IMovie -- VHS

Relevant hardware: iMac G5 OS 10.4.2, Hollywood Analog/Digital convertor, Sony VCR
Relevant Software: iMovie HD 5.0.2
Issue: When converting digital to analog, video quality is poor, shaky and without color
Explanation: I imported VHS -> iMovie (thanks, again, for the help Sue!) and edited the video. Now I want to export (or share to use iMovie terms) it back to VHS tape for storage (I did burn it to DVD already, but want the VHS as a backup). When I do, however, the video quality is bad. Its jumpy and in black and white.
Any ideas/suggestons?
Thanks!

Hello,
I guess I do not understand why you would want to save your movies in a less than optimal nondigital format such as VHS. I can see that you might want to have a VHS copy to view if you do not have a DVD player, but I would NEVER save your movies in VHS format as a way to preserve them. VHS is not digital and not good quality. DV tapes are the best format thus far, and there is NO degradation from iMovie to DV tapes. You should definitely save all your completed movies back to DV tapes. The reason your VHS tapes are not so good as the DV tapes is that VHS quality is less, not because you have copied your movie from iMovie to DV first.
However, if you still want to have your movies on VHS as well, and you don't want to copy them from your camcorder, use a direct VHS-DVD copy method. You can either buy such a copier, Sony makes a good one, or you can just put your DVD in a player and put a VHS tape in another player and connect them. The quality of VHS tape might be a tad worse than from the DV, but because VHS quality is so much less that the digital tape anyway, you probably won't notice. But really, I would only use VHS tapes for someone who doesn't have a DVD player.
You can also save your DVD projects as Disk Images and preserve the DVDs you make. You can burn DVDs again from the disk image even after you have deleted the iMovies and DVD projects. I save all mine on an external drive.
Hope this is helpful.

Similar Messages

Help please im stupid , imovie , vhs tape, dvd

Hi all,
just new to imovie, can someone explain how to do wha i want to do please in simple to follow instructions .
i am converting old vhs tape to dvd.
i use the apple convertor to convert tape to macbook , thats fine and easy.
i am converting 3 hr video tape , so they are to big for dl dvd 's , so i need to "Cut the file in 1/2 , or 3rds to fit a normal 4.7 gb dvd ,
Can someone explain how to do this in simple terms , i have looked at online videos and forums , but still struggle to understand what to do and when
i have :split the file , but am unable to just burn each half to dvd , this is where it just all goes wrong for me ,
using imovie 11, new i7 macbook pro ,
i have been told its simple , but i must be evan simpler , lol
Thank you
Greg

Gregtca wrote:
… i would have thought there was a better way to save each edited file ,so i could work and burn each of them easily
you see me confused ...
Procedure in iM usually is:
• import video
• select portion of import
• add to Project
• burn Project
• add another selection to another Project ... repeat
Plan B)
• import video to iMovie
• drag ALL to a Project
• erase unwanted part
• burn
• 'undo' in Project (=erased conetnt back again)
• erase another part, burn again… repeat
... so, I'm not sure, what you mean by 'better way' …
I couldn't think of any 'better' way?

What cable can I use?

What cable can I use to transfer old VHS tapes from my VHS player to my new IMac and IMovie (VHS to DVD transfer)? And where would be the best place to purchase such a cable? My VHS has only coaxial or RCA plugs as outputs. The IMac has firewire cable inputs.

Fixit2at,
Welcome to the Discussions.
It's more than just a cable you need.
To go from VHS to iMovie requires converting an analog video signal to digital.
Some miniDV cameras have an analog/digital pass through mode. If you have access to such a camera, that may be a solution.
If not, you'll need some hardware, such as this:
http://www.canopus.com/products/ADVC55/index.php
or
http://www.canopus.com/products/ADVC110/index.php
Matt

FX5900XT Video Caption GPF

I occasionally get a fatal driver error (Blue Screen Of Death) when starting WinCoder to view the Composite signal through my FX5900XT.
I get a "STOP 8" error.
It doesn't always happen. Sometime I can boot up, start WinCoder, and it will work fine. I can then close the application and start it several times without a problem. However, occasionally the problem will happen the first time I attempt to use the WDM driver in a session, and then my machine requires a full hardware reboot.
I am using WinXP with the latest NVidia Drivers and latest WDM drivers.
Any ideas?

