Converting analogue tapes to iMovie

I have a Canopus advc100 converter and I wish to convert some old tapes to my iMac. My old camcorder is a Sharp Hi8. I am running with Snow leopard and I have connected precisely to the instructions according to the manual. Settings on the converter indicate indicate correctly. iMovie recognizes the camera is connected and when I commence the recording the counter commences but immediately stops at "2" and stops the recording process. iMovie converts 1 x 2 second clip. I am positive that my settings are ok but have read on this forum that it is a problem with Snow leopard. If that is true will installing Mountain lion fix my dilemma? What alternatives do I have? Can anyone help please

The ADVC-100 should work perfectly well with Snow Leopard. I have one and it has never given me any problems.
In your case, iMovie isn't actually recognizing the camera, it is recognizing the ADVC. This is because the ADVC is the digital device that iMovie is actually working with. The ADVC in turn is connected to your Hi8 camcorder, which is an analog device.
For starters, here is what I would check: Make sure the ADVC is in "analog in" mode (not digital in) and also make sure the camcorder is playing back before you initiate recording (capturing) in iMovie. If the camera is not already running before iMovie starts capturing, the ADVC isn't producing an active signal, and iMovie then thinks the whole thing is not working and it stops capturing. This would explain why you end up with a 2 second clip.
Installing Mt. Lion is not the solution to this problem. The problem is the connection, the ADVC, iMovie or something else in your present system.
Two questions -
What version of iMovie are you using?
Do you have ANY other FireWire devices connected the same time as your ADVC (for example, an external FW hard drive)?

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Is there a way to convert VHS tapes to iMovie?

Need to convert many tapes into iMovie? What do I need to set this up? Software?

I have recently been investigating this very subject.
The Elgato device you mention comes recommended by many in this forum (as least as many as respond on this particualr subject). It is compatible with BOTH Windows and Mac. Amzon reviews (for what what reviews are worth) put Elgato at 250+ of 330 reviews at positive, while the Roxio reviews have most at either end and a clean split between the numbers at best and worst.
I found Elgato on Amazon too late to get one (until they come back into stock), and $30 of gas for the round trip is my only way to get one in-hand within a day, while the Roxio is in-stock intown.

Converting 8mm tape - please read for detailed question

Hi everyone - A few months back the Apple forums helped me convert old tapes to iMovie using my Canon camcorder as a pass-through, converting the tapes from AV-DV. (These were tapes that fit into a VHS adapter, so I plugged my VCR into my camcorder, then into my iMac and used iMovie for the project).
I'm now faced with a similar project, only this time, the tapes are 8mm tapes. I went out and bought an 8mm player (not camcorder), a Sony EVO-511 NTSC. I've checked the machine by using regular cable wire and plugged it into my tv and it works great. However, when I plug the Sony machine into my camcorder (Canon) and use it as a pass-through, it's not recognizing it so iMovie has no 'import' button (it usually becomes 'available' once it recognizes something's plugged in).
Since the set up would seem identical for the VHS conversion as for the 8mm machine, any ideas on what I can do differently? I even purchased an adapter that has a cable male on one end and an rca female on the other, so I can plug the cable wire directly into my camcorder. Any help is GREATLY appreciated - even if it's to steer me to another forum.
Thank you!

I have a couple of thoughts. First, is there a tape in the camcorder that might prevent the pass-through?
Second, can you PUT a DV tape in the camcorder and record from the Sony 8mm to it? If so, you could copy all the 8mm tapes to miniDV tapes and then import those into iMovie. I did it this way for all my VHS tapes because I wanted to have them 'digitized' as originals to save.
I also export all my created iMovies back to my camcorder onto DV tapes and save those. You never know if DVDs will become lost, corrupted, broken, etc and I want to have double backups of my movies

