Expert: Alessandro Machi - 10/2/2007

Question
Can I go straight from a beta Cam Sp deck to a hard drive?
I'm told I need some kind of converter box?
If so does this box have a name?
 If the transfer is possible will the time code shift at all or is there a way to lock it down so to speak?
 Thank you

Answer
Plextor makes a device that will transcode the S-Video output port of a betacam sp machine into a myriad of digital files for importing into a computer.  I plan on trying out this method in the very near future.  The device is called a ConvertX. If you decided to get one, you must specify whether it's for a Mac or a Windows system you will be using.

High End Avid NLE systems have been the industry standard for digitizing betacam sp tapes in the non linear world since the mid 90's.  Once the Kona Card and the Black Magic card were created a few years back it meant that Final Cut Pro could also input component video signals from a betacam sp tape.

If you decide to use a Kona or Black Magic card I recommend using the DVC Pro 50 codec when digitizing a component signal as it is better than DV 25 yet takes up significantly less memory than doing either 8 bit or 10 bit uncompressed codec.  If you have the hard drive space and all of the software in your NLE system supports 8 bit or 10 bit uncompressed, you can also transfer in that codec as well.  I recommend experimenting with 8 bit or 10 bit uncompressed codec on a short project first before assuming it will work on your potentially longer and more meaningful project.

Time code has always been my biggest complaint about FCP and virtually all Non Linear systems.  I am by no means well versed in FCP at this point in time but until FCP can handle time-code the way a Betacam sp recorder can handle time-code, I find it falls short of delivering what is really necessary. The "external time code in" function which allows one to transfer betacam sp from one betacam sp deck to another betacam sp deck while preserving the identical time code even if the time code has breaks in it is a feature that is desperately needed on FCP. I don't know if it is yet available.

I have yet to have someone say that an external time-code signal can be jam sync'd into FCP, and that is what one MUST have if they want to have identical time code in FCP that already exists on the original betacam sp source tape.

What I consider to be an inferior "solution" but one that the top minds and experts in the DV field have long claimed (and erroneously I might add) was the best method was to copy the betacam sp tapes to DV-CAM or mini-dv and then load that into FCP. lol, it wasn't the best method, it was actually the only method for those using FCP.  DV25 is nowhere near as good a quality codec as DVC-Pro 50 so that bit of popular advice was simply a way to justify the inadequacy of how the lower cost non-linear editing world was handling the issue of matching existing videotape time-code to the newly created non-linear time code.

As a videotape editor I can attest that it is foolish to do serious editing that in no way can be matched up to the original master material UNLESS it is 100 percent certain the original material will NEVER be accessed again as source material.