Hi
To Sub-title a movie is a tedious job. You get one speed-gain if You are a good typist.
I think that a x10 time need is a minimum of what I can do eg 10 minutes movie
take me about 100 minutes to get Sub-titled.
I do
• Put VHS into player and Pen & Paper or Typewrither/Wordprocessor
• Play and write - I've not seen any program that can Listen in and give a text
from a normal VHS-tape.
There are such programs but they demand a very good sound quality.
• Writedown and paste into Your iMovie VHS copy
• Text needs a cut cmd-T in the video-clip to know where from to start
alt is to use a audio-recorder eg miniDV Camera and using headphones from VHS
then repeating each sentence into this and a new tape.
Now You might got a cleaner audio that may be could be texted by a voicerecognicion program.
Never tested - Rather doubtful
At Commercial broad-casting corp. they often use special trained personal and
programs that can text in real time. Very like some SMS-mobile phone programs.
(Another thought is to try to clean up the VHS-sound. I use a program SoundSoap™
that came bundled with Roxio Toast X-pro.
Using this and combining this result with the original sound can give a clearer
and easier to hear result. Though it needs a lot of fiddling and listning into.
I do
• after got my movie into iMovie Export out in QuickTime expert mode and as .aiff)
• Open SoundSoap and adjust till I feel OK
• Save out and import this into iMovie
• Adjust how much this new audio will influence the end result
Just an idea.)
Yours Bengt W

Caption video

I have a customer who has asked me about adding captioning to a video and then burn to a DVD. This customer does not hear very well and has a VHS tape that she wants moved to a DVD with sub-titles of what people are saying. I do not know how long the video is. I know I move has limited captioning, but I was wondering if anyone had some better ideas.

Hi
To Sub-title a movie is a tedious job. You get one speed-gain if You are a good typist.
I think that a x10 time need is a minimum of what I can do eg 10 minutes movie
take me about 100 minutes to get Sub-titled.
I do
• Put VHS into player and Pen & Paper or Typewrither/Wordprocessor
• Play and write - I've not seen any program that can Listen in and give a text
from a normal VHS-tape.
There are such programs but they demand a very good sound quality.
• Writedown and paste into Your iMovie VHS copy
• Text needs a cut cmd-T in the video-clip to know where from to start
alt is to use a audio-recorder eg miniDV Camera and using headphones from VHS
then repeating each sentence into this and a new tape.
Now You might got a cleaner audio that may be could be texted by a voicerecognicion program.
Never tested - Rather doubtful
At Commercial broad-casting corp. they often use special trained personal and
programs that can text in real time. Very like some SMS-mobile phone programs.
(Another thought is to try to clean up the VHS-sound. I use a program SoundSoap™
that came bundled with Roxio Toast X-pro.
Using this and combining this result with the original sound can give a clearer
and easier to hear result. Though it needs a lot of fiddling and listning into.
I do
• after got my movie into iMovie Export out in QuickTime expert mode and as .aiff)
• Open SoundSoap and adjust till I feel OK
• Save out and import this into iMovie
• Adjust how much this new audio will influence the end result
Just an idea.)
Yours Bengt W

Import VHS Tapes to DVD and iMovie

I have many old VHS tapes I want to finally digitize so I don't lose them. Most are old football games, generally between 1-2 hours per tape. I am working off of a new iMac - 27inch 3.1gHz 1TB hard drive.
I want to do 2 things:
1 - Backup each tape to a high quality DVD for backup purposes - to be played in a DVD player
2 - Store lower quality versions on my iMac hard drive to be viewed/ edited/ possibly uploaded to YouTube or other web based video sites
I have iMovie, and would like the ability to edit if possible - nothing major, ading scores, dates, etc...and possibly manipulating video (cropping of scenes, etc...) but not much.
I have researched and found a few different options. Most threads I have read seem to indicate the need for one of the following:
Canopus ADVC300
Canopus ADVC55
Elgato Eye TV Hybrid
I am willing to spend $100 - $200, but this I'd rather not go crazy. At a certain point it would just be easier to sed them away to be professionally archived to DVD.
Any advice?

I have many old VHS tapes I want to finally digitize so I don't lose them.
I have done lots of that.
To get your VHS video into iMovie, use the Grassvalley ADVC300. 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.

