS file - .m2t) for storing timecodes. Unfortunatelly Sony camcorders are not using this field. It's empty, always 00:00:00:00. Because of the nature of HDV it's not possible to take timecode from camcorder and associate it with a frame. That's probably why Premiere only for first scene is including timecode (it's read before starting recording) and the next are reset.
Sony is using timecodes from tape for encoding/decoding MPEG, but this timecode is slightly shifted comparing to real tape time. On my HC1 it's about 400 ms (12 frames with NTSC). I've written simple application that reads these timecodes and shift it 400 ms, but probably from one device to another this shift can differ/

Link to app:
http://strony.aster.pl/paviko/TimeCodes.0.1.zip

It output timecodes to the edit box with format "in / out / filename".
If you think that it's somehow usable for you, I can add this to HDVSplit.

Regards

[BabaG]

thanks paviko. i'll look at it monday when i get in front of an edit machine.

[BabaG]

paviko,

tried to run the timecode app and got this error:



all i did was unzip the file and run the exe from the folder it was in in my
download directory.

[BabaG]

from the description, the app sounds very useful. perhaps it includes
an input box in which the user could add their own value for the ms
offset you describe. this would allow for variances in the
recording/playback gear. a calibration method for users would be to
record a tape of a white wall for 15-20sec, then another 15-20sec
with the lens cap on, repeating this pattern of white/black segments
for a while. this would give an easily deliniated source of clips to
use for adjusting the ms field. one would capture several times,
each time adjusting the ms value until they are correct. a default
might be suggested by your original test.

thanks,
BabaG

[paviko]

I can't see the error (not approved link), but I've tried running this app on Windows 2000 and get message that there is no MFC library. I've linked this library statically now, so download the file again.

from the description, the app sounds very useful. perhaps it includes
an input box in which the user could add their own value for the ms
offset you describe. this would allow for variances in the
recording/playback gear. a calibration method for users would be to
record a tape of a white wall for 15-20sec, then another 15-20sec
with the lens cap on, repeating this pattern of white/black segments
for a while. Maybe the calibration can be even simplier. Before we start recording we can read what timecode is shown by camcorder. We can compare this timecode with the first timecode received from m2t file and get the diffrence.

Regards

[BabaG]

got it! yes, paviko, this is very good. in this form it is limited
as it does not print or export this list. if we could export this
list we could use it, or edit it and then use it, in another app
that is batch capable. we could also use it to replace a damaged
or lost file. very helpful. of course, i'd love to see all of these
folded into hdvsplit in the future ;)

i just remembered one side issue. there seem to be two or
more timecode streams somehow. many cameras, more likely
the pro level ones, will allow the user to set the timecode value
they choose. often users will set this such that the values
correspond to something like a roll or scene number. for
example, roll twelve might begin with the timecode value of
12:00:00;00. roll 13 might be 13:00:00;00, etc. this seems
to be different than the timecode that we are using here which
always seems to start at 00:00:00;00. i have to look into this
further to see if there is actually a discrepancy here but i
thought it is worth mentioning. i try to anticipate issues should
they arise and this seems like it could pose one down the line.
i'm thinking specifically of an instance where we output
timecode from your new app and try to capture in another app
using this info. if the list we output always uses the tape
location timecode but the capture app sees the user set
timecode we might run into a problem wherein the capture app
refuses the capture or captures improperly. on the other hand,
if these features eventually make their way into hdvsplit, we
would have no issue as hdvsplit would know what to use or
simply be blissfully unaware of the other format of timecode.
just anticipating here.

thanks again for your wonderful work and help,
BabaG

[raymod2]

I tried using this tool to do simple captures (no scene splitting) with my Sony HDR-HC3. It worked great. Can this tool also record the stream back onto the camera?

[Corben9]

Same question here !!! Is there a way or an app that easily writes m2t files back to the Tape.. I kinda got my workflow up to date with the new premeire and Avid Xpres HD and notices that Avid doesnt transcode everything like studip PPro every time *with quality loss* but just muxes the conform files together if u do a cut .. saves u HOURS of encoding AND keeps ur qulity just the way u like it ...Compositing can still be done in After Effects .. a little bit of info on the side for the people interested ...

Back to my question .. I tried Avid and Premier to get my new sequence back to the tape ... in Premiere over export to tape and in avid over export to HDV... I get an odd Flametrower blabla error in Avid and in Premiere when the recording phase starts it just records nothing .. blank ...

