Quality of MiniDV Tape Used

Did a quick forum search and didn't see anything, and figured this was as relevant a place to post, so...
Has anyone ever noticed quality differences when using different types of MiniDV tapes? For instance, right now I'm using Sony Premiums and recording in HD. They look fine. This summer I'm going to be doing some more professional/promotional work for a friend's company and recording a friend's wedding. Should I spend the extra money on the Sony HD tapes? And I also see they carry an 85 minute tape...sounds enticing...
Anyone ever used any of these?
Edit: Here's Sony's tapes: http://is.gd/sh5a
Message was edited by: Aarlines

Different grades of tape can have no effect on qualities such as sharpness and colour etc. as everything is recorded as zeroes and ones.
If the digital code is present there can be no variation in appearance unlike analogue tapes and films.
The only way quality can be affected is by dropouts which can produce mosaic images or no image at all.
The Pro tapes are identical to normal ones in all aspects but one.
During manufacture, batches of tape are tested for things like dropouts. All tapes will have a certain amount of dropouts.
Any batches that have significantly less dropouts than average are put to one side and used for "Pro" quality.
Of course, this does not give a 100% guarantee that the tapes are perfect, as the tested portion may be great, but a few inches further along there may be dodgy parts.
But it means you probably have a better chance on average of getting a tape with fewer dropouts.
FWIW I have never experienced the effects of dropouts and I invariably use the cheapest Panasonic tape costing less than £2 ($3).
P.S. Be wary of the 85 minute tapes. Apart from the excessive additional cost they are mechanically thinner and therefore more prone to damage.
Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

Similar Messages

How can I import from a MiniDV tape and keep the clip order

A long time ago, I edited some MiniDV video together and recorded back out to a MiniDV tape using some older version of iMovie (ten years ago). I have latest version of iMovie (10.0.2) and have imported all of the edited video back into a new library. Unfortunately, the library is separating the video into separate clips and sorting them by the original timestamps of the original video (before editing). As a result, the clip are in a jumbled mess of an order.
Note that I am just importing the video from the MiniDV tapes so that I can export it as a Quicktime file. I really don't need the video to be split into clips at all. I would actually prefer to just import the entire video as one big clip.
Any idea how I can preserve the order of the

One thing that I have noticed is that Apples built-in camera is optimized for Face Time, so it sometimes captures at 30 frames per second, but if there is not a lot of motion in the frame, it might use 12 or 15 frames per second. So it has variable frame rates. This is great for FaceTime, but not so great if you are trying to keep the audio in sync.
The way to fix this is to use QuickTime Pro or MPEG Streamclip to save the movie out with identical specs except to specify 30 frames per second (or 25 in a PAL country).
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Just a thought.
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What is the best miniDV camcorder to buy to export miniDV tapes to Macbook pro?

Hey there,
I have miniDV tapes with home videos that I want to export to iMovie or FCP 5.0 so I can turn the footage into digital video clips to burn to DVD's. They were shot on a Sony handicam that no longer works. I bought a Panasonic PV-gs15 in order to do the job but it doesn't export video, only pictures from SD card. Now I just want to get the best camcorder or device (within financial reason) for the job. Can anyone tell me the best way/Camcorder to get this video off these miniDV tapes and onto my computer please?

Hi
May be You find something of interest in my notes regarding this (and iMovie - but it is General)
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

Why Is There A loss In Quality When I impoer a Minidv tape into Imovie 08

I have the latest version of Imovie and this is my first Mac.
I am using SD MiniDV camcorder (NTSC). I import the entire tape into iMovie. Then I export it to a large h.264 m4v file. I am somewhat disappointed about the picture quality of the m4v file.
When I play the tape through my camcorder connected to the TV through svideo things it looks pretty good.
When I play the m4v file on MacbookPro connected to a TV via svdeo or using the TV (DVI to HDMI) as second monitor the picture quality isn't as crisp.
Any idea what I am doing wrong. My goal is to move all my Minidv home moves onto a hard drive at the best possible quality. My tapes are getting old and this seems like the best way of preserving them.
Thanks,
Dan

