Setting Up Your Hardware

Hardware setup involves three discrete actions: getting connected to your camera or deck, getting the camera or deck ready, and getting your computer ready.

To set up your hardware

1.	Connect your camera or deck to the computer. For more information on DV capture, see Chapter 3; for more information on analog capture, see Chapter 4.
2.	Make sure the camera or deck is in VTR, VCR, or Play mode.
3.	If the camcorder has an LCD display, open the LCD and use the camcorder controls to display all tape location and recording/playback information (if available). Sony camcorders usually have a Display button that reveals this information.
4.	If the camera or deck has an Input/ Output selector, select Input. I haven't seen this in a while, but my venerable Sony Hi-8 CCD-TR81 had an Input/Output switch that needed to be set before writing to tape.
5.	If there is no LCD, or you're writing to a stand-alone deck, connect a television or other analog monitor to the camera or deck. The only way to be sure you're actually writing to tape is to see the video in the camera or deck. If you don't have an LCD or TV you can connect, you should be able to track progress in the viewfinder.
6.	Check the time codes of the tape in the deck to make sure you have sufficient space for your production.
7.	Check that any copy-protection features on the tape are disabled. Most DV tapes have a copy-protection tab on the back panel, a great way to make sure you don't overwrite your valuable video. In my tests, Studio didn't detect that copy protection was enabled and played the video out to the DV camera anyway. No harm was done, as the camera didn't overwrite the video, but nothing got recorded either.
8.	Close all extraneous programs on your computer and don't perform any other tasks on the computer while writing to tape.

Tip

• Like capture, writing to tape is an extremely demanding process, and one slip can ruin the tape. Try not to touch the computer or camera over the course of this procedure.