I tried recording back to the cam in DV and that works flaweleslly ... so my question is this ... is there a HDVSplit like tool that does the oposite aka. storing m2t files back on the Tape ... if anyone has played with this and found a solution for the HDR HC1E please help or can something like that be implemented in HVDSplit ???

[paviko]

Hello.
Sorry for so long silenece.
@BabaG
n this form it is limited
as it does not print or export this list. if we could export this
list we could use it, or edit it and then use it, in another app
that is batch capable.
The list can be copied by selecting whole text, using keys combination "Ctrl + C" (Copy) and then e.g. paste this to Notepad - "Ctrl + V" (Paste). It's a bit limited ;)

@raymod2 and @Corben9
Can this tool also record the stream back onto the camera?
HDVSplit can't record back onto camera. I'm planning to add this in free time, but for now I'm very busy :(
Don't know about any free tool that does that, but maybe there is some. It shouldn't be hard to transport stream back to tape.

Regards

[Backwoods]

I believe CapDVHS can. It would be nice if HDVSplit could also. Having it be a one in all app (also if it could do the step frame record, that would be nice...in due time).

[raymod2]

Any chance you could describe how to do this in CapDVHS? I downloaded that utility and installed it. I can capture (camera->PC) but I can't get it to play back (PC->camera).

[Backwoods]

The WrtDVHS tab I believe.

[raymod2]

I tried using that tab. It allows me to select a file and there are START and STOP buttons. I can press the START button but nothing happens. The STOP button is always greyed out.

[bobkart]

Hello Paviko, great program your HDVSplit is. Some questions/observations.

First, I think I detected a bug, or at least a misfeature. In the process of trying to transfer a tape with no dropped frames, I tried transferring to a file over the network, on another PC in the LAN. The transfer finished but the file did not end up on the other PC. In fact at the time I did not know where the file went. A few days later I noticed I had too much space being used on my hard drive for the files I had on it. It was over by 12GB, the size of one of these transferred HDV files. It said the Nethood folder in Documents and Settings/Robert had 12GB in it but all I could see there by browsing was a few folders that linked to Network Places. As part of my trying to track down this file I defragmented the drive, and it reported moving HDV-Tape2.m2t, the name of the file I tried to transfer across the network. But a search for such a file turned up no matches. Looking in those folders in Nethood just showed me the contents of folders on other PCs. Finally I went into a CMD shell and did a DIR /S and could see the errant file in one of the folders that link to another PC. I was then able to remove the file. Seems there is a target.lnk file in those folders that indicates that they are connected to other PCs. Writing a file in them is a pretty good way to hide the file, I could only see it through the use of a CMD shell. Maybe the fix is as simple as adding "don't do that" to the README file. Just thought I'd pass my experiences along.

The question would be along the lines of wondering if/when you might consider adding transfer capability in the other direction (PC->camcorder).

And thanks for helping the video community with this great application. Keep up the good work!

[raymod2]

@paviko: Have you had any free time to add the copy back to tape feature? I have some hidef footage that I need to dub to another tape but I only have one camera.

[jmac698]

In the wrtdvhs tab of dvhs, pick the file, hit start, but then hit record on your DV device. This may do it. It's the way some other programs worked.

There's many ways to read time codes, for example dvbdump from www.dvbportal.de , it can extract a lot of info a text file.
You could also put it in SD mode, and try to get the timecodes from the DV copy, and assume they match up to the HDV copy.

For the waveform monitor, that is quite easy. Pick a line, then draw a graph of the Y values of each pixel. Make sure to request a YUV mode from directshow. A vectorscope is a little bit harder but the scope plugin for avisynth has source. Isn't there also a way to use avs plugins in ffdshow in realtime? If so it's just a matter of configuring ffdshow.
(If you have decoded RGB, add them in this way: Y=r*0.2125+g*0.7154+b*0.0721)

[raymod2]

@paviko:

Will you release the source code to HDVSplit? I am interested in adding the copy-back-to-tape feature myself.

[paviko]

I tried transferring to a file over the network, on another PC in the LAN
Thanks for pointing this out.

Will you release the source code to HDVSplit? I am interested in adding the copy-back-to-tape feature myself.Probably the source code won't be available soon. I haven't yet tried writing copy back to tape function.

Regards

[valli]

Can I ask when will be released new version ?
It will be very useful a "split now " button or a button to split m2t file in n parts

[paviko]

If everything goes well, new version should be at the New Year party. "Split now" probably yes ;)

[JeffreyLiou]

Can't wait for the new version for the Canon XH-A1 support:D

[stevemc]

Can't wait for the new version for the Canon XH-A1 support:D

Is it true that Canon support is expected in the next release? I have a Canon HV10 and I'd really love to see that. I have been looking far and wide for a utility to capture scenes with time code file naming.