sorry for 'overwhelming' you with info
yes, all apps copy the dv-encoded material from miniDV devices 'natively' = lossless import..
but only iM08 then adds some 'loss' .. nobody knows exactly, what & how.. but you are not able to EXport lossless from within iM08 ..
example: import dv, export dv = adds blurr and 'magnifies' somehow the same file .. ( ! )
using iMHD≤6, FCE/P allows you, to export lossless = highest quality possible (except the parts of your project, which need renderning, e.g. titles, transitions...)
example: import dv, export dv = same quality ...
so, if _pic quality_ is your major concern, avoid iM08 ..
if you want fast results and export quality doesn't matter: iM08
if you want a Library off all imports ever and full integration into AppleTV/, YT.. = iM08
if you want other codecs than dv and simple use = iM08
if you want all imports for any future project and high dv quality = FCE/P
if you want easy to use and high dv quality = iMHD≤6 ..
if you want other codecs than dv and Hollywood quality = FCP

How can I convert MiniDV tapes to DVD? I've use a Canon GL 2 and an iMac about 1 year old. I'm trying to use iMovie and I've installed the latest drivers.

How can I convert MiniDV tapes to DVD? I've use a Canon GL 2 and an iMac about 1 year old. I'm trying to use iMovie and I've installed the latest drivers.

MiniDV was a great format, one I still use often. I also still use iMovie HD6 to process it and, for all the iterations of iMovie that followed it, I still believe it was one of Apple's greatest movie software programmes, next to Final Cut Pro, using a timeline method of editing. That was also in the day which Apple put Superdrives into their computers, so that you could not only make your movie in iMovie, but you could render it to iDVD and then burn the DVD. Now you need to buy an external burner.
Since iMovie HD6 and iDVD 6 were "universal" software, it has continued to work through the many OS releases since it came out with Tiger, I believe it was. So, it may still work with Mavericks too and, if you could locate a copy of iLife 06, probably used, you might enjoy the difference that HD6 has over all iMovie releases since then.
Not saying you can't process your MiniDV with current iMovie versions, but I'm not the one to speak about that.

Which MiniDV tapes should I use?

Hi everybody,
This may be kind of a dumb question but here goes...
I just bought a Canon ZR830 MiniDV Camcorder through
Amazon.
Is it okay to use Panasonic MiniDV Tapes with a
Canon camcorder? (that's what Amazon tried to upsell me).
Any help is mucho appreciated!
Mike

Thanks, Matt =)
I figured as much but I had major problems trying to get my first camcorder (a SONY DCR-HC30) to work with iMovie so I just wanted to get all my little ducks in a row and facing the right direction before I started another project.
Thanks again!
Mike

Question about outputting DVCPRO HD to MiniDV Tape

Hi There,
I have a DVCPRO HD 720p24 project that I need to output onto MiniDV and I have a few questions. I am running FCS2 with the latest updates.
1) I have an older sony camera (DCR-PC100) that I am outputting to. I would like to maintain my 16x9 aspect ratio. Provided I have selected anamorphic in my sequence settings, will my camera record a 720x480 image with the aspect ration intact? The camera is just a 4:3 consumer camera and it's a bit older. Just don't want to lose any quality.
2) As it states in my signature, I'm working on a MBP so my only video output for coloring monitoring and that type of thing is through firewire and out of my camera. This doesn't work correctly from my native 720p24 sequence - it just sticks on one frame. I am already in the process of rebuilding a 720x480 NTSC sequence. Is this the only way I can output properly to a monitor?
Thank you for reading my post

Hi Spiff,
Well I mainly assumed so because the most practicle way to screen a selection of films in one session at a short film festival is to compile a tape with all the films set to one ratio (usually 4:3)and I thought you were specifically asked to send a tape.
However it would be wise indeed to call them.
Some festivals use/compile miniDV or DVDs some others BetaSP or DigiBeta.
With regard to transferring the film onto your PC 100 (Mighty PC 100! It was very popular 4-5 years ago amongst domestic camcorders, so popular that Sony put a PC 12O in the market with enahanced features) providing it works fine, then you will be fine to use it. Renting a deck or using a pro camera with miniDV capability will not improve the quality of your video.
If your anamorphic version looks fine then lay that one on the tape.
Try to use Panasonic pro master 63 minutes miniDV tapes. THey are white tapes.
Good luck with the festival!
G

Hdv & minidv tapes

is there a much different bt hdv & minidv tapes to shoot hdv? Have been using minidv to shoot hdv format but wonder if using hdv tape would preserve a better quality?
thank you & happy holiday.
JP

