Importing 8mm tapes,

I converted 8mm tapes using a digital8 camcorder but think the camcorder has issues, because I just picked up a 8mm camcorder and footage looks better, not noisy like on the d8, anyhow now I have a canon elura set up with pass through ready and an analog camcorder, I have 2 options, basic video cables for input to the mini dv or s-video, which should I use?

That's not so good. Perhaps check this recent post about a video "cleaner."
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7188567#7188567
Thanks,
John

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Importing VHS & 8mm tapes at highest quality?

I've been using the VHS-to-DVD USB device to import old VHS and 8mm tapes to my Mac (using S-Video cable, then work on them in iMovie. Simple, but I'm wondering if there are alternative means with higher quality results. The mpg files I get are 640 x 480. Are there some professional products that are significantly better, or should I be satisfied with the current results?

I have been using iMovie, since iMovie 02 (and now use iMovie 06 and iMovie 11).
I have been constantly exploring the best way to convert VHS to DVD with a Macintosh.
I like the Grassvalley ADVC300 A/D coverter.
I've played around with countless other conversion systems, ranging in price from $79 to $399. Short verison, this is the ONLY unit to own. No dropped frames at all, even with questionable quality tapes, no jitter, great color, excellent sound quality. Zero setup with iMovie 06 and iDVD 09/11.
This is a prosumer deck. The time code function is alone worth the price if you have old analog footage. Absolutely NO "Out Of Sync" audio.
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 but it WORKS.
The program that comes with the ADVC300 has some nice filters that can improve video and audio of the source material.
For maximum quality use iMovie 06, or Final Cut Express. If you don't need to do fancy editing, then there's no reason to have Final Cut Express.
Your 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.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 09/11 is a 100% "lossless" combination and my DVD's look like they came from Hollywood!

I've imported a lot of 8mm tape into a single project. I need to split off

I imported many hours of 8mm tape into iMovie. There are about 40 clips now and I want to split the 40 clips into about 7 different projects to edit individually. I don't want to re-import the 8mm tapes (read: I want to safely split off the clips without losing valuable import time).

Now that you have one project go to the clip you want, select it, then go to share, select Full Quality, click the box selected clips, save the name and it will make a dv file with those clips. Then after you have all the clips into a seperate folder start IMovie, create new project and drag the clips you want for that movie. It does take time to write clips into new file. You also need a good amount of drive space.

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

Best Quality importing 8mm analog and 8mm Digital Video Tapes

Hi folks,
I have imported several 8mm analog and 8mm digital 8 video tapes using a Sony Digital 8 camcorder and firewire cable into my iMac. As referenced many times, the quality is so-so due to the loss of half the lines; a deficiency in iMovie 8.
I just acquired a copy of iMovie 6HD to address this. Both are now installed on my iMac.
Would I lose any video quality if I first import into iMovie 6HD and then export from HD to iMovie 8 using the "Import from iMovie HD" option. In other words, does using iMovie HD as an interim step address the "line loss" problem associated with video tape input that exists in iMovie 8.
For diehard HD users this may seem counter-intuitive but I like some of the title and transition capabilities in iMovie 8 and am willing to sacrifice some editing function/capability if the original video quality is not compromised.
TIA,
Ed

Bengt,
Thanks for the reply. So importing first to HD doesn't solve my problem. I need to edit in HD and publish in HD or lose half of the interlaced video.
I am aware that importing from tape directly to iMovie'08 or 09 or 11 loses half the video. I was hoping that using HD as an intermediate would solve my problem.
Guess I need to learn editing in HD.
Could you please just confirm. I have become very comfortable editing in '08 and my first few looks at HD aren't getting me there....yet.
Thanks again.

Importing analog tapes

What's the most efficient way to import analog (8mm) tapes into Final Cut? I'm using an Elgato EyeTV device with EyeTV 3, but the resulting video is stretched wide....The eventual target is DVDs. What's the best workflow?
Thanks!

>What's the most efficient way to import analog (8mm) tapes into Final Cut?
The most efficient way would be to borrow or rent a Sony Digital8 camcorder - they'll play 8mm and Hi8 tapes and output the signal via Firewire (iLink) which you can connect driectly to your Mac.
FWIW the Elgato device will record the video in a format that FCP doesn't work with natively. You'd need to convert the files prior to importing into FCP.
-DH

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.

Getting video Hi8 8mm tape into MacBook--via another camcorder??

I offered to take the video from our school's music program and put it through its paces in iMovie to make a DVD for the school.
I figured that this would be no problem. I've used the school's Sony Mini DV Digital Handycam (DCR-TRV18) before and simply plugged the firewire cable into my Mac and imported.
I later found out that the video was shot with a different camera--a Sony video Hi8 (CCD-TRV43) that uses 8mm tapes. I'm not even seeing a firewire connection on the camera--just black and yellow audio and video RCA input jacks.
Is there anyway to do what I need to do with these two pieces of equipment? Can I somehow hook the 8mm camera into the mini-DV camera and then into my MacBook via firewire? Sort of the through-put that I hear about?
Since this is for school and a one-time occurrence, I really don't want to have to purchase any additional equipment.

I really don't want to have to purchase any additional equipment.
You may have to.
To get your Sony Hi8 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 08 and 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.

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

Transfering 8mm tape recordings to iMovie or iDVD.