[x42x42]

While Paviko is busy with the next version of HDVSplit (that hopefully will have native Canon splitting support) I created an interim solution for the HV-10.

Attached is a patch that will modify HDVSplit 0.75 to split HV-10 streams (direct capture or MPEG transport file) correctly.

To apply the patch:


Download the attached ZIP (HV10Split_patch.zip)
Unzip the contained patch application (HV10Split_Patch.exe) to a directory
Place the original HDVSplit.exe (version 0.75) into the same directory
Run the patch application, preferably from the command line so you can see if the patch was successful


If everything went ok there will be a new executeable called HV10Split.exe in the directory holding the patcher and the original HDVSplit.exe. The new executeable is just like the original one except it handles splitting HV-10 (and maybe other Canon) input correctly.

Note that the patched application only works with the HV-10 and not with the Sonys anymore. For Sony use the original HDVSplit.exe that does not get modified by the patch process.

Enjoy!
King Sabo

[stevemc]

Awesome!! Thank you very much. As soon as this attachment is approved I'll try this out and let you know how it goes.

[x42x42]

I also made the HV-10 patch available on RapidShare:

http://rapidshare.com/files/20563162/HV10Split_Patch.zip

King Sabo

[stevemc]

I also made the HV-10 patch available on RapidShare:

http://rapidshare.com/files/20563162/HV10Split_Patch.zip

King Sabo
I've tested the patch and it is working well. Successfully able to capture scenes to separate files. Does not appear to be any overlap or other issues with the clips captured and the files are correctly date stamped.

Thanks very much!! This is awesome.

Steve

[paviko]

Hello,

I'm sorry for being so long quite. I'm very busy at work and very tired (working at weekends :( ). There is no progress on new HDVSplit, so I'm releasing beta version that was available for several months now. Users that tested it say it worked ;).

HDVSplit 0.77 Beta
- Vista support,
- all HDV camcorders support (Canon, Sony, JVC)

HDVSplit 0.77 Beta download link (http://strony.aster.pl/paviko/HDVSplit.0.77StaticBeta.zip)

Regards

[raymod2]

Does the new version support writing back to tape? If not my offer still stands to do the work if you release the source code.

[jbeale]

Hi Paviko,

Many thanks for releasing what you have now, I'm sure many people appreciate it. My condolences on the rough work situation; I hope you are able to get some well-deserved rest some times!

If you have any free time for more work on HDVSplit I would really love to see split-by-time. That is, when making a live recording to disk, an option to start a new file after a fixed interval like 60 minutes. That way I can record a long show with my laptop and back up to tape later with 60 minute tapes. Otherwise I have to manually split and re-render the whole HDV file in parts, which is a huge time sink.

Thanks again!
John Beale
www.bealecorner.com

[Richard Iredale]

I began having some issues with HDVsplit 0.75. It has always worked great with my FX1 camera, but with the HC3 camera I bought a few months back it would often stop and mention that there were dropped frames, when in fact the video played fine on the viewfinder.

Today I had a chance to work on the issue a bit further. A clip that would capture fine with the FX1 would give dropped frames with the HC3. Furthermore, that same clip in the HC3 would capture fine with the Vegas capture utility, so it wasn't the fault of the HC3.

On a whim, I downloaded the 0.77 version, and to my surprise it works perfectly with both cameras. So I guess there's more to capture from various cameras than meets the eye.

I will post this same message over on the other board. It would be nice to have just one place for discussion rather than two...

[BassPig]

I have a Sony HVR-V1U on it's way to me from California. I've just downloaded your utility and found my way to this discussion as a result. I will try out this utility when I shoot my first footage on the V1U and give you my report on how it went. Thanks for applying your skills to produce a needed utility.

[Andrew Wahlquist]

Paviko,

Before I ask a request, I want to laud you with praise first. The freeware spirit of the internet always amazes me, and you are doing an amazing service to a lot of us by creating this program in your spare time with only internet glory to be gained. So thank you for your time and effort. (Sometimes it seems like requests become pushy as if people are paying customers.)

My feature request is very simple, as I've used HDV split several times as a live mpeg stream capture tool from my JVC HD-100. The program with a laptop essentially becomes your own hard disk recorder without having to deal with the Focus Enhancements direct-to-disk recorders. Extremely useful when recording long programs that are longer than an hour's tape length.

