Capturing Movies with a Sony HVR A1E

• Frank's thoughts on HDV
• Sony HVR-A2E Manual (p. 81, please note that the term i.LINK is Sony lingo for Firewire)
• Capturing with FCE 4 (Final Cut Express Version 4)
  • Camera: Switch to Play/Edit Mode
  • Camera: Touch P-MENU
  • Camera: Touch i.LINK CONV
  • Camera: Select OFF
  • Camera: Touch P-MENU
  • Camera: Touch VCR HDV/DV
  • Camera: Select AUTO
  • Connect Camera with Mac via FireWire cable
  • FCE 4: Click on "FCE" menu, click on "Easy Setup" menu item
  • FCE 4: Select HDV 1080i
  • FCE 4: Click on "File" menu, click on "Capture" ("Aufnahme") menu
  • Also see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7308522
  • Also see p. 233 of FCE 4 User Manual (http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Final_Cut_Express_4_User_Manual.pdf)
• Export as QuickTime "4:3 letterbox", whereas original sequence was 16:9 (also see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1385698&tstart=3395)
  • Assume movie was captured and edited with FCE 4 in 16:9 HDV
  • Click on "FCE" menu, click on "Easy Setup" menu item, select DV PAL in Europe (or DV NTSC in the US)
  • Create a new sequence (which should be now created as DV PAL (instead HDV)
  • Drag and Drop 16:9 (HDV) sequence into 4:3 (DV PAL) sequence (Drag 16:9 sequence from the browser window into the Canvas window, whereas open first the 4:3 sequence within the Canvas window)
  • IMPORTANT: Click "No" (otherwise one will end up again with a 16:9 sequence)
  • Click on "File" menu, click on "Export" menu item
  • Select QuickTime Conversion
  • Click Options and select size
  • Select some 4:3 size (for example VGA) and select the letterbox flag
  • wait ... (in order to test the above procedure you might want to set In and Out within your 4:3 sequence!)

Editing with AVID

• Quick Forward: 5
• Quick Backward: 6
• Beginning of Bin: a
• In: i
• Out: o
• Select In-Out as new Bin: F8
• Get original reference of Bin: F6