HDV tape is more reliable, has higher energy, and will live longer on a shelf. Quality won't be affected in either case don't think. mini DV tape tends to be prone to stretching so it may lose your recording after being used once... I'd not use a mini DV tape twice ever.
Jerry

Compression of MiniDV Tapes

I have quite a few MiniDV tapes stored up, and have put a few of them on my hard drive. Unfortunately, these tapes take about about 12 GBs per hour- and that's more room than I can afford (one or two of those is ok, but 20+?). What format do you recommend I save these in? I've tried saving them as MP4's in iMovie, but I'm a little bit iffy about the quality loss. Surely there's a format that keeps most of the quality with less space. Any help here would be greatly appreciated- the tapes keep stacking up.

Yes, iMovies use about 13 GB per hour of video as imported. If you edit them, the size can increase dramatically, Most of the movies I have made are just under two hours and use up 25-30GB each, but several of them ballooned up to over 100GB.
It is not practical nor advisable to keep your edited iMovies on your computer's drive--unless you invest in several 1000 GB(1TB) drives.
You need to think through what you eventually want to do with all your movie tapes.
I disagree with you that tapes 'stacking up' is a problem. The miniDV tapes hold up well over time and the space they take up is minimal.
If you want to put your iMovies onto DVDs, you should import them a few at a time, just the portions that you want in one iMovie. The limitation for iDVD is total time length, not size. Using single-layer DVDs, you can burn up to two hours--that would include any menu/submenu videos and audios as well.
If you do a 'save as disk image' for each of your iDVD projects--and you should--you will be creating an image file that is self-contained, and can be used to burn DVDs of that same project in the future using Disk Utility.
SInce the disk image is self-contained, you can safely delete the original iMovie and iDVD for that project after you are finished with it.*See next sentence about exporting iMovie to camcorder.
I also export all my edited iMovies back to DV tapes as a way to save my movies*.
Those DV tapes are small, take up hardly any room, and keep my precious movies in digital format, ready for whatever technology follows DVDs.
But, I don't want to rely solely on DVDs to preserve my movies since DVD disks can crack, break, get stepped on, melt or meet some other disaster. If you have children or grandchildren around, accidents can and will happen.
I am a bit paranoid about saving my movies. I also keep a set of my DVDs in a safe-deposit box so that I can always duplicate it if need be, and I have each iDVD project's disk image saved on two external drives.
I have made DVDs of our family videos and still photos for a 20-year period. I have one plastic bin of the raw footage DV tapes, and another bin with the edited movies saved to DV tapes. Each of the bins is about the size of two shoeboxes. I consider them as valuables and feel fortunate that they occupy so little space!
There is no need to try to change the format of the DV footage. iMovie works best with it, and you don't want to do any conversion that may result in loss of quality.

For SD camcorder are miniDV tape and Firewire bad choices?

I just purchased a camcorder (Panasonic SDR_H40) which appears incompatible with iMovie HD 6, so I am going to return it. I currently have iMovie HD 6.0.3 and will probably stay with that version (based on some discussions on this site). I was going to buy a miniDV tape camcorder but they seem hard to find and the salesman said that this format was becoming obsolete. Also other discussions on this site suggest that Apple may be phasing out Firewire. Assuming that I can find a SD miniDV camcorder, presumably with a Firewire output, is this a bad choice for a camcorder? I'd appreciate any help.
Tricia

for 'Standard' (=not HiDef) video, miniDv is still an excellent choice:
° less compression => excellent pic quality
° no limitation in 'disk space' => insert new tape = another 13GB/60min recording time..
° easy/convenient long term storage of 'raw data' => keep the tapes
° 100% compatible with iMovie 6 and other versions..
prob here: actual consumer MacBooks lack a fw-port => miniDV import is via fw only.
your options: use your 'old' Mac; use a MacMini; use a MacPro ...
nobody can tell you about 'phasing' of fw on Macs .. +'we don't comment on future products'+ ..

HD Camcorder w/iMac - MiniDV tapes or Digital harddrive better w/iMovie08

I'm looking at purchasing a new Canon camcorder either the HV20 or HG10 and have a new iMac with iMovie08. The HV20 uses the miniDV tapes and the HG10 has a 40 GB harddrive. Does anyone have any suggestions between the two types? I like the idea of not having to buy tapes but wasn't sure if I would have any import or quality problems with using the camcorder with the harddrive. Thanks.