Is there any way to detect the "record" button over the firewire when it's fired on the camera? I believe that transport controls go both ways over firewire, so that when you press record on the camera, it alerts whatever device is connected on the FW. If you could detect this event and perform a start/stop on HDV's own record function, that would be amazing. (then do a quick file name increment, which I think it already does)

The application would be that you could throw a laptop running HDVSplit in a backpack, connect it to your shoulder-camera via FW, then have your own Hard disk recorder on the go. cool :)

Thanks again!
Andrew

[texmex99]

Paviko,
How much horsepower (CPU/RAM) is necessary to do simple live capture? I'm wondering if it would be possible to perform live capture on a WinCE 4.2 device (w/ external drive). I'm pretty sure there would be driver issues with WinCE (firewire, camcorder and DVHS drivers), but if those issues could be overcome, do you think a 400MHz XScale/128MB RAM WinCE device would be capable of "live capture" (basically dumping HDV to disk)? Obviously preview is out of the question. If it is enough horsepower, I think there would be a lot of interest in an "HDVSplit Lite" (live capture only) as a tool to "build" an affordable "direct to disk" solution using an ultra-portable handheld PC. The app would obviously need to be slimmed down and ported, but if you'd be willing to share the source, I'd be willing to do the work. Thoughts?

[CruNcher]

Jep a freeware app (like the commercial DVrack HD, now Adobe Onlocation) for Direct HD/HDV stream-recording would be cool and i know nothing better then HDsplit that could become that (Not in terms of Vectorscope stuff and that, even if their is the possibility to implement that via ffdshow for example) and to be sure that nothing gets damaged you record on both HD/TAPE.
texmex99 i think even less than that would be enough if you use a good active HDD/USB2 controller, but im not sure if PocketPC have those implemented it could allready work if the Transport Stream is fast enough saved on such a pocketpc so at least 25 MB/s and ofcourse a Firewire Port Firewire 400 would be allready enough, but the question remains how to get the Sony Firmware to tunnel the Stream directly to the Firewire Port on recording and another thing would be how much Power would this consume with a 180 GB 2.5 HDD it could very well hold up for arround 30 minutes i guess (outdoor recording) ;), but such devices aren't really needed anymore seing that alot more manufactures like Sony allready building HD Cams with integrated HDD's, where everything of the above is integrated in the CAM itself and with very low power consumption components, but sure for those with older non HDD recording CAM's those things are nice addons.

[John72]

Just started using HDVsplit and it's a real joy!

I have a question though, In order to keep a nice clean image, I try never to pan or zoom during HD capture. I simply press pause, reposition or zoom, then unpause. So, when I capture, I get a lot of scene change detections resulting in new-new-new files that should really be one scene.

Is there a way to tell HDVSplit not to split if the scenes are less than, say, 5 seconds apart?

Secondly, is there an easy (freeware) way to join several new-new m2t files together? (Can I just do a file join maybe or does that cause problems later?)

[ronnylov]

I wonder if it is possible to transfer HDV files back to tape on the camcorder with HDVSplit? It works great for transfering from camera to PC but I have not found any option for the opposite direction.

[Ninno]

Hi, the program don't work with canon HV20...

Don't recognize the time code...

Please Help me.:helpful:

[raymod2]

I wonder if it is possible to transfer HDV files back to tape on the camcorder with HDVSplit? It works great for transfering from camera to PC but I have not found any option for the opposite direction.

We've been asking for this simple feature for over a year now. I even offered to make the changes myself but the author is unwilling to release the source code.

[SurFan]

Hi,

Hi, the program don't work with canon HV20...
Don't recognize the time code...


no problem here with my hv20 (european PAL model). Is the firewire output format set to HDV?
Is the camera recognized by windows (what version)?

Ralph

[Ninno]

The camera is european pal, is recognized from windows xp.
The program working.
The scenes split options dont'work.

[CAFxX]

Paviko, is there any chance to have the source released? 9 months are already passed from the last release, and nothing seems to be moving.
Being a hobbyist developer myself I know perfectly well that sometimes you simply don't want to release the sources of something you wrote. Still, this tool is way too useful to be abandoned... and if you're not willing to work on it anymore (whatever the cause) PLEASE, release the source code. There's plenty of people out there that may continue where you left off.

CAFxX,
thankful user of HDVSplit

[jabloomf1230]

Well if you can get the source code and want to keep working on it, one idea that I had that would be helpful when using "semi-automatic" camcorders like the Canon HV20, would be to have an option to display the HDV stream's metadata (gain, exposure, white balance, shutter speed, etc.) during capture.

[2Bdecided]

It would be nice if the issue between HDVsplit and Sony Vegas could be solved.

