Digital Video Converter

i'm a little confused about the difference between 'apple video adapter'
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/6224040/wo/WB5d0bwOOsXt2cAsU qR1RKWHU7b/3.0.19.1.0.8.25.7.11.5.3
and a digital video converter -
http://www.canopus.com/products/ADVC110/index.php
i don’t want to mirror my ibooks monitor, but create an enlarged preview screen in fce
can my ibook do this?
i also have another problem. The Canopus converter uses firewire, and i only have one firewire port.
To add, i want to upgrade from a usb2 external hard drive to a firewire! just because i've recently read that it will work better as a scratch disk.
i seem to have too many devises and not enough ports.

About the first question:
- the Apple Video Adapter allows to use an external TV screen in place of your iBook screen. I have it but never use it since my video (iMac 20") is far better than a TV screen.
- a Digital Video Converter, instead, converts DV video into analog video and viceversa. In your case you could plug the DV end (firewire) to your iBook and the analog end to a TV set, and use it to "Print to Video" the Canvas of FCE during editing or previewing.
The main difference is that in the 1st case all you do on the iBook appears in the TV screen, in the 2nd case only the canvas output of FCE (or iMovie if needed).
To edit video use the 2nd solution only; this has the advantage to show in real time, during editing, exactly the final result of your movie (colors, interlacing problems, etc.).
You might have another option: most digital camcorders include a video converter and can be used in place of a stand alone Video Converter; if your digital camcorder allows it, use it in place of the Video Converter.
About your second question, if you switch to a firewire external drive you should be able to daisy chain your camcorder (or digital video converter) to the external drive, so the single firewire port on the iBook should be enough. Just be careful, I know some combinations of camcorders/hard drives don't work well together when daisy chained... Not my direct experience, but I read it in these discussions.
Piero

Similar Messages

Using Canopus ADVC-100 Analog to Digital Video Converter

Does anyone know if the Canopus ADVC-100 Analog to Digital Video Converter will work with FMLE 3.1?
While FMLE recognize it as a video source?\
Best wishes,
Adninjastrator

Thanks! That's just what I wanted to hear.
Best wishes,
Adninjastrator

Import from digital video converter

I am new to Mac and very new to iMovie.
I have a mac Mini with OSX 10.4.11 and am using a DAC 200 Digital video converter to import video from a VCR (converting old tapes of the family) via Firewire.
I turned on the Video converter and the camera import window opened automatically. I recorded the tape (about 2 hours) and clicked DONE at the end of the tape. iMovie then automatically generated thumbnails. This took about 45 minutes. When done, the imported video was only 42 seconds long. I repeated the process and the resulting video was only 1.9 seconds.
What did I do wrong? I looked at all the settings and nowhere did i find something which seemed to be responsible for limiting the video length. How do I get the full video?
and how do I prevent the automatic thumbnail generation?
Many thanks
Mark

Welcome to the  Discussion Forums.
Firstly I don't know anything about your converter, but wonder if it comes with any software or gives any indications of what format it converts the analogue to. It seems rather strange that it would take 45 minutes to create thumbnails for 42 seconds of video, take a look at your events folder (by default its in home/movies) and look for the actual imported files, check to see if they are really only 42 seconds long.
imovie 08 is a very new product and can be a little quirky, ensure you are following instructions for your converter and pay particular attention to doing things in the right order.
If you continue to have problems you could try capturing your video in imovie 6 or in QT pro.

Best Analog-to-Digital Video Converter?

What's the best and most inexpensive analog to DV converter for importing video from a VCR onto my eMac?
I'm using iMovie 4 if that makes any difference...
Message was edited by: daftboychemist

Faedo,
Cheapest ways:
1. Do you have a DV camera? If you do and it has "digital in" then you can take the output from your VHS player, route it through the camera and into your PC. The manual would explain if it is a feature.
2. Secondly, search ebay for Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge. This is a hardware converter that takes the analogue and does the conversion for you.
Good luck.

Recommend an analog to digital video converter

The video camera I own is analog but I want to transfer some home movies to my computer to make DVD's.
I don't need anything too fancy, we're talking home movies here.
Thanks.

I've used the entry level converter from Canopus, which works great for converting VHS home movies we made to DVD. You can see it at http://canopus.com/products/ADVC55/index.php .