Best way to convert home movie VHS tapes so they can be edited in iMovie HD

Please help! I'm sorry this question is going to be long, but I'm a novice at this.
My goal is to get my VHS home movies (I have about 30 of them) into iMovie so I can do two things.
First I want to burn DVD's so I'll have a copy of the VHS tapes before they go bad.
Secondly, I want to be able to extract small clips from all of the tapes and combine them in a new iMovie project.
Here's what I've done so far:
I purchased a Canopus ADVC110 and got someof my VHS tapes converted digitally but the file sizes were HUGE and eating up my hard drive space. I was down to 6 GB of space left on my hard drive and almost crashed my Mac.
I deleted all these huge files and got my Mac back up to having 111 gigs of space left. Whew!
This week I purchased a Pinnacle converter and started all over. I took a VHS tape, and it was compressed into a nice small Mpeg-4 file and went to iTunes.
Then I tried to drag and drop it from itunes to imovie. That didn't work. I then dragged the movie to my desktop and then dragged it to imovie..... looks like this was going to take a long time to get into imovie. I'm thinking this is too many steps.
Now I am importing the file into iMovie by importing directly from itunes. The file size is 1.04 GB and it is 1 hour and 54 minutes long. It is taking a loooong time to import this movie....like 100 minutes.
I am afraid I am doing this the hard way.
Plus, after reading all the discussion boards and all the problems people are having... I don't even know if I'll be able to successfully edit this movie once it's imported. Plus, after I've edited it (if I can) will I be able to transfer the clips to another iMovie project?
I'm happy with the file size that the Pinnacle converter is giving me. I'm happy with the way the movie appears in itunes.
Because I have **so many VHS tapes** to convert, I'm asking you all if there is an easier way for me to complete this task!
Thanks in advance for any advise. Keep in mind that I'm not tech-sophisticated..... just a middle aged Grandma trying to preserve memories of my family!

_Share" the highlight as suggested_
Thanks Lennart..... I'm not sure I know what you meant by the above.
Do you mean that I share the little clips I want to use in the 'best of project'?
I read the MacWorld article.... it's great thanks!
I want to keep all these converted movies on my hard drive because down the road I want to extract other clips from them so I can make a 'best of' movie for my other family members. I may want to do that next year.... or whatever..... so I want to have the imovies available for me when that time comes.
In order to do this am I going to have to buy a lot..... and I mean ALOT of extra hard drive space? That darn Canopus was really making files for me that were like 60-80GB's per one half hour movie!!
Hey, I really appreciate all the time you are spending with me on this topic. Making these imovie memories are so very important to me.

I have been trying to import VHS video into iMovie via a Hollywood Dazzle bridge. Did not have trouble until I upgraded to mavericks. I have a mac book pro, 10.9.1, iMovie 10.0.2. Says it is recording, but when I go to check, it says the file is empty.

I have been trying import VHS video into iMovie via a Hollywood Dazzle bridge. I have been successful doing this in the past, but now it is not working. I have a mac book pro, 10.9.1, (mavericks), iMovie 10.0.2. Everything in iMovie looks like it is working. It reads "recording" in the upper left hand corner of the pane while the video is playing. When I stop the process to check on my clip it says that the file is empty. The only thing that has changed since I did it successfully is that I upgraded to mavericks from whatever I had previously. My system is about one year old. Any suggestions?

Hey, Clinton,
     Thanks for your help! I was able to go to iMovie 9.0.9 and import video. I was still curious as to why it didn't work in version 10.0.2, so I contacted Apple tech support. They were't sure at first as to why it wouldn't work, so they had me delete iMovie 10.0.2 and then re-install it just to see if something had gone wrong when it upgraded. That didn't change anything. In the end, they determined that 10.0.2 doesn't support the Hollywood Dazzle DV bridge. But I have a workaround path from them that I will share so that it's possible to import to 9.0.9, then move it to 10.0.2.
     1. Open iMovie 9 (finder/applications/iMovie 9.0.9
     2. Import from Dazzle Bridge to iMovie 9, note which event you are importing the clips into
     3. Close iMovie 9
     4. Open iMovie 10 (probably in the dock)
     5. File/Import Media...navigate to home(this was my name, on the left side of iMovie, under Favorites)/Movies/iMovie events. Find the event folder that contains your Dazzle clips (tip-try sorting by date modified to look at recent events.)
     6. Select the clips and import. Click the blue "Import Selected" button on the bottom right.
You may get a message that some files cannot be imported. Click continue import. It's a little glitchy. It imports your clip, and also makes a copy of it, too. On the copy, the audio is normal, but the video is choppy. In any case, you would delete the copy, anyway.
Hope this additional information helps somebody else. Thanks again, Clinton for helping me!