I'm not sure whether HDVsplit or Sony Vegas is at fault, but many people report that Sony Vegas crashes with .m2t files from HDVsplit.

Cheers,
David.

[Richard Iredale]

It could be that this is as far as this program goes. For a freeware effort, I applaud the author's efforts, and can understand that now he is called to other activities. Perhaps he could release the source code so that others could extend the program's utility, but it's his choice.

As for Vegas, I don't know of any issues working with HDVSplit and Vegas 7d. Vegas8 seems to have some teething pains and I don't know if there are compatibility issues there, but the short time I tried V8 the captures appeared to work also. Could you elaborate?

[2Bdecided]

I read about it here:

http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=6267

I haven't tried it myself. It's put me off buying Vegas.

Cheers,
David.

[Richard Iredale]

I think the message I took away from that board is that HDVSplit works fine for most people using an HV20 and Vegas. I do seem to remember reading about some issues around capturing video from the HV20, but that was with version .75. I vaguely recall that this is one of the reasons behind version .77. Could be wrong.

[Dennis Vogel]

First, thanks to Paviko for providing such a useful program for free.

I'm having trouble capturing video with scene split. I can capture without scene split with no problems. But when I check scene split, my cam runs for a few frames or maybe a second or two then I get the message

Capture started.
INFO: No more data is received from camcorder. Capture stopped.

No video is captured. I tried stopping and restarting the capture from the same point on the tape and the sequence just repeats. One time the program crashed but I can't get that to happen again. It detects my cam just fine but it won't capture and split scenes when that option is selected.

I have a Canon HV20 and I'm running Windows XP SP2 on a Pentium 4 3.4 GHz with HT. I also have Sony Vegas installed and I can capture HDV with Vegas with no problems. I understand there might be some problem with Vegas accepting HDVsplit files but I'm wondering if there is some other conflict between the two that might be involved here.

I've also seen mention of a Canon slow startup issue that causes a timeout. Could that be the source of my problems?

Anyone have any suggestions on how to figure this out? I really like the simplicity of HDVsplit especially the option to name files with a time/date value.

Good luck.

Dennis

[Richard Iredale]

Dennis, all I can see on the Vegas board is that there is sometimes a conflict between the particular firewire chip Canon uses in the HV20 and certain firewire cards used in PCs. You might try installing a different firewire card in an empty PCI slot in your PC and try it out. Such cards are cheap.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=524391

[Dennis Vogel]

That thread reports (among other things) people having problems getting Vegas to capture but HDVSplit works for them. I have the opposite problem.

Most of those posts are old reporting problems with Vegas 6 and 7. It appears Vegas Pro 8 has been improved so the capture works fine with the HV20.

To some degree it's now moot since I no longer have the HV20. I'd still like to know if anyone else has HDVSplit working with the HV20 on a machine with Vegas installed just in case.

Good luck.

Dennis

[nhope]

HDVSplit is working fine on my Q6600/XP x64 desktop and I can preview at full frame with no problems.

I have no idea which MPEG2 codec it is using. I ran the Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DE1491AC-0AB6-4990-943D-627E6ADE9FCB&displaylang=en) and it reports installed MPEG-2 decoders to be MainConcept MPEG Video Decoder, Nero Video Decoder and Nero DVD Decoder:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/bubblevision/MPEG-2-codecs.png

Is there a way to find out which codec is being used by the HDVSplit preview?

However on my Dell Precision M6300/T7800 laptop HDVSplit was reporting no MPEG2 codec found so I ran the checkup utility and it shows the same codecs installed as my desktop plus the Cyberlink decoder that came with the bundled PowerDVD.

Why would preview work on the desktop but not on the laptop if it has the same codecs?

So I installed and set up ffdshow on the laptop exactly as Paviko recommends on his site (http://strony.aster.pl/paviko/hdvsplit.htm). It does now show a preview but now HDVSplit crashes regularly no matter how small the preview window size.

Paviko says on sonyhdvinfo.com (http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/showthread.php?t=3728&page=4&pp=10) ...

HDVSplit need decoder that is able to work in "push mode", which means the decoder wait for data from camcorder and decoder is not reading it when it wants but when camcorder says "read new data" Not all MPEG2 decoders include this mode. I've tried MainConcept and ffdshow - they work..

This raises the question why the MainConcept decoder (that presumably came with my Sony Vegas) is not being used. A different version of the MainConcept decoder perhaps?

In the next reply "Penguin" reports that the $20 nVidia PureVideo Decoder works. I'm happy to spend that if I know it will do the trick, but first I want to work out why I'm getting preview on the desktop but not the laptop.

