Can a vcr be hooked up to a Mac mini or do you have to have a converter?

Question

To get VCR taped footage into iMovie or onto a Mac PC, do you have to have a converter or can you get a cable or wire that would connect the vcr to the apple PC?

Answer 1

Hi
My notes on this
Analog to Mac/Digital
From
• S-VHS, VHS, VHS-C - Camera or VCR (VHS-C needs adaptor cassette - SVHS/VCR in such cases)
• Video 8, Hi8 ...........................................( Camera / Digital8 Camera or special VCR-player )
Can be done via
• Camera and tape or video trough (if present) (miniDV or Digital8)
• A/D-box
    Several brands (Must be FireWire)
        Canopus ADVC-55 (now Grass Valley ADVC-55) - (only on way)
        Canopus ADVC-110 (now Grass Valley ADVC-110) - (two ways)
        Canopus ADVC-300 (now Grass Valley ADVC-300) - (Timebase/code-correction) (I have and love this one)
        EyeTV
• VCR --> DVD (result needs conversion to be of use)
Captured/Imported by
• iMovie 1 to HD6
• iMovie’08 & 09 & 11 (can not handle interlaced video for DVD - result in lost quality)
• FinalCut Express or Pro
• QuickTime Pro
• iDVD
SCART - Must use an SCART-adaptor with in and out switch. The one that came with Camera is one way. Camera ----> VCR/TV - not other way around.
RCA - Connect right way around
USING the S-Video out than RGB-video (Composite) from SCART will give a significantly better result !
Why
• Want to do a  DVDs
• Want to edit
Connect VCR to A/D-box via SCART---RCA (EU) or via RCA---RCA (US) and set SCART switch to out (if used). The A/D-box may have an in resp. out side. Connect to in-side. Set A/D-box Input selector to Analog in.
My ADVC-300 has two sets of dip-switches on bottom - for PAL they are set to
Left one number 6 is set to on - all others in off state.
If 6 in off state then it is NTSC
From A/D-box via FireWire 6-pin to 6-pin or 9-pin end to Mac FW port.
Now turn A/D-box or Camera ON
Start iMovie or QT or FinalCut
Select Import or Capture
Re-wind tape in VCR or Camera
Start - Play on VCR or Camera
Import or Capture Now
See that the saved movie is collected on a hard disk with sufficient space
1 hour needs 13.5Gb
8 hour needs 105-110Gb (e.g. a 240VHS tape recorded in LP-mode)
How to store the material
• As is - Icon with a Star on it (iMovie HD6)
• As a set of DVDs
• Collected in a folder - FinalCuts Scratch folders + Movie document on an external/second hard disk
• As DiskImages
• Back to miniDV tapes
Do not use LP-mode with miniDV tapes. Two major problems.
a. When Camera dies - so does the tapes - Can’t be play-backed securely on other Camera even if
brand and type number is the same - the tolerances are to small
b. Audio goes out of sync due to 12-bit recording and/or drop outs in video makes video and audio
not walk in pace / parallel. Resulting in a very tough re-sync problem.
Yours Bengt W