Help Transferring Old 8mm Videos into Final Cut Xpress

Like a lot of people, I have a bunch old 8mm tapes.
I'm trying to find out what camera I should be looking for in order to use a Firewire connection to my Mac Pro to get this footage into FCE, but I don't want to make a mistake and buy something that doesn't work.
Are there any proven winners out there I should be looking for to accomplish this? I'm not sure anything is even currently made anymore that will play these tapes.
Thanks
Tom

A Digital 8 camera will do the trick, IF, you can track one down.
Alternatively if you still have an 8mm video player/camera you can lace that into an A/D (Analogue to Digital) Converter box.
Note: Most mini DV cameras with audio and video inputs can act as an A/D Converter. This is called "Pass Through".
Al

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Transferring videos into final cut express

Hello! I am new with mac, so...
In order to transfer videos from a HDD camcorder into final cut express or imovie, can I only do it through a fire wire cable? or does a simple usb do?
And, do all HDD camcorders do? I bought a Sony HDR-SR10E but I returned it because I couldn't figure out a way to import stuff....
Does anyone know a camcorder that will definitely do with FCE?
Thank you very much in advance!

As you can see from Zak's list, the only cameras apart from DV and HDV tape cameras that can be used with FCE 4 are those shooting AVCHD.
All other cameras will not work properly as you will have to convert their formats to DV using something like Streamclip.

Uploading Hi8 Videos into Final Cut Express

Hi,
I am having trouble uploading H8 video files into Final Cut Express.
What I have is:
Sony Player SLV-T2000
Canopus didital converter ADVC-100
I have connected the rca cables from the player to the digital recorder and then the firewire cable from the digital converter to the Macbook Pro. Also the digital convertor is set for analogue in.
When I play the Hi8 tape I can see the video in the viewer but it will not capture.
Can someone advice me where I am going wrong.

Hi
May be You find something here (it's not only for iMovie but FCE/P too)
NO CAMERA or A/D-box
Cable
• Are You sure that You are using the FireWire Cable - USB-Cable will not work for miniDV tape Cameras
FireWire - Sure not using the accompany USB-Cable but bought a 4-pin to 6-pin (or 9-pin) FW one ?
• Test another FW-Cable very often the problem maker.
Camera
• Test Your Camera on another Mac so that DV-in still works OK
• Toggle in iMovie pref. Play-back via Camera (on <-> off some times)
• Some Cameras has a Menu where You must select DV-out to get it to work
• Camera connected to "charger" (mains adaptor) - not just on battery
• Camera set in Playback mode - NOT Recording mode
Does Your Camera work on another Mac ?
Sorry to say it is to easy to turn the 6-pin end of the FW-cable 180 deg wrong.
This is lethal to the A/D-chip in the Camera = needs an expensive repair.
(Hard to find out - else than import/export to another Mac ceased to work
everything else is OK e.g. recording and playback to TV)
A/D-box
• Is the dip-switches set right ?
• Set to same standard as recorded/editing e.g. NTSC 29.97fps or PAL 25fps
• Try resetting it
Connections
• Daisy Chaining most often doesn’t work (some unique cases - it’s the only way that work (some Canon Cameras ?))
Try to avoid connecting Camera <--> external HD <--> Mac but import directly to the Mac then move
the Movie project to dedicated external hard disk.
• FireWire-port - Can be re-setted by - Turn off Mac and disconnecting Mac from Mains/Power for 20-30 minutes
External device’s (hard disk’s)
• Should be FireWire as USB/USB2 performs badly and so does Airport or Net-work connected ones too.
• MUST BE - Mac OS Extended formatted - UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange - DO NOT WORK for video due to 4Gb barrier.
Mac
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk ? Please specify the amount of free space.
(Other hard disks don't count)
I go for a minimum of 25Gb free space for 4x3 SD Video - and my guess is 5 times more for 16x9 HD ones
after material is imported and edited.No Camera or A/D-box
• GarageBands fix - Close iMovie, Open GarageBand, Play some notes, Close GB and iMove can now be OK
• Does Your Mac have a FireWire Port
• White MacBooks - don't
• MacBook-Air - don't
if not then a few Mac’s has a PCM-CIA slot and there are FW-Cards that makes a FW-port this way
else - NO SOLUTION
Only option as I get it is either
• Use another Mac to Capture material (to an external USB2 - Mac OS Extended formatted hard disk - or -
• Change to another Camera that can be used with Your Mac (no there are no miniDV tape Cameras that can)
• If Your Mac-Book has a PCM-CIA Card place - then there are FW-port-Cards and then
You can import via this - but I've not seen this on more modern Macs. My PowerBook G4
has one and this FW-Card-port works greatly.
SoftWare
• Delete iMovie pref. file may help sometimes. I rather start a new account, log into this and have a re-try.
• Any strange Plug-ins into QuickTime as Perian etc ? Remove and try again.
• FileVault is off ? (hopefully)
• Screen Saver - OFF
• Energy Saver - OFF
Using WHAT versions ? .
• Mac OS - X.5.4 ?
• QuickTime version ? (This is the heart in both iMovie and FinalCut)
• iMovie’08 (7.1.?), 09 or 11 ?
• iMovie HD 6 (6.0.4/3) ?
Other ways to import Your miniDV tape
• Use another Camera. There where tape play-back stations from SONY
but they costed about 2-4 times a normal miniDV Camera.
• If Your Camera works on another Mac. Make an iMovie movie project here and move it
over to Your Mac via an external hard disk.
(HAS TO BE Mac OS Extended formatted - USB/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange WILL NOT DO)
(Should be a FireWire one - USB/USB2 performs badly)
from LKN 1935.
Hi Bengt W, I tried it all, but nothing worked. Your answer has been helpful insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos) to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before. Thank you. LKN 1935
from Karsten.
in addition to Bengt's excellent '9 yards of advice' ..
camera set to 'Play' , not rec/computer/etc.?
camera not on battery, but power-line?
did your Mac 'recognize' this camera before...?
a technical check.
connect camera, on, playback, fw-connected...
click on the Blue Apple, upper left of your screen ..
choose 'About . . / More . .
under Firewire.. what do you read . . ?
More
• FileVault - Secure that it’s turned off
• Network storage - DOESN’T WORK
• Where did You store/capture/import Your project ?
External USB hard disk = Bad Choice / FireWire = Good
If so it has to be Mac OS Extended formatted
----> UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange is NOT Working for VIDEO !
mbolander
Thanks for all your suggestions. What I learned is that I had a software problem. I had something called "Nikon Transfer" on my Mac that was recognizing my Canon camcorder as a still camera and was preventing iMovie from working properly. After un-installing Nikon Transfer and doing a reboot, everything worked great.
I never liked the Nikon Transfer software anyway--I guess I'll get a cheap card reader and use that to transfer photos in the future.
No Camera or bad import
• USB hard disk
• Network storage
• File Vault is on
jiggaman15dg wrote
if you have adobe cs3 or 4 and have the adobe bridge on close that
or no firewire will work
see if that helps
DJ1249 wrote
The problem was the external backup hard drive that is connected, you need to disconnect the external drive before the mac can see the video camera.
MaryBoog wrote
Maybe your problems is solved in the meantime, but for all others this might help as I had the same problem, also have the Sony HDR-HC7, but the 7e (Europe, PAL). I found this link today and it works perfectly
//support.sony-europe.com/tutorials/dime/videotransfer/vtransfer.aspx site=odw_en_GB&sec=DVH&m=HDR-HC7E
What I exactly did.- put camera in play mode - open guide - choose connection guide - choose comp./printer (where to transfer movie to) - select connection.- i-link (on my camera) but equal to firewire - OK - choose HDV - choose NO for conversion of i.link.
Settings are shown then (VCR HDV/DV.- HDV and i.link-conv..- OFF), press OK, OK, END.
Switch camera off. Connect firewire cable to camera & Mac. Switch camera on, in play/edit mode.
Open i-movie, choose import from camera. On screen below the camera connection is shown.- DV (HDV). Now you can import, automatically or manually.
This worked perfectly for me. Took me 2 days to find out. Could not find any clear thread explaining what I had to do on the camera and the manual was not clear either.
Yours Bengt W