DVcam as converter box for analogue import for imovie hd 5.0.2 SUCCESS

DV camcorder as converter box for analogue import for imovie hd 5.0.2 SUCCESS
Try hooking everything up and hitting record on the camera, suddenly imovie import works and imovie does not try to play the tape in the camera, simply importing to your hearts content.
I was trying analogue through a Sony DCR-PC1000E. You can't record with the regular rec/pause switch but with the onscreen menu.
My problem was Imovie would only display a blue screen with "camera attached", imovie could see and hear the signal during import but would quit after 7 seconds and 24 frame every time.
I believe this was due to the camera not sending control track or timecode, thus imovie times out, more of a preset then a fault.
pb g4 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Hi conrad - great that it's working for you! It's probably worth walking people through your set-up and step-by-step process, just to clarify what you did (especially the bit after you have connected your camera to iMovie). A lot of people will be interested.

How can I convert MiniDV tapes to DVD? I've use a Canon GL 2 and an iMac about 1 year old. I'm trying to use iMovie and I've installed the latest drivers.

How can I convert MiniDV tapes to DVD? I've use a Canon GL 2 and an iMac about 1 year old. I'm trying to use iMovie and I've installed the latest drivers.

MiniDV was a great format, one I still use often. I also still use iMovie HD6 to process it and, for all the iterations of iMovie that followed it, I still believe it was one of Apple's greatest movie software programmes, next to Final Cut Pro, using a timeline method of editing. That was also in the day which Apple put Superdrives into their computers, so that you could not only make your movie in iMovie, but you could render it to iDVD and then burn the DVD. Now you need to buy an external burner.
Since iMovie HD6 and iDVD 6 were "universal" software, it has continued to work through the many OS releases since it came out with Tiger, I believe it was. So, it may still work with Mavericks too and, if you could locate a copy of iLife 06, probably used, you might enjoy the difference that HD6 has over all iMovie releases since then.
Not saying you can't process your MiniDV with current iMovie versions, but I'm not the one to speak about that.

Can I convert PAL-Tapes into NTSC in order to import footage into imovie?

I had a question about using PAL-tapes. Can I convert PAL-tapes into NTSC tapes?
I am trying to import my video that I shot with a PAL-tape. Is there a way to import my data into imovie?

I just answered your question where it belongs: In the iMovie discussion.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=235207&tstart=0

How to convert cassette tape to macbook pro

hi
i have a 2009 macbook pro and want to convert cassette tape of me giving a lecture to cd so I don't lose it. the cassette is 35 years old and still works well. my mbp does only has a headphone out jack outlet, not anything for input so I can't see how to connect a cassette player.
any info very wanted and welcome - with thanks

Probably has a combo port.
⌥ > System Profiler…
(ie, hold down Option and choose System Profiler… from the  menu) and post what you get for Hardware Overview > Model Identifier. That will tell us exactly what machine you have. Or you can find out the specs for yourself in Mactracker
<mactracker.ca>
You should also check the user guide which came with your machine.
My guess would be that you can connect your tape player with a 3.5 mm analogue jack and switch to input.
As for the rest, if you search the forum you'll find several threads about digitising audio tapes.

How to convert VCR Tape to DVD on MACbook Pro?

Any insight into how to convert VCR tapes to DVD on Macbook Pro would be much appreciated!

The first question is: how to get video into your Mac?
My answer is: use a DV camcorder as a translator. Most Canons and Sonys do this. Here are some general steps:
1. connect the video and audio outputs of your VCR to the input jacks of the camcorder. (If the video is on an S-video jack instead of the conventional yellow phono jack, it will be a little bit better quality.)
2. Using your camcorder's menu, set it to "AV IN->DV OUT". This will vary according to the model of your DVCAM. One hint: all camcorders have a 3-position camera/off/play(vcr) switch. In this application, most of them use the PLAY position.
3. Connect the DV out of the camcorder to a firewire port on the Mac. This requires the cable that comes with the camera...it's a mini-firewire on one end, and a regular firewire 400 on the other. (If your Mac has only a FW 800 jack, you may need another adapter.)
4. Turn on the DVCAM. Usually, iMovie will automatically open and be ready to record...if not, start it.
5. Hit PLAY on the VHS machine. You should see the video in the iMovie window. When you see what you want to save, press iMovie's button to start recording. You're free to edit the movie in any way you want.
When you have enough for a DVD, save it and use iDVD to burn a disc.
Alternatively, if you want to save a step, you can skip the iMovie step and just open up iDVD and select the feature...I forget the exact name...but it's like "Quick Movie" that will just save it as one stream.

