Unable to capture DV to FCE, apple support told me a PC is the way forward!

Question

Hi there
I recently bought an apple imac with a view to editing DV footage taken previously.
I had captured some of these tapes on to a PC before buying an imac. These files I was able to edit on FCE and imovie (once I had transferred them from the pc hard drive). HOWEVER although I could control my DV camera through imovie and FCE none of my old DV tapes could be captured to the imac. An error message states that the frame rate is incorrect.
I have apple care protection and have spent ages trying to get support for this only to be told by apple support that FCE and imovie will not capture my old DV tapes! The support person told me that I should go back to a PC if I want to do the job properly!
Unfortunately I have just spent thousands on this very nice looking imac (and FCE) that is apparently unable to do the most basic capturing. Does anybody have any ideas (other than going back to pc) for getting my DV footage captured?
Needles to say I have found all this incredibly frustrating as a new apple user. Are these sorts of issues common to imacs?
cheers
rupert

Answer 1

Hey Rich,
thanks for getting back to me,
I shot tape previously (in 2000) on a sony mini DV camcorder set to SP. I have since bought a new sony mini DV camcorder (DCR-HC40 NTSC).
With the new camera and a PC I was able to capture my 2000 tapes and edit them. I was also able to edit the earlier footage I had transffered from my PC hard drive to the i-mac on i-movie and FCE.
Unfortunatley everytime I have tried to capture my old tapes directly onto the i-mac I have had the message "preview disabled" from FCE and the following from i-movie:
"The camera is sending half-sized frames, which iMovie can’t accept. Check your camera’s record mode (this is the setting that affects recording quality, which determines the total recording time on a tape). The mode must be set to “SP” or “LP.” If that doesn't help, try removing all the cables and batteries from the camera, wait a minute, replace them, and then reset the date, time, and record mode."
I have spent weeks on the support site and found a thread that recommended re-installing quicktime etc but nothing has worked.
I connect to the i-mac via firewire and am able to control the camera, capture my newly recorded miniDV's (so it is not a problem with the proprietary software application etc) but nothing seems to work for my old tapes.
Apple support told me that apple doesn't do older miniDV's and that a pc would be the only way I could capture my tapes. I couldn't believe it! Unfortuatley I no longer have access to my old pc.
Any ideas? Is there any other way of getting DV onto my i-mac?
And thanks for your interest in my problem here
regards
rupert