I really need to try and get it working because my potential customers watch my rushes as they are captured to disk and the camera's flip out screen is just too small for this. Before I got this fast laptop I was capturing from my Z1 in DV so a nice large Sclive preview worked well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[nhope]

Well, it's been one of those days but I've finally cracked it.

I tried the trial version of Nvidia PureVideo and although it did get detected by HDVSplit and the preview did look very nice, I still got crashes like I got with ffdshow.

I finally noticed that the MainConcept MPEG Video Decoder version on my new (crashing) laptop was only at 1.0.0.38, with its mcdmpeg.ax sitting in C:\WINDOWS\system32\, whereas on my older (non-crashing) desktop it was at version 1.0.0.73 and sitting in C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\Shared Plug-Ins\File Formats\MCMPEG\ (note the (x86) partt is because I'm running XP x64).

The newer version of the MainConcept codec must have come with an older version of a Sony program such as Vegas 7 or DVDA 3 which are still installed on the desktop because I only have the latest Vegas Pro 8 and DVDA 4.5 both installed on the laptop and no mcdmpeg.ax codec in the Sony folders.

So I unregistered then renamed the older codec on the laptop, pinched the newer version from the desktop, copied it to and registered it on the laptop and hey presto I've got a stable full frame preview in HDVSplit :)

Whether the files are error-free in the long run when captured with a full frame preview remains to be seen however.

[bondaygee]

Hey I love HDV Split!! What great program!! And it's free!!
Not only that the video stays in synch when i render it!!
That's great!

I got a question though:

when I'm using AFX, sometimes the clips don't import properly. Sometimes i get the "media pending" dialogue screen and the video doesn't come out. This is like 50% of the time. Usually rebooting or something seems to fix it.

Any suggestions here!!

thanks

[peterp]

HDVSplit, Canon HV20 and Vegas 7/8

I have no problems using HDVSplit together with the Canon HV20, but Vegas 7 and 8 do crash when placing 40 to 50 clips on the timeline. There are no problems with M2T files that are captured using the Vegas Capture tool.

The problem seems to be related to the 'sync' feature in HDVSplit. Apparently, this produces somewhat differently formatted M2T files, which the decoder filter used by Vegas does not like. I have tested this by capturing a large file (no scene detection) with Vegas Capture, and then splitting the scenes with HDVSplit (file split feature on second tab) with the sync feature disabled. This works fine. This way, I still get my timestamp-named-files, which I like a lot.

Peter

[2Bdecided]

That's interesting. I left the sync feature on, because it was on by default, and I didn't know if there would be a time when I _needed_ the audio and video to be forced into synchronisation.

What happens if you capture in HDVsplit with splitting on but sync off? Or capture in HDVsplit with splitting and sync off, but then split in HDVsplit with sync off (or on?).

Just trying to understand - it sounds like maybe you have tried all the experiments that I'm about to!

Cheers,
David.

[peterp]

Hi David,

I'm not quite sure about the sync feature. I don't believe it is documented very extensively. I do see a difference in the resulting files. With sync-on, video and audio ends at the same time. With sync-off, audio is muted before the end of the clip. Often, the clip ends with the first frame of the following scene. This is all with the Canon HV20 and I believe that the missing audio is directly related to the camera hardware. (Easy to check by capturing with Vegas with no scene detection. That will probably result in the same amount of garbage frames in between scenes.)

Based on the resulting files, I think the sync feature makes sure that video and audio stop at the same time. Looks somewhat nicer on the timeline initially, but editing usually involves taking away frames on both the beginning and the end.

I assume that the fact that video is manipulated (frames removed, GOP is shortened) results in the crash in the Vegas MPEG-2 filter. Instead of crashing, it should gracefully reject the M2T files...

Peter

[colinb]

It might be interesting to look at a clip that was produced by Vegas scene detection. It would have to be a complete scene clip file (not trimmed afterward), and it would have to be a very short scene to give a reasonable file size for downloading. Anyone know if there are any such sample files downloadable from anywhere?

[Leek]

First, thanks to Paviko for providing such a useful program for free.

I'm having trouble capturing video with scene split. I can capture without scene split with no problems. But when I check scene split, my cam runs for a few frames or maybe a second or two then I get the message

Capture started.
INFO: No more data is received from camcorder. Capture stopped.

No video is captured. I tried stopping and restarting the capture from the same point on the tape and the sequence just repeats. One time the program crashed but I can't get that to happen again. It detects my cam just fine but it won't capture and split scenes when that option is selected.