Analog to digital video converter for DVD

I have a DVD burner that came with my G5. I have a lot of VHS analog tapes that I would like to digitize and turn into DVDs. Can anyone recommend an inexpensive product(s) that will allow me to do that?
Thank you.
Power Mac 2.5GHz Dual Mac OS X (10.3.7)

Faedo,
Cheapest ways:
1. Do you have a DV camera? If you do and it has "digital in" then you can take the output from your VHS player, route it through the camera and into your PC. The manual would explain if it is a feature.
2. Secondly, search ebay for Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge. This is a hardware converter that takes the analogue and does the conversion for you.
Good luck.

Canopus ADVC 110 Advanced Digital Video Converter

Anyone out there have one of these? Anyone used it with iMovie? (And, is iMovie strictly for Macintosh? Because I have a Mac and don't know from Windows.)
My story so far:
1. I created some titles in iMovie for a video I'm making.
2. I bought this high tech equipment in order to add music to the titles and transport the whole thing (titles and music together) to my camera to add them to the video. (In this case, the music is from the camera, but it doesn't matter; it can come from any source with the right sort of jack.)
So far, so good. The equipment is connected, and when I follow instructions, all the right lights come on and everything goes fine...to a point. It says the data is supposed to be captured to my computer, but gives no clue HOW or WHERE this is to occur, or HOW I am to get it into iMovie if supposing I could find it. If the converter actually did anything, nothing new has shown up on the Hard Drive or the Desktop and I don't know where else to look for a file or whatever form this data is to appear in.
I went to their official site and tried joining their forums, http://forum.canopus.com/ but they are snobs and won't accept registrations from any email addresses ending "@msn.com" or "@hotmail.com". These are the only two I have! I wrote the webmaster about this and if nothing else I suppose I can register under a friend's email address and then have them send me the information. I also wrote "sales" at the company regarding support. But I may get help there and I may not, so that's why I'm asking.
Anyone have one of these? And anyone specifically use it with iMovie?
That's all for now, thanks.

At this point I'd be happy to get anything FROM the camera TO anywhere on the computer, let alone iMovie specifically, but nothing comes up on the screen such as "Save To" and then an option to import to iMovie--otherwise I would certainly do it. (I have no idea if anything I tried to transport ever made it to the computer in any form.)
As to why I was trying to do audio only--I was trying to follow the directions to "Audio Capturing Mode" and a sidebar on the page says, "Caution: If video signal is input during the Audio Capturing mode, the subsequent operations can not be guaranteed."
Well, since all I wanted was the audio anyhow (as the video will be the titles), and since they don't give a CLUE as to connections (ALL the instructions say are, "Play the audio data to capture"--not a THING about connecting it to the converter AT ALL, let alone where or how--now I guess they figure anyone stupid enough to play the audio into empty air without a connection deserves what they get) I plugged in the audio jack only--there is only ONE audio jack (on the camera) but TWO audio holes (on the converter), and they don't give you a CLUE as to which one is correct, so I just went eeny, meeny, miney, moe, and chose the red one (Audio in-R) as it's closest to the yellow one (Video--which I didn't connect because of the vague but seemingly dire threat at the side of the page). I put the jack in the hole on the front of the converter. If they want you to use the back one, they should SAY SO.
Sorry, can't waste anymore time in guesswork without actual instructions from someone who knows how the confounded contraption is meant to work. Thanks for the answer.

USB for analog to digital video input?

I have a USB-based Analog-to-Digital video converter that I used when I had my PC, for transferring old family video tapes to digital to burn DVDs.
Can I use this with my Mac with iMovie 08), or will the Mac only accept digital video via a Firewire input?
- Mike

Mike Rivera wrote:
... Can I use this with my Mac with iMovie 08), or will the Mac only accept digital video via a Firewire input?
no, you can not use that device, because usb-devices need specific 'drivers', which in most cases are of no avail for Mac ..
but...
many harddrive-camcorders are connected via usb, and DO work with Mac..
if a device has both (miniDV camcorders), the video is only imported via firewire, the usb-connection is only in use for stills, those devices allow to record ...

Analog to digital video

Does anyone know the quality difference between the analog to digital video converter in the Canon Elura 100 camcorder vs stand alone converters. I own an Elura and am converting older Hi8 video to my Mac and it is hard to find specs on these devices regarding resolution, sampling rate, etc. Has anyone noticed any problems with video converted using the Elura ?

Faedo,
Cheapest ways:
1. Do you have a DV camera? If you do and it has "digital in" then you can take the output from your VHS player, route it through the camera and into your PC. The manual would explain if it is a feature.
2. Secondly, search ebay for Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge. This is a hardware converter that takes the analogue and does the conversion for you.
Good luck.