8MM Tape into iMovie

Been transferring 8mm tapes into iMovie via my Sony TRV350 camcorder and firewire cable. Goal is to convert all of these to DVD via iDVD. 2 questions-
1) Should the "Automatic DV Pillarboxing & Letterboxing" box be checked?
2) On my camera settings, it has a A/V--->DV OUT option, which can be turned ON or OFF in the menu VCR settings. According to the manual, when it is OFF, it is "to output digital images and sound in analog format using your camcorder." When it is ON, it is "to output analog images and sound in digital format using your camcorder." I have tried importing with both settings (ON and OFF), and it imports fine both ways, and I haven't really noticed any difference. Do you think this actually matters? The 8mm tapes are analog and I want to convert them to digital format (DV), but it appears it's doing that with either setting.
Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

My iMovie version 4 doesn't have those options, but I am guessing they are for 16:9 and other widescreen formats. Your old 8mm video is likely standard 4:3 ration, so you probably don't need those checkboxes.
I think the DV Out only matters if you need the video to be present on the analog output jack on the camcorder (looks like a headphone jack like on an iPod). My thinks that that you always get video output present at the Firewire port but the analog port is probably off when you have DV Out set to ON. So as you found, if you are not using the analog port, it doesn't really matter.
Enjoy,
Patrick
p.s. after several years, I am finally up to analog tape #12 with two more after than to finally finish my analog to digital conversion using my old Sony TRV330 Digital8 camcorder.

Will FCE 4 Import Analog 8mm Tapes (unlike iMovie '08)

Hello--
I've had a heck of a time importing my older analog 8mm tapes onto my MacBook and was wondering if dropping bigger bucks on FCE 4 will help.
Since iMovie '08 for some reason won't import analog 8mm tapes from my Sony TRV-330 Digital8 camcorder, I've had to import the tapes using iMovie HD. The problem is then I have to save the iMovie HD project before I can import the video into iMovie '08 where I want to tag and edit it...and this takes a lot of extra time (hours per tape).
On other discussion boards, people have suggested using other video importing applications such as Vidi, iDive, and QuickTime Pro. The first two didn't seem to work out for me, so I just spent $30+ to get QT Pro...that was a mistake because the video and audio quickly got out of synch which was completely unacceptable (some of my older tapes have periodic video and audio dropouts due a problematic camcorder at the time, which I understand can cause that problem...but it didn't seem to be a problem for iMovie HD).
So, since I've read on these FCE discussion threads that FCE uses QuickTime it makes me wonder if I'd have the same video/audio synch problems in FCE (if it even would import analog 8mm video at all).
BOTTOM LINE: Has anyone successfully imported analog 8mm videotapes from a digital camcorder into FCE 4? I'd really like to be able to catalog, tag, and edit ALL my tapes (analog 8mm and Digital8) in iMovie '08 (but am willing to try to do it in FCE 4 if that's a better comprehensive solution). When will Apple fix iMovie '08 to make the lives of those of us who want to transfer old analog 8mm tapes easier??