I have a Canon HV20 and I'm running Windows XP SP2 on a Pentium 4 3.4 GHz with HT. I also have Sony Vegas installed and I can capture HDV with Vegas with no problems. I understand there might be some problem with Vegas accepting HDVsplit files but I'm wondering if there is some other conflict between the two that might be involved here.

I've also seen mention of a Canon slow startup issue that causes a timeout. Could that be the source of my problems?

Anyone have any suggestions on how to figure this out? I really like the simplicity of HDVsplit especially the option to name files with a time/date value.

Good luck.

Dennis
Hi Dennis
Same thing happened to me, also with HV20.....but when I unchecked the preview button, I had no further problems. One thing to qualify that - this solution worked only when HDVsplit was re-opened from a fresh boot up of PC. When HDVsplit failed to capture, no changes tried in same session seemed to work.
Leek

[Dennis Vogel]

Leek, unfortunately I no longer have my HV20 so I cannot try to uncheck the preview. I'm glad it worked for you. If I ever get another HV20 or 30, I'll be sure to try it.

Good luck.

Dennis

[Zap250]

Just tried the latest HDVSplit v0.7.7 with my new Canon HV30 and it does an excellent job of capturing the high definition stream. I haven't encountered problems with the preview or the splitting. Except sometimes when it just starts out it gives that error message, when that happens I just stop and start again and it captures with no problems from then on.

Great job on an excellent software - and it's free too! :thanks:

Hmm, I wonder why it's still in beta after all this time...

[alladinboy]

Do anybody have Paviko's Email? I am looking for HDVSplit source code. I use HDVSplit with HV30 - it is great! Even though I will make some improvements. My Email: Alladinboy2@azet.sk.

Many thanks!

Martin

[weaker]

I just want to say thanks to Paviko for providing HDVSplit for free! It's great.

[lionel.75]

Hi everybody,

I try from several days to use HDVSplit with my Canon XH-A1. But HDVSplit doen't want to recognise this camcorder. Do you know if there is a solution to numerise my HDV K7 on my computer ?

Thanks a lot for your help and have a nice evening.

Lionel.75

[SenorKaffee]

I remember faintly reading that HDV cams have an audio delay of one frame. That was some years ago, so I'm not sure if this is correct at all.

But maybe this option fixes that? :confused:

[Undead Sega]

Hi everyone, sorry if I am bringing up something old but I would like to say that I started using HDVSplit a few months ago and I think it is fantastic, really helps on those scenes splits and capturing HDV with minimal CPU usage. However I would like to ask something quite crucial, that is HDVSplit be able to capture footage and able to split them in accordance to its metadata, is it able to do it vice-versa? meaning can one record footage back into the tape but retaining its splitscene information and everything else i.e. the metadata itself?

[2Bdecided]

Does HDVsplit print to tape? I've never noticed that.

Several NLEs do. Edius preserves the time stamps - not sure if Vegas does.

Cheers,
David.

[Undead Sega]

You are right, HDVsplit doesnt print to tape however its function of capturing to tape in accordance to it timecode or metadata is importantant and I was wondering if there is any application that is able to capture each recorded shot accompanied with its metadata and put it back to tape with all its information intact?

[2Bdecided]

I've asked this question before...
http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?2996-Free-stand-alone-program-for-printing-HDV-back-to-tape
...but I didn't try GraphEdit or CapDVHS for this.

I realised that, while I originally thought I wanted to print back to tape, in fact, I didn't. What I really needed was to buy a few 1TB HDDs. So I did!

Cheers,
David.

[Undead Sega]

ohhh right, I am on the HV30 forums as well but under a different username :D After reading it, I am not sure if even I got an answer there, I might just bring it up ;) however i dont understand this:

Digital Video Dubbing through the Firewire (P70 User Manual)

any idea perhaps? Also, I am not entirely sure of CapDVHS, is it able to do exactly what you're asking for?

Either way, would you know how to output back to tape with the metadata? Btw, there is no problem is having the tapes being the main backup, sometimes they work better than just having them on a hard drive :D

[um3k]

I gave a brief walkthrough on how to use CapDVHS ages ago on the HV20 forums: http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?6108-FOUND-Free-software-to-output-video-back-to-tape&highlight=capdvhs

On a side note, I've never actually had the need to print back to tape. I just like finding solutions to imaginary problems, I guess.