In iLife08 what is best setting to convert avi 720 and digital video 1080i

What is the bottom line for best quality for 720 p TV.
1.) My import is digital video 1080i to i Movie 08 (full quality)
What should I use for sharing on AppleTV
- the preset Large (which is 960x 540)
- or some custom setting 25 fps at 1220x 720? ( H.264 display dimensions at 24/25 fps is 720p (1280x720) ) - or what should the setting be??
2.) Have Windows avi older 720 *480 video, what is best setting to convert this for Apple TV? The 640 setting on QuickTime premium is not very good
Thank you so much. Peter

Your best option if you are using NTSC footage in imovie is the export to/movie large (960 x 540) at 30 fps, the resolution won't go any higher and still work on the tv. Don't even think about changing the framerate to 24/25 fps, even though you'll be able to export to 720p (1280 x720) changing the framerate will make your video jerky.
If you are using PAL then yes you could export to 720p (even though the specs say 24 fps, 25 fps does in fact work as well), you could try a few tests yourself but I've already done them and IMHO there is so little difference between 960 x 540 and 1280 x 720 that it isn't worth messing about setting up and trying several manual exports to get the best results when you can click one button and be done.
So far a AVI conversion is concerned, I'd try mpegstreamclip, but saying that I can't really be sure. AVI is a container not a codec and I would need to know what codec is actually used inside the container to answer your question properly (Quicktime may tell you though). The problem with AVI is that it is simply so old (even microsoft abandoned it over 10 years ago), unfortunately in a small number of cases some of the codecs that were used in AVI are simply no longer able to be converted. Probably not so likely but at least you are warned.

Converting analog to digital video

Does anybody know a cheap way to convert analog video (from a VHS) to digital video that can be burned on a DVD? A converter box is probably my best option as I have no digital camcorder, but I was looking for one under $150. So far the only ones I can find send the analog signal to the computer, where it is converted to digital by software. This would be fine, but the software is Windows only. I either need a converter box that converts the signal within the box and sends a digital signal to the computer, or one that comes with converting software for Mac. Preferably composite video (yellow, red, white), and preferably something that uses firewire, although if I have to I can use USB
Thanks,
Tom
iMac G4 15-inch 800 Mhz Mac OS X (10.3.9) iMovie 3.0.3, Toast 7 Titanium, no iDVD

Not sure what you mean by "breaks up in places".
In iMovie4, the maximum clip size is 2 gigabytes. When importing from a camera or converter, iMove will just start a new clip ever 9 1/2 minutes (2 gb), but you don't lose a single frame.
If you're getting irregular breaks, including the loss of video (may be hard to tell, if it's only a frame or two), you either have a cable problem (maybe just not plugged-in securely) or a VHS tape that is a bit out of synch. For that, you might need Time Base Correction, where the hardware will basically ignore the synch data on the tape and replace it with it's own. There are VCRs and video converters that have TBC built-in, but they're more expensive. There are also separate pieces of gear that do only that. I dunno whether digital cameras are available that do this.
First, I'd see if it happens with other tapes, then try another VCR, before spending megabucks on more gear.

Converting digital video and photos to dvd

I have seen a product advertised as a device that can convert videos & images from your digital camera directly to a DVD for playback. I have found it on the Hammacher Schlemmer site and wondered if anyone has experience with the device and if the DVD once created works on the imac. I want to be able to manipulate the DVD in imovie to create a customized dvd without having to use the 3 step process of getting the video off of my digital video camera and converting it to DV on my imac. If you haven't seen this product is there something else out there that you could recommend? It also advertises it can take your old VHS tapes and burn them on DVDs.
Appreciate any advice given to the novice here.

Thanks Tom. I recently acquired a copy of the last version of iDVD, but have not had a chance to install it and try it out.
And it will actually be possible for viewers to download individual photos from the slideshow? I figured that might be the trickiest part of all this.
Almost forgot, I also need to be able to put music with the photos.

Imported 1hr of analog video (converted to digital). It requires 3 dvd's!