Hi, I am new to video recording / editing and have a number of 8mm & VHS tapes that I would like to put together for a DVD to give as gifts to my children. The camera is about 15 years old so the only output is through a 3 wire video and stereo cable. Do I need another type of cable or is there an 3rd party application or piece of equipment that I need?
Thanks,
iMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)

You can do both 8 mm as well as VHS > iMovie > iDVD but you will need some way to import the video footage into the computer via firewire or iLink.
The least expensive approach is to purchase a minidv camcorder with analog to digital pass thru features. This will allow you to connect your existing camera to the minidv camera which will act as the interface to the computer allowing you to import your VHS or 8mm tapes.
Another approach is to use a sony DA1 or DA2 media converter box but these units often run as much or more than mini dv camcorder. Canopus also makes such devices.
Hope this answers your question and good luck.
btw, I highly recommend using firewire over any USB device/s to convert you footage simply because iMovie and iDVD6 are made to interface well with i/Link or FW and not as well thru USB.

Transferring DV, HI 8 & 8mm Tape to Macbook Pro

Need help as a first time user. Would like to get all my home videos onto DVD. Questions:
1. What cord do I need to transfer DV Tapes to MBP?. 400/800 firewire?. 6pin to 6pin, 6pin to 4pin... I'm confused.
2. What cord/program/hardware do I need to transfer 8mm tapes to mbp? Do not want to spend an arm and a leg to do this. People keep recomending hardware for 200+. Must be a way to transfer 8mm to digital video in advance?. Help please?
3. Finally - is IMOVIE my best option here. I will not use enternal drive. Upgraded to 700 speed on purchase. Will just load - quick edits and move to DVD. Delete than move on to next project.
Thanks

1) What output sockets does your DVcam have available ? Get a cable that goes from this to a 6pin Firewire socket.
2) You will need analogue to digital conversion hardware to do this, something like the Canopus ADVC 110 would be fine.
3) iMovie will cover most needs.

Why does iMovie stop importing my tape from the camcorder even though it says it is still importing?

Why does iMovie stop importing my tape from the camcorder even though it says it is still importing?

It's difficult to be sure without doing some network packet sniffing, but if it were another app syncing, it would be an awful coincidence, since it seems to happen only while I'm in Reminders.app -- as soon as I click the home button and go back to the home screen, it stops; when I launch Reminders again, it starts again.
Moreover, it happens when I am not in the house, which rules out iTunes syncing.
Note that it's not the syncing spinner (i.e. two arrows chasing each other in a circle) -- it's the data access spinner (like the wait spinner in many apps and the apple.com search box).

Import 8mm movies directly into Elements 12

Curious to know if it is possible to directly import 8mm movies via a camcorder, through a Canopus ADVC110 analog to digital converter device, directly into Premiere Elements 12? If so, how would that be accomplished, and what are the settings necessary for optimal quality?

Yes you can but I recommend (and always use myself) WinDV or Exsate DV Capture Live. There are no settings in PRE that affect the quality of DV import as it (and the other two tools I've mentioned) capture the complete raw video stream from the digitizer. It is the settings on the digitizer that can affect the quality of that stream and, frankly, I find the Canopus manuals so unhelpful and poorly written that I've always just gone with the defaults.
Cheers,
Neale
Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children
If this post or another user's post resolves the original issue, please mark the posts as correct and/or helpful accordingly. This helps other users with similar trouble get answers to their questions quicker. Thanks.

8mm Tape Movies to my MacBook Pro

I have a box of old 8mm tapes from my analog tape recorder. I'd like to preserve these memories but not sure how to go about it. Can anyone recommend a video capture device to use on my Mac? Can I do this project in iMovie?
Any advice is appreciated.
chaz_

I believe the standard method is to project the tapes onto a good screen and use a modern video camera to record the screen. You'd have to use a tripod and be careful to set up the video camera so that the "film plane" (the optical sensor) is parallel to, and centered with respect to, the screen. There may (for all I know) be more expensive equipment to do the job more directly, and thus with less loss of quality, but if you want to keep this an affordable, do-it-yourself project, that wouldn't be an option.
Edit: from what Linc said, it looks like there may be adapters to do it... perhaps I'm thinking of much older tapes than what you are describing.

Converting 8mm tape to DVD via FCP (AJA IoLA TBC??)

I am playing old home video 8mm tapes out of a Handycam S-Video out (audio from the a/v jack), into an AJA IoLA. I am having a problem with dropped frames, they are happening all over the place. And although I have it set to not abort on dropped frames, when I view the captured video, there are hideous audio spikes and the audio and video are completely out of sync by several seconds after these spikes occur. I've tried different tapes and had the same problem.
I have combed the discussions a bit and found that I need a Time Based Corrector. Does my AJA IoLA take care of TBC in some setting somewhere? Or do I need to purchase something else?

FCP 4.5
Mac OS 10.4.10
Quicktime 7.2.0
I'm not completely sure that the AJA allows me to capture to some form of DV. It only gives me a list of specified presets, and it looks like all of them are uncompressed.
This is copied and pasted from my Audio/Video Settings Capture Presets Summary when "AJA Io LA: S-Video 10-bit NTSC US 48KHz" is selected:
+Use this preset when capturing NTSC US material for Uncompressed 10-bit using+
+S-Video input via AJA Io LA+
*Using ProIO Uncompressed 10 bit 422 Video for video input*
*ProIO 10-bit S-Video 29.97Hz US using NTSC*
*29.97 frames per second*
*Uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 at Best quality.*
*24 bits per pixel*
*720 by 486*
*Using ProIO In for audio input*
*Input: Analog - 4 channels*
*Rate: 48.000 kHz*
*Speaker: off*
*Volume: 100, Gain: 0*

Importing 8mm tapes,

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