Thanks for the response, M.R. I didn't know QuickTime was also the import engine for iMovie HD...if that's the case, I don't know why iMovie HD would import my analog 8mm tapes while iMovie '08 doesn't (assuming iMovie '08 also uses QuickTime as the import engine).
I haven't really considered a converter box since the Sony TRV-330 camcorder does the analog to digital conversion...seems like it'd be unnecessary. Do you think there's the possibility that the output from a converter box would look different than the output from my digital camcorder to iMovie '08?
--Bill

Problems with importing video tape into iMovie '08

I'm using a canopus advc 110 to import video tapes from a vhs recorder into iMovie. BUT, the process often stops after only a few minutes when I still have a long way to go. I'd like to be able to leave it to work for 20-minute chunks (longer if possible, but I think that's about the limit), but it keeps stopping after a few minutes. When I come back in the room, it keeps trying to import (time in upper right corner keeps going) but had quit earlier according to time on the lower center of the iMovie screen. This is adding to my frustration and time, which is limited. Any suggestions??

The canopus advc 110 will work IF you have a perfect tape.
Look at the Grassvalley ADVC300 it has the ability to compensate for bad tapes. Using Line Time Base Correction (LTBC), ADVC300 instantly cleans, stabilizes and preserves old VHS and Hi8 videos in clean DV format. No need to monitor, just start and forget. Fast forward the tape all the way and then rewind all the way before import will never hurt.
The program that comes with the ADVC300 has some nice filters that can improve video and audio of the source material. The ADVC300 will take Audio and Video from any source and convert it to FireWire (iMovie will treat it like a camera).
http://www.grassvalley.com/products/advc300
The ADVC300 is for anyone who wants to do editing and is concerned about quality of color and speed, for the novice it is an incredible gizmo that will restore VHS tapes to a state close to the original fixing midtones, highlights and shadows on the fly. Not only can you simply convert analog to digital you can actually manipulate the signal going in (if you want to).
A bit pricey bit it WORKS.
I would use iMovie 06 with iDVD 08/09.
iMovie 08 and 09 uses 'single field processing' meaning every other horizontal line of the video is thrown out, which reduces the sharpness of the footage. iMovie 06 uses ALL of the image to form the video.
Your workflow is editing DV clips and making DVDs, so iMovie 06 is better suited. Your movie will arrive at iDVD in DV format, which is an ideal match for making a DVD: same resolution, same pixels aspect ratio, and original quality. If you share your movie from iMovie 09, it gets re-rendered at 640x480 or less, and then iDVD upscales it back to 720x480. The end result is obviously not as good.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 08/09 is a "lossless" combination.
iMovie 09 is a wonderful programs assuming that you're using it for what it was designed to do, assemble videos to share on the Internet.

Convert VHS tape to DVD or flash drive

I would like to convert home movies that are on a VHS tape to DVD, and then to a flash drive or USB stick

convert a vhs tape to digital
I have done lots of that.
To get your VHS video into iMovie, use the Grassvalley ADVC300 (much better than the roxio easy vhs to dvd). With the ADVC300 Audio and Video go in, FireWire comes out. It also comes with a nice Macintosh application that works flawlessly with iMovie 06 and iDVD 09/11 (I have used it a few times with iMovie 11).
The program that comes with the ADVC300 has some nice filters that can improve video and audio of the source material. The ADVC300 will take Audio and Video from any source (VCR, Tivo, Satellite Receiver) and convert it to FireWire (iMovie will treat it like a camera).
http://www.grassvalley.com/products/advc300
I would use iMovie 06 with iDVD 09/11, why?
iMovie 09/11 uses 'single field processing' meaning every other horizontal line of the video is thrown out, which reduces the sharpness of the footage. iMovie 06 uses ALL of the image to form the video.
If your primary workflow is editing DV clips and making DVDs, iMovie '06 is better suited. Your movie will arrive at iDVD in DV format, which is an ideal match for making a DVD: same resolution, same pixels aspect ratio, and original quality.
If you share your movie from iMovie 09/11, it gets re-rendered at 640x480 or less, and then iDVD upscales it back to 720x480. The end result is obviously not as good.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 11 is a "lossless" combination.