VHS to iMovie 09

I used EyeTV Hybrid to capture the VHS contents to disk. (The resulting .eyetv file plays fine within EyeTV.)
I dragged the .mpg file from within the .eyetv package into MPEG Streamclip. (The file plays fine within MPEG Streamclip at this point.)
I used MPEG Streamclip to export using QT/AIC. The audio and video are now out of sync. The audio precedes the video by about 2 seconds in the resulting .mov file. What settings should I use to avoid this during the export/conversion?
I have the latest version of QuickTime Pro. Do I still need QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component to make this all happen?
Thanks...

I would use better hardware.
To get your VHS video into iMovie, 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
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.

I have captured a VHS movie from a VCR to my Mac. I used a Roxie program and it said "capture to IMovie". I said yes. It shows in my events with a green asterisks but it is not showing up in iMovie, It is in my doc but won't go into iMovie. Why?

I used a Roxie program to bring in my video from VHS. I know it's in my computer and when I right click in the event in IMovie and click "capture movie, a screen comes up showing it but it won't capture it and bring it into IMovie. What am I doing wrong

Firefox can find plugins in several locations, but Firefox 21 changed the location of the "shared" plugin folder so older installers like the Microsoft Windows Media Plugin no longer drop the DLL file in the correct location.
There apparently are two ways to address this:
(1) Change a Firefox preference so that Firefox checks the old location. Here's how:
(i) In a new tab, type or paste '''about:config''' in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.
(ii) In the filter box, type or paste '''plugins''' and pause while the list is filtered
(iii) Double-click '''plugins.load_appdir_plugins''' to switch its value from false to true.
This will take effect after you restart Firefox.
(2) Copy the plugins folder to the new location. Here's how on Win 7 64-bit:
Open a Windows Explorer window to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox
Right-click and copy the '''Plugins''' folder
Double-click the '''browser''' folder to open it
Right-click and paste
Right-click the new copy of '''Plugins''' and rename it to '''plugins'''
After restarting Firefox, the plugins in that folder should now be available.
''Edit: I suggest just doing #1.''

Can no longer import from VHS to iMovie HD via Sony TRV-340E

For the last few weeks I have been successfully importing alot of my old home videos into iMovie 4.01.
The set up is a typical AV pass-through arrangement:
VHS (via component cables) to:
Sony TRV-340E (no tape inserted) (via 6-4 pin Firewire) to:
iMac G5
Then yesterday I upgraded to iMovie HD and updated straight away to 5.02.
Now when I play the tape in the VHS, it will show up on my cameras LCD screen but not on the G5.
I know this is an iMovie problem because:
If I play the VHS, and then put a tape in to the camera, then click import in iMovie, I can see that iMovie grabs a split second of video from the VHS before starting to import from the DV tape.
I hope Apple can fix this soon because I have to return both the camera and iMac soon!

Yes, some analog to DV converters don't work in iMovie HD 5.0.2 like they do in iMovie 4.0.1.
I'm not holding my breath for a fix since this has been a known issue for eight months:
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovieHD_bugs.html#analogDV
You can send feedback to Apple at:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/imovie.html

How can I input data from dvd and VHS to iMovie 6?

I am trying to copy excerpts from a dvd that I recorded from a commercial dvd into iMovie for inclusion in a power point presentation. With the dvd in my super drive and using the help menu procecure of 1. Choose File >Import 2. Select the file you want to import 3. Click Open. When I select the dvd icon on my desktop and click Open, I ged a drop down window for importing files for about 20 seconds, but I never have any files presented in the clips squares on iMovie. I get the same results if I drag the dvd icon to the "drag clips her to build your project" strip. Same thing if I drag the icon to the clips squares. However, I never get any data presented in the areas and the play, reverse, review clips buttons. Same thing happens if I try to transfer the file on the dvd (VIDEO_TS) to the same locations. If I try to transfer the seven sub files individually, I get--The file could not be imported: The file “Hard Drive/Volumes/B04101500/VIDEO_TS/VTS_011.VOB” can’t be imported; QuickTime couldn’t parse it: -2048--. In all these situations there is no data presented in clips or display, but a gray clip area will go blank. This dvd is about 20 minutes in length and is not broken down into scenes in a menu. I recently upgraded to iMovie 6, so I reloaded the program to no avail. I have previously used iMovie 5, but it will not load as long as '6 is loaded.
Since I also have this data on a VHS tape, I tried to recode it through an ADS Tech Pyro A/V Link converter to enter it into iMovie. In the past this was a simple procedure--connect a VCR player to the converter, connect the converter to the firewire port on the iMac, the system profiler automatically recognizes the converter, start iMovie, then Play on the VCR, and press Import on the File menu. That starts the recording in the past. Now I get another drop down window with an "open" button. However, since there is no software for the Mac with the Pyro A/V, there is nothing to open. Has iMovie 6 made these procedures obsolete?? They have worked in the past.

