Converting analog hi8 tapes into FCE using canopus

I am trying to convert some old home movies (HI8) using a canopus converter (ADVC110). When I play the move clip back in FCE - the image is very blurred/distorted. Am I doing something wrong, or is this to be expected given the tape format and converter I'm using?

Welcome to the forum.
Here are some things to check. The video should not be "very blurred/distorted".
Does the video look sharp when you connect your Hi8 camera directly to your TV? (Check this because the problem could be degraded tapes.)
Are you using good quality cables that are in good condition? Both from your camera to the ADVC and the ADVC to your Mac.
What are the exact DIP switch settings on your ADVC? In North America, all the DIP switches should be OFF (except #2 which could be on if you want the ADVC to default to Analog-IN when you power up.) Note: only change the DIP switches when the ADVC is disconnected from power. And don't connect or disconnect the firewire cable unless both your ADVC and your Mac are disconnected from power (not just shut down).
What FCE Easy Setup are you using?
Have you used the ADVC before with good results? Or is this the first time you are using the ADVC? If so, did you get it new or used?

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You could look for an application that gives control of font for
printing.
You could use a text-to-PostScript system and distill the result. You
could even look for a non-Adobe text-to-PDF.
Working in the unsupported and dangerous world you chose, the font
size for text conversion is set (and this is very bad design from
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My current os x is 10.9.5, using final cut express vers. 4.0.1. I have imported .mov clips created with a older mac os x (lion) and converted them to import into fce. after doing this as well as putting clips on the fce timeline when playing back t.h

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Hi,
I am looking for advice on converting some Hi8mm analog video tapes to digital. They are not my tapes but I would still prefer to obtain a good quality transfer. I may do some editing on a few of them in PRE and would like to maintain the ability to edit them in the future.
At present, I've bought a Roxio easyVHStoDVD USB converter which states it can capture in DV-AVI format but doesn't actually appear able to do so. Results so far at capturing have been finicky at best but I'm still working on it but am wary because the format captured is not DV-AVI.
I've read several people here suggesting using an ADS Pyro A/D Firewire converter. Would that be a better, less troublesome route to go? And what other tips does anyone have in doing an A/D conversion?
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Paul

The workflow that you outline is good for archiving the material, but not so good for later editing that material. As Paul_LS states, a DVD-video will use MPEG-2 encoding. Material and quality will be forever lost. These DVD's are good for doing a backup of the material on tape, but the best quality will result from editing the Captured DV-AVI Type II material. Get an external HDD, instead, and copy those files over to it for later editing.
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Question about bringing Hi8 movies into FCE

I have many 8mm tapes dating back, 5-15 years. I would like to bring the footage into FCE and then brun them to DVD before I lose too much quality (we have watched them many times over the years).
I read that I would require a TBC device. I am not familiar with this device, or what it does, or how it works.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/TJ555LL/A
Can someone explain to me how I would connect this to my Imac and the process of using it to convert my old tapes?
Thank you
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If yours is a digital-8 camera, you can capture from the camera. If it's not, then you can't; the footage must be digitized by some device between your camera and your Mac. (If you have a dv camera, you could connect 8mm cam to dv cam, dub to dv, then capture from dv cam directly.) In any event, one hour of dv footage is about 13GB.
My suggestion is to look somewhere OTHER THAN an Apple store for a better price on the converter. Do an online search.

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I am a beginning FCE 4.0 user, who is extremely frustrated. The manual has not helped me at all.
I had been using iMovie HD 06 for some time with acceptable results. I have a tape with a lot of overexposed scenes that I was not able to fix in iMovie 06. I do not care for iMovie 8, since it is a step down from version 6, and is a much more limited program. So I thought I’d give FCE a try, since it has superior tools for color correction, brightness and contrast, etc.
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The second movie did not open correctly. After opening the project, the sort order of the clips in the browser is in icon view and is wrong. It starts with Clip 169 through Clip 202, and then continues with Clip 01 through Clip 168. Why?
However, when I choose “List View”, the arrange order is correct. When I then choose any of the icon views, and “Arrange by Name” I get the following screwed up sort order:
Clip 01 through 10, Clip 100 – 109, Clip 11, Clip 110 – 119, Clip 12, Clip 120 – 129, Clip 13, Clip 130 – 139, Clip 14, …… Clip 190 –199, Clip 20, Clip 200 – 202, Clip 21 – 99. Why is FCE opening one iMovie project seemingly correctly, but the second one incorrectly?
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Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi(Bonjour)!
+I can then run the command “Mark/DV Start/Stop Detect”, which will divide the clip into segments, but this still leaves me with just one clip in the browser. I can then cut the clip on the timeline into individual clips, and drag these to the browser one by one.+
Capture the entire tape is my preferred way to go. I use Mark/DV start/stop detect to break the long clip in segment AND make all those segments independent with the COMMAND-U shortcut (after selecting all segments in browser). Collapse the original clip toggle switch and work with your new clips.
+However, when I played back the movie in the Canvas window, there was no sound, only beeps.+
IMovie and final cut express captured material don't support the same audio container as iMovie works with DV stream and FCE with DVCPRO. The rendering for audio from clips captured in iMovie is normal.
+Now I am not able to add any effects to the movie in the timeline. I cannot drag any transitions in between clips, nor can I add any color correction and/or any other effects.+
IMovie doesn't need "handles" in front and end of clip to add transitions. FCE need extra material to compose the transition (that's the way professionnal video editing software work) and keep the sequence's lenght constant.
I dont understand why you cannot add filters. Please do a test. Import any still image from your user directory images folder into a sequence. Add a color correction filter, and see if it works.
+After opening the project, the sort order of the clips in the browser is in icon view and is wrong. It starts with Clip 169 through Clip 202, and then continues with Clip 01 through Clip 168. Why?+
All versions of FCE have this sorting bug when list view-arrange by name is selected. If you capture from tape and use a 3 digits numbers convention for your clip, you should bypass this behavior.
+So far, this is as far as I have gotten with FCE, which is to say, I have accomplished nothing of what I wanted to accomplish. What should I do?+
FCE is designed mainly to capture material and edit it. Processing a iMovie project is not the ideal workflow. Can you consider to start your projects from scratch within FCE ?
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Hi Kcv
no prob's!
so for the interface, well it really depends on a few factors:
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Cool.
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All,
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I have the ADVC-100 (older model) and ADVC-110. They are identical except that the ADVC-110 does not come with an AC power adapter. Currently sells for about $220USD. If all you need to do is convert from HI8 tapes, the ADVC100/110 will do the job quite nicely.
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Does this mean that I have to convert the analog video tape into digital video tape and, once recorded in digital format, the digital tape can be imported in iMovie HD 6?
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6. Put iMovie (or other DV application) to the Camera Mode
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* Note that the SCART which comes with the European nEUtered TRV320E camcorder is Out-only.
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Converting analog hi8 tapes into FCE using canopus

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