How can I get MPEG-2 video into Final Cut Pro X?

Hello! I have several MPEG-2 video files on which I need to perform some edits. When I tried to import them into Final Cut Pro, I learned that Final Cut Pro can't import MPEG files. Okay, so I went into QuickTime and exported one as 720p. 20 minutes later, I had a video that I could load in FCP. Awesome. Except that when I watched the video, the audio was waaaaaaaay out of sync. So, is there a different way I could get this MPEG-2 video into a format that FCP will like while keeping video and audio together?
I would keep trying a few different things without direction, but these videos are like 90 minutes long and the conversion process is lengthy.
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Although I looked up the equipment, I couldn't find what kind of MPEG2. I'm assuming program stream.
I don't know why you had the sync problem with QT. You could bring it into FCP and detach the audio and manually line it up it's off by a constant amount.
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fredhil123 wrote:
.. when I place these files into the package contents of either of my libraries, Final Cut Pro X doesn't recognise them.
what a surprise...
FCPX is - besides many other features - a highly complex data-base application.- Just dragging some content just somewhere isn't the workflow how a data-base.app can manage its data. I dare to say, your experiments distructed your file-structure irreversible.
You should revert to some back-up BEFORE installing a beta.OS (!!) on a productive system.
quote https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/faq?locale=en
What if I have problems running the pre-release software?
Always back up your computer before installing pre-release software.
speaking of Yosemite: You signed an NDA on download NOT to discuss any issues with this public beta.......

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Need help: Can't import old video into Final Cut Pro X or iMovie

I am trying to import some footage from my old camcorder into my iMac.
I have a Sony DVMC-DA1 connected via firewire. The setup works great in iChat. We were able to video chat to my wife's computer and she could see and hear the camcorder footage. iMovie does not recognize the device at all. Final Cut Pro recognizes it. It appears in the Camera Import window, but when I try to import some footage, nothing gets recorded. Oddly, there are two time counters in the import window. The one on the left increments as the footage 'imports' but the one on the right stays at zero.
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ponggo wrote:
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ponggo wrote:
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Andrew

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OR
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Help Transferring Old 8mm Videos into Final Cut Xpress

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