Trouble capturing tape into FCE 4.0

I am a beginning FCE 4.0 user, who is extremely frustrated. The manual has not helped me at all.
I had been using iMovie HD 06 for some time with acceptable results. I have a tape with a lot of overexposed scenes that I was not able to fix in iMovie 06. I do not care for iMovie 8, since it is a step down from version 6, and is a much more limited program. So I thought I’d give FCE a try, since it has superior tools for color correction, brightness and contrast, etc.
Now I can’t even capture my tape the way I did in iMovie 06. If I understand it correctly, I either have to set in and out points on every clip on the tape I want to capture, to get individual clips as in iMovie. This is extremely tedious, and will take me many hours, if not weeks, since I have well over 150 clips on that particular tape. Or I have to capture the tape “now”, which will result in just one continuous clip, with a length of 1 hour. I can then run the command “Mark/DV Start/Stop Detect”, which will divide the clip into segments, but this still leaves me with just one clip in the browser. I can then cut the clip on the timeline into individual clips, and drag these to the browser one by one. This again is very tedious. I have a feeling I am doing something wrong, and that it must be possible to capture the individual clips to FCE. If anyone can tell me how, please do.
I also tried to open two previous iMovie 06 projects into FCE. Unexpectedly, this gave me two very different results.
The first one seemed to open into FCE just fine. All the individual clips were in the browser, and the movie was on the time line. The clips are neatly “Arranged by Name” in the browser window, in the correct order. However, when I played back the movie in the Canvas window, there was no sound, only beeps. So I rendered the movie. Now I am not able to add any effects to the movie in the timeline. I cannot drag any transitions in between clips, nor can I add any color correction and/or any other effects.
The second movie did not open correctly. After opening the project, the sort order of the clips in the browser is in icon view and is wrong. It starts with Clip 169 through Clip 202, and then continues with Clip 01 through Clip 168. Why?
However, when I choose “List View”, the arrange order is correct. When I then choose any of the icon views, and “Arrange by Name” I get the following screwed up sort order:
Clip 01 through 10, Clip 100 – 109, Clip 11, Clip 110 – 119, Clip 12, Clip 120 – 129, Clip 13, Clip 130 – 139, Clip 14, …… Clip 190 –199, Clip 20, Clip 200 – 202, Clip 21 – 99. Why is FCE opening one iMovie project seemingly correctly, but the second one incorrectly?
Again, no sound but beeps, so I have to render. And again, I am not able to add any transitions or effects anywhere.
So far, this is as far as I have gotten with FCE, which is to say, I have accomplished nothing of what I wanted to accomplish. What should I do?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi(Bonjour)!
+I can then run the command “Mark/DV Start/Stop Detect”, which will divide the clip into segments, but this still leaves me with just one clip in the browser. I can then cut the clip on the timeline into individual clips, and drag these to the browser one by one.+
Capture the entire tape is my preferred way to go. I use Mark/DV start/stop detect to break the long clip in segment AND make all those segments independent with the COMMAND-U shortcut (after selecting all segments in browser). Collapse the original clip toggle switch and work with your new clips.
+However, when I played back the movie in the Canvas window, there was no sound, only beeps.+
IMovie and final cut express captured material don't support the same audio container as iMovie works with DV stream and FCE with DVCPRO. The rendering for audio from clips captured in iMovie is normal.
+Now I am not able to add any effects to the movie in the timeline. I cannot drag any transitions in between clips, nor can I add any color correction and/or any other effects.+
IMovie doesn't need "handles" in front and end of clip to add transitions. FCE need extra material to compose the transition (that's the way professionnal video editing software work) and keep the sequence's lenght constant.
I dont understand why you cannot add filters. Please do a test. Import any still image from your user directory images folder into a sequence. Add a color correction filter, and see if it works.
+After opening the project, the sort order of the clips in the browser is in icon view and is wrong. It starts with Clip 169 through Clip 202, and then continues with Clip 01 through Clip 168. Why?+
All versions of FCE have this sorting bug when list view-arrange by name is selected. If you capture from tape and use a 3 digits numbers convention for your clip, you should bypass this behavior.
+So far, this is as far as I have gotten with FCE, which is to say, I have accomplished nothing of what I wanted to accomplish. What should I do?+
FCE is designed mainly to capture material and edit it. Processing a iMovie project is not the ideal workflow. Can you consider to start your projects from scratch within FCE ?
Michl Boissonneault

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Hi
My list on this topic.
*Analog to Mac/Digital*
From
• S-VHS, VHS, VHS-C - Camera or VCR (VHS-C needs adaptor cassette)
• Video 8, Hi8
Can be done via
• Camera and tape or video trough function (if present) (miniDV or Digital8)
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............Canopus ADVC-110 (now Grass Valley ADVC-110) - (two ways)
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............Elgato EyeTV
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• iMovie’08 & 09 & 11
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SCART - Must use an SCART-adaptor with in and out switch. The one that came with Camera is one way. Camera ----> VCR/TV - not other way around. (common connector in EU - not in US)
Why
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Unable to properly capture HD video from miniDV tape in FCE

unable to capture HD video from miniDV tape
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More details(read only if you want more information)
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Aloha,
Just loaded CS6 and my 1st project is to convert some VHS tapes into HD DVD's. The VHS player I'm using has R/G/B Component video out & HDMI in/out. My PC video card is a Radeon 6750 with 1 x HDMI (in use for my monitor), 1 x DVI-I, and 1 x D-SUB. My mobo, a Gigabyte GA-MA78GN-US2H, has 1x D-SUB, 1 x DVI-D, & 1 x HDMI. I don't believe I can use both HDMI slots simultaneously. I'm not even sure I can use any of the onboard graphica ports while I'm using an external video card.
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Mahalo-n-aloha from the big Island where the water is always warm and clear, and where now (Jan-March) the Humpback Whales play.
konadon

Usually, video ports on a video card or motherboard are out only. You would need a capture card, or external box to get VHS video digitized into your computer.
For VHS tapes, I would recommend getting a Hauppauge HD-PVR available here: http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html
It would save you a lot of headaches and make your job much easier.
If you'd like specifics: the HD-PVR has component inputs with optical audio, along with S-video and composite connections.
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