[Undead Sega]

Ahhh yes um3k, I remember you too on HV20.com, so great to see familiar people around here :D

With the link you have provided, I believe I have came across it not too long ago myself, however even with some research done on the same topic alot of people do mention these two tools. I would like to ask, the HDV files are M2T files, in each of these individual files which are captured and seperated by HDVSplit, is the metadata embedded in the files themselves? or as a seperate and hidden file within the tape inwhich the application would read the timecode and know where each shot starts and ends?

By any chance if its the former, if one was use CapDVHS, would it retain the metadata exactly (more or less putting the file onto tape), therefore if one was to capture again it would know how to split the file?

[2Bdecided]

The m2t files are MPEG-2 transport streams. They contain all the data that was on the tape - audio, video, metadata.

HDVsplit uses the date metadata to generate the file names, but it's still there within the files themselves.

If I was you, I'd go and experiment myself!

This tool might help...
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/HDV_Data_Monitor

Cheers,
David.

[Undead Sega]

Indeed I will have a go :D

However now I would like to ask, by some serious mishap on some recordings the Timecode got broken. Is there by any chance or way to repair the broken Timecode or make it continous throughout the tape but keeping the rest of the metadata untouched?

[adrien23]

I have the Canon Vixia HV40 high definition tape-based camcorder and have no problem having HDVSplit recognize my camcorder. The capture also works without issue.

However, when I look at the timecode of the outputted files, the numbers do not make any sense.

I am using the "Date and time" option with the following format:

-%Y_%M_%D-%h_%m_%s


I am capturing a tape and the file name hour posiition starts at 16, rather than 0. The minutes and seconds don't seem to correspond at all to the actual time code (and the program itself was fine in terms of detecting my camera and being able to capture and rewind, etc.)

Did you have this problem?

DavidPsychiatristPilot-2011_05_14-16_16_33

The date is fine; but the hour is at 16 when it should be zero. The minutes is already up to 16 minutes when it's only a few minutes in.

Even if I ignore the 16 mark, the rest of the timecode doesn't make sense so there's no adjustment I can do (eg. set it back 6 minutes and then it's correct) for it to make sense.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you!

[um3k]

The time HDVSplit uses is the time of day the footage was shot, assuming the time is set correctly in-camera.

[adrien23]

@um3k

Oh I see. Okay, I was thinking it would use the timecode of the tape, which would be very convenient because then if you've logged footage on paper, you could refer to split clips depending on the timecode. I hope that's eventually an option!

Thanks for the clarification!

[2Bdecided]

@um3k

Oh I see. Okay, I was thinking it would use the timecode of the tape, which would be very convenient because then if you've logged footage on paper, you could refer to split clips depending on the timecode. I hope that's eventually an option!I wouldn't have thought so - HDVsplit hasn't been updated in years.

You could write down the time, rather than the timecode, on your piece of paper ;)

Cheers,
David.

[CAFxX]

I wouldn't have thought so - HDVsplit hasn't been updated in years.
It could be an option if the author released the sources... unfortunately he never replied to my mails.

[Yellow_]

Not an ideal solution for Windows users necessarily, but dvgrab (Open Source CLI) will write timecode and or time of day into the file name when it grabs, also autosplits, supports avi Type 1 and 2 and OpenDML. Captures DV and HDV.

It's Linux only BUT I wasted 2 hours trying to get HDVSplit to work on 64bit Windows 7 the other day and gave up, no problem detecting the camera in Windows itself just wouldn't detect and capture in HDVSplit.

So booted up a Ubuntu Natty Narwal Live CD, changed the Repositories to Multiverse in Synaptic, installed DV Grab through Synaptic, check commandline ops with dvgrab --help and I was away capturing within 15minutes, writing the files to the Windows formatted ntfs drive. Captured loads of tapes through the day, rebooted and played them all through in Windows Media Player after, no problem with compatibility.

Thought I'd just mention it in case any one has similar problems.

[caisersousa]

Paviko, any chance of HDVSplit being able to capture one frame at a time from cameras? For stop motion purposes. Such as, each time you click a button a frame will be recorded. Thanks.

I know that this project isn't updated for a long time but someone know how I can capture a single frame (in .tiff for example) every time I click a button?

Software like StopMotion Pro or Dragon Frame do this but too slowly (2 or 3 seconds pass between two consecutive acquires). I need to acquire still image at a frequency not below 5 fps.

:thanks:

[Gargamel]

Maybe CaptureFlux, by Paul Glagla ?
It has a image by image mode, when you click on a "Grab!" button, or through an intervalometer...
But in the DV world only.

http://paul.glagla.free.fr/captureflux_en.htm

[caisersousa]

Thanks Garagamel. Unfortunately captureFlux works only for DV :(