Welcome to Apple discussions robnorv,
Look through the threads here and compare the number of problems encountered with hard drive cams, as opposed to miniDV cams. The choice should be clear and, as a bonus, with miniDV you will have unfettered access to use iMovie 06, should you find that iMovie 08 doesn't offer you enough editing solutions. You will have some quality degradation using a hard drive cam due to the high compression the format uses. DV is what iMovies all use and a miniDV cam will need no conversion processes to get the video into any iMovie programme you choose to use. Do some more research about these factors before you decide.
Tape cams also allow you to back up your completed video to a tape for archival purposes. If you go miniDV, it is good practice to buy quality tapes and always stick with one brand. Different manufacturers use somewhat different tape formulations and changing tape brands can cause head clogging problems. I bought several boxes of one brand (Panasonic MQ) online, where you will find good deals.

Best format/process to archive raw minidv tapes..

I'm trying to find the best way to archive raw minidv footage to external hard drive. I'm selling the video camera and will no longer have a way to play the tapes, so i'd like to preserve the raw footage so I can later edit it or output in some other way. I'm well aware of the size of raw footage, I'm just not sure of the process of getting raw video off the camera and onto the hard drive.
I've almost exclusively used the camera for viewing and playback of tapes and am just now getting into imovie (getting a new tapeless video camera, so i need to learn the way).
thanks for the help

Hi
There are no good economically reasonable way to do that.
• One tape needs 13-14Gb space to be stored.
• Even if possibly - external hard disks are fragile - tapes 1000 times (or more) less so
A drop -> dead
They get mechanically old - and stops to spinn especially if not used from time to time
To keep movie material up to date on hard disk storage - means a maintenance scheme and DISIPLINE.
If this is a must then the Hard Disk HAS TO BE - *Mac OS EXtended formatted*.
UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange has a 4Gb limit resulting in corrupted movie files.
AND miniDV tapes are interlaced material - not optimal for iM'08 & 09 - they discard every second line.
So if You want to store 100% on hard disk - *USE iMovie HD 6* (or prior) or FinalCut
to do Your safety QuickTime (full quality) .mov files.
My strategy is
• Tapes are easy to store and get a cheap miniDV Camera to use as Playback/Capture tool. (about 300 up till today)
Yours Bengt W

MiniDV Tape issues

Hi. I am using P-Pro CS4, and trting to capture miniDV tape without the jagged edges (interlace?). When i use the de-interlace filter the image is unacceptably soft. Can someone help with steps, from the beginning on how best to capture and work with minidv tapes keeping the near broadcast quality and no jagged edges? Thanks!

Hi All,
I am not sure how to answer some of your questions. I am not at a computer with Premier pro, perhaps i should hold this until I am (also, in a few weeks i will have CS6 at work, now I have nothing).
It could be that I am setting up the project not to match the video (?). Also, I guess this has really been done on SC5 (I forget i did most of it at school, at home I have CS4).
What is "SD"?
I did not realize that the Canon GL2 gives me much choice in how it shoots, it is digital, but not HD. I never saw anything about "shooting interlace" or not.
So, the tapes were transferred onto the computer in a tape deck, I assume it is attached via firewire. I always wondered if I could do this without going through Premier Pro? As I mentioned, I am not there and cannot recall what the project settings were.
Is there different miniDV camera-setting? Should therebe just one "best' setting for minDV tapes? Can anyone enlighten me?
So, the files are .AVI and that's when they look jagged. I put one file on a computer at home, attached to my 55inch LED and they still looked jagged. I assume these are "raw" files? That is unprocessed? Maybe I am doing this part all wrong?
The final product will be for DVD, but if it is good enough, maybe for a TV broadcast. Doesn't this get decided in the "export' after i am done editing?
I am just at a loss as to why it plays back with thesedges. I don't think it did that with the old monitors.
So, if anyone can tell me about the settings, i will double check next time i am at capturing.
Thanks. Let me know if more info is needed.
Richard

