Imovie unable to capture DV, apple support told me that a pc is better!!!

Question

I recently bought an apple imac with a view to editing DV footage taken previously.
I had captured some of these tapes on to a PC previously using Pinnacle studio. These files I was able to edit on imovie (once I had transferred them from the pc hard drive). HOWEVER although I could control my dv camera through imovie (and FCE) none of my old DV tapes could be captured to the imac. An error message states that the frame rate is incorrect.
I have apple care protection and have spent ages trying to get support for this only to be told that imovie will not capture my old DV tapes! The support person told me that I should go back to a PC!
Unfortunately I have just spent thousands on this very nice looking imac and FCE that is apparently unable to do the most basic capturing. Does anybody have any ideas (other than going back to pc) for getting my DV footage captured?
Needles to say I have foind all thi incredibly frustrating as a new apple user. Are these sorts of issues common to imacs?
cheers
rupert

Answer 1

HOWEVER although I could control my dv camera through imovie (and FCE)
none of my old DV tapes could be captured to the imac. An error message
states that the frame rate is incorrect.
Rupert, first be aware that I've never done what you are trying doing so I'm not an expert. But perhaps I can clarify some things to help others.
It's not entirely clear what you mean by "capture". The word normally means capturing video from a camcorder to iMovie/FCE. In fact, you say you can control your DV camera just fine, which I assume means you can capture video successfully from your camera to iMovie.
The problem you have, rather, seems to be the inability to IMPORT the DV video files previously captured on the PC.
Is that correct? Is the problem the inability to import those files?
An error message states that the frame rate is incorrect.
If yours is an import problem, that error message may be an important clue. iMovie can work with both NTSC and PAL video -- which have different frame rates -- but not both in the same project. It may be that your iMovie project is NTSC, but you're trying to import PAL video.
The General tab of iMovie preferences lets you set the default frame rate of a new project. In the popUp menu the bottom of the page, NTSC is 29.97 frames per second and PAL is 25. They become the default frame rate for new projects.
iMovie respects that frame rate for a new project, but will switch if you connect your camera and import some video of the OTHER type. If your camera is PAL, iMovie will switch your new NTSC project to PAL. Once switched, however, it won't switch back. Once switched to PAL, it will ONLY allow you to capture PAL video from a camera, and, I suspect, only allow you to import PAL video files.
So... If your PC-captured video files are PAL and your iMovie project is NTSC, iMovie might complain with that error. (But as I said earlier, I don't know for sure.) The trick may be to set the iMovie preference to match the captured DV files.
If you open one of the PC files in QuickTime Player, the Show Movie Info window will tell you its frame rate. Make sure your iMovie preferences are consistent with that frame rate, create a new iMovie project, and try to import the file. If it works, that was the problem.
Karl