Hi LesToile - welcome to the forum!
It is not possible to directly import material from a DVD as you are attempting. DVD is MPEG format - iMovie is incompatible with this. In order to use it, you must firstly convert it to DV format. Have a look here:
http://danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6018.shtml
http://danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6030.shtml
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=232703&tstart=0
http://danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6010.shtml
http://www.moviecodec.com/topics/5155p2.html
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/%7Eshmhav/SVCDon_a_Macintosh.html#edit_convertMPEG
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=267352&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=630709&tstart=0
I have no knowledge of your A/V Link Converter, but if you have a vidcam you can use it to record from VHS to DV tape, and thence into iMovie (there are now problems with the alternative 'pass-through' method using the camera).

Is there a way to import videos from old VHS tapes so that they can be later accessible to processing with imovie?

Is there any way to import videos from old VHS tapes so that thry can later be processed by imovie?

I recently got a new iPhone, and after restoring all my stuff from my old iPhone via the iTunes restore thing, I had to put all my music on manually, instead of it being restored.
iTunes content is not included with your iPhone's backup - no music, movies, tv shows, podcasts, audio and print books, tones, and apps. All iTunes content must be transferred back to your iPhone when restoring. If you sync music with Sync Music selected under the Music tab for your iPhone sync preferences with iTunes, music is transferred back to your iPhone from your iTunes library when syncing - syncing is followed after the iPhone is restored. If you manually manage music and videos with this selected under the Summary tab for your iPhone sync preferences with iTunes, you must manually drag all music from your iTunes library back to your iPhone. Manually manage music means manually all the way.

Whats the best way to transfer VHS home video's into IMOVIE '11 for exporting/editing?

I have been reading about this subject online for a while now but need assistance/guidance before I go out and buy adapters etc. to begin my project. I am attempting to put home-videos of mine from VHS-C format onto my Macbook Pro.....Is it possible that if I use VCR adapter cables that go Red, White, Yellow, to USB I can directly import these VHS home videos into my computer?
I am going to have to buy a new VCR to do this and I would like to find out if this is going to work properly if I buy a VCR and use these Adapter cables I mentioned above.
Throughout my reading on the topic I've ran across a lot of different suggestions for a million different Video Conversion programs etc. although I would feel most comfortable using Imovie '11 on my brand new Macbook Pro because I have faith in Mac Programs for this type of a procedure.
I'd truly appreciate the help I've been wanting to work on this video project for quite a while now and I'm anxious to get some material in digital format to work with.

The VHS tape deck is analog. You have to convert these signals to digital format before you can edit them with iMovie.
There are a couple of ways to do this.
1) You can get a device called a DAC (Digital Analog Converter). Grass Valley makes a series of these. They are pricey, but give good results. They attach via Firewire, so make sure your Mac has a Firewire port. They produce a file in the DV format. You can import directly into iMovie with this option.
2) You can get a device called an EyeTV Hybrid. This will accept your RCA red, white, and yellow on one side, and attach with USB. This produces a file in H.264 format. You import the VHS into the EyeTV software, and then send it to iMovie through a menu choice.
3) Some camcorders have "passthrough" capability, meaning they can take the RCA Red, White, and Yellow in and output digital DV through Firewire. You can import directly into iMovie with this option.
Once converted, iMovie is a great way to edit your movies.
Personally, I use the EyeTV Hybrid. It also lets me view and record over the air HDTV on my Mac.
Here is a sample of my results with the EyeTV Hybrid.

Using iMovie for VHS Tape copy

I am trying to transfer some media from a VHS tape to burn to DVD. I have copied the VHS tape into iMovie successfully but find that the files are much too large to burn to a dvd. I used a DAC 100 to convert and did them in 16 bit. Is there a way to keep quality and transfer about 1 hour and 20 minutes of VHS tape to a regular 4.7 gig dvd?
Thanks

Hi Jerry and welcome!
DV in iMovie runs at 13GB per hour, hence the large file sizes.
iDVD is only concerned with length (max 2 hours as stated, including menus, themes, transitions etc), and will compress that to fit a standard 4.7 GB DVD.
So no worries - 1 hr 20 mins will work perfectly!

IMovie -- VHS

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