Unable to properly capture HD video from miniDV tape in FCE

unable to capture HD video from miniDV tape
When I connect my Sony HDR-HC3 miniDV HDV camcorder to my iMac via firewire cable and use Final Cut Express to capture the video from the tape, I do not get a Capture window that allows me to specify in and out points, I just get a playback window that immediately starts capturing and the only option I have in this window is hit ESC to stop capturing. If I let this capture window continue to capture the video from the camera with miniDV HD tape, then the entire tape would be captured as one massive single video clip.
QUESTION: Is there something I change or do to make the proper capture window appear where I can specify in and out points to capture from tape for each clip?
NOTE: using same camera and tape with iMovie with automatic capture enabled, all the clips get captured properly. I also tried to use the manual setting in iMovie and it worked too.
More details(read only if you want more information)
I have a several miniDV tapes containing HD video created on a Sony Sony HDR-HC5 and Sony HDR-HC7. Unfortunately, both these camera were stolen, and I have since moved to a camera that uses flash memory, not tape. However, I need to get the video footage off these tapes, so I bought a used Sony HDR-HC3, it plays the HD miniDV tapes just fine and iMovie reads the video from this camera just fine, but Final Cut Express does not.
When I setup Final Cut Express, I used the Easy Setup and specified:
Format: HD
Rate: 29.97 fps
Use: HDV-Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60
These setting match those of the camera and recorded tape. If I use any other settings but these, then Final Cut Express never sees the camera and never opens any capture window at all. Using Quicktime 10 movie inspector on the clips captured by iMovie from same camera, all the clips match this setting too.
Final Cut Express version 4.0.1
iMovie 09 Version 8.0.2 (821)
iMac 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3 running
Mac OS X Version 10.6.4
My Final Cut Express scratch disk is a Seagate 2TB external USB 2.0 Hard Drive that has been formatted to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This external disk is also where iMovie successfully captured all the video from the same camera.

Thanks for the answer. It makes me sad. I thought using Final Cut Express would be an upgrade to a more robust editing system from iMovie, yet iMovie does a superior job of logging and capturing video from HDV video on miniDV tape in comparison to FCE. Not only does iMovie capture each clip on the tape into it's own video file automatically, it also includes timestamp information in the filename indicating when the clip was originally recorded, which appears to be something that is missing from Final Cut Express. Now I realize that HDV miniDV cameras had a relatively short life span in the consumer marketplace and have since all been replaced by flash and hard drive based AVCHD cameras, but from circa 2004 to 2007, miniDV HDV camcorders were very popular and I am sure there are lots of consumers that must be super frustrated by Final Cut Express limited ability to log and capture clips properly from these cameras.
Assuming I do not want to make a rough cut of video in iMovie and prefer to begin my editing project in Final Cut Express (not doing XML export of iMovie project), I need to determine the best way to get clips captured via iMovie into Final Cut Express and determine if there is anything inferior in the iMovie captured clips that I need to be aware of. So far it appears that both iMovie and Final Cut Express reduce the 5.1 surround sound captured on the HDV miniDV tapes to stereo sound, which is not a big lose given the 5.1 sound was recorded from camera's built-in microphone, but it makes me wonder if the video is reduced in any way by the iMovie import process, examining the video in quicktime's inspector window the video appears to be the same in both iMovie and FCE, but I'll research the answers to these questions elsewhere on this forum and post additional questions if I do not find the information I need.

Loading content from multiple MiniDV tapes to one DVD

I am being offered this "One Touch" feature on iDVD to copy my Camera footage to a DVD. I am wondering what the best process is to follow if I wanted to, say, merge :30 minutes of content from one MiniDV and :20 minutes of content from another. Should I be uploading to iMovie instead? If I have the ultimate objective of a. having copies on DVD instead of MiniDV and b. using the content for video editing in iMovie, what is the best process to follow?
1. Move all MiniDV to DVD and then work from that?
2. Import clips into iMovie and move them to iDVD?
Tips, best practices, advice appreciated.

Brian,
It's pretty much agreed here that the best storage medium for your MiniDV tapes, is the tape itself.
I tried OneStep once. Yuk. I bring everything into iMovie HD.
1.: No.
2.: Yes
iDVD 5 Getting Started
Apple's iMovie Learning Site
Apple's iDVD Learning Site
Ken Stone: Authoring in iDVD 5
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iMovie HD & iDVD 5: The Missing Manual
iPhoto 5: The Missing Manual

Quality of MiniDV Tape Used

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