Transferring home videos to Mac

I'm new to Mac and want to the easiest method/what equipment I need to transfer tapes through a VHS recorder onto the Mac hard drive in order to edit film and eventually burn DVDs of the final edited product; also direct from video camera tape format onto Mac which I assume is pretty much the same process.
Any thoughts for a real non-tecchie? And in Noddy language please!

I was in this same boat about 3 years ago when I first got my mac, partly for this very purpose. I wanted a self contained, easy way to transfer Vhs to DVD with user friendly software. 3 years later, I'm still trying to figure it out and am finally on my way.
First, as the others mentioned, you will need a DV converter. I just bought a Canopus ADVC 110 and it works pretty slick. As the others mentioned, it is possible to use a DV camera to import the video directly to Imovie, but it sounds like in the UK you may have issues with cameras.
Another thing to consider is what software to capture the video with.
I wanted to use Imovie because it was easy and in the Mac to begin with, what I found out after many forum questions and experimenting at home was that Imovie, at least the version I have, only imports every other line of resolution of the videos. So when I captured a home movie from my video camera into IMovie and then used a software program (I used Toast) to make a DVD it looked like garbage on my TV. The verison of Imovie I have however is 08' (I think) so I'm not sure if the new version imports better quality now. I would check on that before you capture/import all your vhs into Imovie only to find out it's going to make your home movies look awful on a TV.
To combat this, I had to get Final Cut Express which I am now finally starting to learn how to use.
Once you determine how you are going to get the videos onto the Mac, either DV Converter or the right camera, then you need to decide if your Imovie will give you the right output of image quality, then burning the DVD's isn't too bad.
IDVD works pretty slick and there are videos you can watch on the Mac website that show you how to use it.
Like I said, I've used TOAST a few times and it's pretty easy and user friendly as well.
Hope this helps a little.

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Couple of things:
There is virtually no standardisation of video formats. The file suffix is if little use to use as, in the case of video, files are just containers for data streams encoded and decoded by Codecs. Pretty much every manufacturer has their own codecs for each and every camera. Put it this way: every Jpeg still is pretty much the same, as there is an agreed standard for that format. There is no such guarantee with avi, mov etc. That's why the model and format of the camera is important.
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Moving home movie/video from mac to ipad3

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What is the best way to transfer home videos from one mac to another?

What is the best way to transfer home videos from one mac to another?

hustonsmom wrote:
the commercial is deceiving to me. i am not the most techy person and i thought that you could share full song playlist which to me meant the songs also. that is all, it wasnt anything you had said but i am really thankful you enlightened me because i would still be racking my brain trying to figure out how to do it.
You can share songs, but if there is DRM protection on the song, it will not play on the other device unless you also transfer the rights to the other device. You are getting into the problem of music piracy.

Is a mac mini good enough for editing home video?

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At least, it's the first price to do it.
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Transferring large home video library - some questions

Hi folks,
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So my questions:
1. can AppleTV read chapter titles as in " Lucas' birth Sept. 21, 2000" or does it just say 'Chapter x". ?
2. is MetaX the best app to type titles which will stay with the file? ie. if i made some m4vs, I can see myself sending some to my folks. if they drop it in Itunes, will the information pop up (I plan to detail the dates, places and ppl). It's a large project but worth it in the end I believe.
Anything else I should be worried, concerned or need to do?
Cheers and thanks in advance for reading.
Cheers,
Keebler

Keebler wrote:
Right now, the current build of HB can not support chapter markers, but a new build is on the way with that fix.
what do you mean by this? i use handbrake and it supports chapters. do you mean it doesn't support the naming of the chapters?
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Keebler wrote:
2. is MetaX the best app to type titles which will stay with the file? ie. if i made some m4vs, I can see myself sending some to my folks. if they drop it in Itunes, will the information pop up (I plan to detail the dates, places and ppl). It's a large project but worth it in the end I believe.
yes. i use MetaX and never had a problem.

Transferring Ipad videos (home not purchased) to PC ?

How do i upload my home videos from my ipad to my PC ( windows vista) ? When I transfer my photos from the ipad using Windows photo gallery they all show up but the videos dont or dont play.
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iOS and iPod: Syncing photos using iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4236
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Now plug the flash drive into the iPad using the camera connection kit. Open the Photos app, the movie/photo files should appear & you can import. (You can not export using the camera connection kit.)
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http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57401068-285/secrets-of-the-ipad-camera-conn ection-kit/
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MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats;
Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
 Cheers, Tom

HELP!!!! Trying to transfer my HOME videos to my Mac!

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Transferring home videos to Mac

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