I imported 1 analog tape (1 hour) using a Sony camcorder to convert the signal to digital. When it was done, it took almost 25GB of HD space and I knew that it wasn't going to fit on 1 DVD. Sure enough, when I went to save it to DVD, it said there wasn't enough space. I had to delete 2/3rd's of the files in order to get it to fit.
So, my question is this: Is there a way to compress the digital video when your downloading it to your HD? I used iMovie but didn't look to see if there are any settings for compression. (I have iMovie 3)
Thanks to all who answer.
- Mark

Analog tapes are typically two hours and digital tapes one hour. So if you imported a full single analog tape, it was more likely a two hour tape. Since DV formatted video takes up about 12-13GB per hour, your report of your project taking up 25GB sounds about right for a two-hour tape. So are you sure it was one-hour?
iDVD version 4 (what version do you use) has two settings in the preferences. One is for Best Performance and the other is for Best Quality. Best Performance limits your iDVD project to 60 minutes or less. Best Quality lets you create projects up to 120 minutes in length. Best Performance (up to 60 minutes) is the default setting of iDVD.
So if you really have a two hour project and iDVD is set to Best Performance, it makes sense you would have to delete a lot of your project to make it fit. If you change the setting to Best Quality you likely can fit everything on there although you still may need to trim down you movie just a bit. "Two Hours" is the nominal length of the tape but in reality it might really come it at, say 124 minutes or something like that. In addition, menus, audio added to menus, etc. all eat up a little of the available time for your project. So a 120 minute movie won't fit if your menu includes a 2 minute song or something like that. The most time you can have with iDVD4 with all the menus is 15 minutes, so if your imported movie was 1 hour and 45 minutes, it would fit for sure. Longer will fit if you don't use the full 15 minutes of menu space or add other extras like iDVD slide shows and such.
Patrick
eMac, 1.25GHz, Superdrive Mac OS X (10.3.9) 1G RAM, 250GB FW Drive, Epson 740 Printer

I am looking to buy the least expensive high resolution digital video camera to convert/record 8mm video tapes.

Hi. Thanks for your help in advance.
I am looking to buy the least expensive digital video camera with the highest resolution I can find in order to use it to record 100s of old (1960s era ) reel to reel video tapes. I am told that in order to do that I must record the "old" video onto a new platform, which means I will set up an "old" projector and play the tapes and record the video on a digital camera. I only want to do this once so I want the highest resolution format I can find. Therefore, I am looking for a camera to purchase. Any help is appreciated.

Hello Lance,
Transferring film to digital video is a complex, challenging process. To cut to the chase, the best way to do this is to engage a firm that specializes in film-to-digital transfer services. There are quite a few around. Costs for 8mm transfer range anywhere from about $0.15 - $0.40 per foot and there are usually significant discounts for bulk projects. Plus, depending on the cost of the video camera you would otherwise consider buying, you may find it costs less overall to use a service than do it yourself.
You also mentioned that you "want the highest resolution format" ... Once you project 8mm/Super8 film onto a screen the effective resolution will not even be what we might consider "standard-def" in digital video. And the larger the projected image the lower & lower the effective resolution regardless of what kind of video camera you might use.
A transfer service, however, directly scans each frame to digitize them and depending on the math the resulting digital image may technically be as "good" as 720p ... but the overall image quality will still be limited by the quality of the original film ... and still probably not up the level of "standard-def" digital video ... but way better than anything you could obtain with a homebrew projector-screen-videocam setup.
Why DIY? Well, it sounds inexpensive and simple. But in reality it is a very time consuming way to get relatively low quality transfers no matter how high-end or expensive a video camera you use. I can share more details if necessary, but DIY film-to-video transfer is not the way to go if you are really interested in quality results.

How can I upload digital video from a HDD camcorder to iMac Intel?

I bought a Sony DCR SR100 camcorder with 30 gig HD, and the software that comes with it is Windows only, and the Mac software that they refer you to on the internet says "not Intel Core compatible"
So get this - the online support guy from Sony says to get a digital to analog conversion card to load the video thru the AV jacks. I reminded him that I'm starting with digital video in MPEG2 on the camera's hard drive - which is essentially an external hard drive. Converting to analog didn't sound right.
So there is an easy, no-brainer way to do this I'm sure (that is I hope)
Thanks a lot for your help,
Ellkabong
iMac Intel Mac OS X (10.4.6) Sony DCR SR100 HD camcorder 30 gig (nice!)

The problem (I discovered) is that the files are "muxed" which means that the audio and video are somehow intermixed, so they need to be converted into a standard that iMovieHD can read, like "DV"
There is a shareware called MPEG STREAMCLIP that converts video into other things. I tested it and it does work. I just need to figure out the most efficient way to import, convert and open in iMovie.
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
I think it is universal which is cool.
I am curious about the workstation that you mentioned to run windows software. Where can I find that?

Digital Video Converter

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