Transferring VCR tapes to imovie

I want to transfer some old VCR tapes to imovie using my miniDV camcorder, but the size of the files seem very large. I imported about 5 minutes of a VCR tape and it was 1.3 GB. I'd like to preserve as much of the quality as I can from my VCR tapes, but I don't want to use so much hard drive space. Does anyone know what the minimum quality settings are for a VCR tape?
I believe my miniDV camcorder has high def capabilities (720p, etc) but my VCR tape is probably only analog TV quality (less than 480 i?). Or is there another way to import the video in a compressed manner?
Thanks!

I'd like to preserve as much of the quality as I can from my VCR tapes
I would use iMovie 06 with iDVD 08/09, why?
iMovie 08/09 uses 'single field processing' meaning every other horizontal line of the video is thrown out, which reduces the sharpness of the footage. iMovie 06 uses ALL of the image to form the video.
If your primary workflow is editing DV clips and making DVDs, iMovie '06 is better suited. Your movie will arrive at iDVD in DV format, which is an ideal match for making a DVD: same resolution, same pixels aspect ratio, and original quality. If you share your movie from iMovie '08 / 09, it gets re-rendered at 640x480 or less, and then iDVD upscales it back to 720x480. The end result is obviously not as good.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 08/09 is a "lossless" combination.
Or is there another way to import the video in a compressed manner?
After I transfer a tape to iMovie I make a DVD. I then test the DVD and keep only the image file (small) created by iDVD I do not keep the original iMovie file (large).
Hard Drives are dirt cheap, consider an external firewire hard drive to store your movies.
For the very best quality look at the Canopus ADVC300. Audio and Video go in, FireWire comes out. It also comes with a nice Macintosh application that works flawlessly with iMovie 06 and iDVD 08/09 (I have used it a few times with iMovie 09).
The program that comes with the ADVC300 has some nice filters that can improve video and audio of the source material. The ADVC300 will take Audio and Video from any source and convert it to FireWire (iMovie will treat it like a camera).
http://www.canopus.com/products/ADVC300/index.php

Importing analogue video into imovie.

I am trying to import analogue video into imovie 5 using my canon i830 dv camera with tape out. imovie 5 will not import using this method and as I only have a few tapes to transfer I do not want to purchase further hardware. Will imovie 6 enable me to do this. Any sugestions?

iMovie has not changed in how it imports video from camcorders to the best of my knowledge. Your DV camcorder with a Firewire connection should import to iM4, 5 (HD), or 6. So it would appear that there is a problem with a setting, hardware, or something else keeping it from working. Sooooo....
Let's explore your setup. You have a DV camcorder right? It has a Firewire port? You are connecting the camera, with a Firewire cable, directly to the Mac? Daisy chained off an external hard drive? Via a Firewire hub?
Does the menu of the camera feature different connection types that you can select from (e.g. Firewire, USB, A/V jacks, etc.)?
What mode do you put the camera in when you attempt to import? Camcorder record mode? VCR play mode? Other?
When you hook up the camera what exactly happens? Do you get absolutely nothing? Do you get a message that the camcorder is connected but then can not get it to import? Do you get an error message?
Are you in an iMovie project when you attempt to import? Or are you trying to see the camcorder from the desktop?
Are you SURE the cable you have is OK? Have you tried it on another device to verify? Some cables have the molded over plastic higher on the connector than others. I personally have had devices with deep ports on them that a cable with more molded plastic (less exposed metal) not connecting but swapping to another cable with less molding and more of the metal connector exposed working correctly.
Patrick

Convert PAL-tapes into NTSC tapes

I had a question about using PAL-tapes. Can I convert PAL-tapes into NTSC tapes?
I am trying to import my video that I shot with a PAL-tape. Is there a way to import my data into imovie?

Yes.
Use a PAL camera to import the PAL tape.
Use JES Deinterlacer to convert to NTSC.
Create a new NTSC iMovie project.
Import the converted movie.
Export to NTSC tape using an NTSC camera.
For more info on the use of JES Deinterlacer:
http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6017.shtml
(At the bottom)

Converting analogue tapes to iMovie

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