Connecting Sony Z-1 (SONY HVRZ1E) to AVID or any other system

Sony HVR-Z1E (HVRZ1E) (or just Sony Z-1) is an old camcoder which was kind of popular some time ago. I haven't expected I'm going to capture from it again but it happened. And my Avid didn't want to see it at all. I searched the internet how to understand if the camera is connected but with no result. In my case it was bad cable. Here are some tips how to understand if Sony Z-1 is properly connected to your computer.



If camera is connected you should see "'HDV/DV in" on the screen:

Subtitles in Avid - How to prepare and import

Step 1. Create subtitles. For me the best soft to create subtitles is Subtitle Workshop, v. 2.51 or the new one: v.6 (you could find it on Sound Forge here). It is easy to use and has many export options. After creating subtitle file, export it is as SubRip (.srt extenstion). Subtitle Workshop can't export the format Avid needs. 

AVCHD workflow for Final Cut Pro 7

As you know Final Cut Pro 7 doesn’t support AVCHD/MTS files natively.  There are few ways to get them in Final Cut Pro 7.

1.     With Log and Transfer tool in FCP

IMPORTANT: You should keep SD card folder structure to be able to import files.  You should copy and keep all folders from your card or camera, not only folders with .MTS files.  That is how file structure looks in Sony cameras:

Short tip: graphic files for DVD Studio Pro

DVD Studio Pro unfortunately doesn't have any positioning or sizing controls for images. So all images should be properly in created before they are imported in DVD Studio Pro.

Right dimensions for the full screen images (like backgrounds or slideshows):
PAL SD: 768 x 576, resolution 72 pixels
NTSC SD: 720 x 534, resolution 72 pixels

Important! The size is different then we're used to. Normal PAL dimensions are720 x 576, but because video uses rectangular pixels images has to have the size mentioned a
bove.