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  1. Member
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    May 2014
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    New York
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    Hi Everyone,

    Here's my problem: I'm trying to transfer several DV tapes to my MacBook Pro. I bought a converter piece to attach to the old school Fire Wire from the camera to the MacBook and it all seems to work except... when I import the footage into iMovie, the footage (video and audio) is broken, shuttered, and basically, a hot mess.

    Is there anything I can do to make this transfer work? These tapes have precious memories on them and I'd like to preserve and then edit them into something cool for my family.

    Many thanks for your help,
    Ted
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  2. Member
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    Jan 2007
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    Republic of Texas
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    Originally Posted by tedninetwo View Post
    I bought a converter piece to attach to the old school Fire Wire from the camera to the MacBook...
    And therein lies your likeliest problem. What was it--a firewire-to-usb converter? Those don't work.

    Also, you don't give the exact specs of the MacBook, but notebooks and laptops are not the best video capturing devices, especially when trying to capture to the same hard drive as your main OS drive.
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  3. Member
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    May 2014
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    New York
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    It's this exact one:

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003L4P872/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    If this is the culprit, what do you suggest?

    Thanks!
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  4. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    Oct 2001
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    Deep in the Heart of Texas
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    Yes, converters like that are notorious for NOT working with DV transfer. Hardly any converter is.

    In order to be assured of this working correctly, you must use:
    1. DV cam with working DV/Firewire400/1394a port
    2. Firewire400 cable (400 on both ends, whether 4pin mini or 6pin std)
    3. Firewire400 port on you laptop or desktop, hopefully which uses the TI chipset
    4. DV capture/transfer utility

    This might mean you borrow, rent, or purchase a card or even a whole (used?) Mac/PC. But most new-ish Macs use Firewire800 (which DOESN'T work). And again, Adapters DON'T work. My guess is that it has to do with both the need for Synchronous transfer and with a particular handshake protocol which either isn't supported or gets modified by those other connections.

    Scott
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  5. Some folks have had luck controlling DV cameras with a firewire to thunderbolt adapter -- but FW400->800 or USB will definitely not work.
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  6. Member
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    May 2014
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    New York
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    Thank you so much -- everyone. I dug out an old mac with the fire wire port still available and am now going straight from camera to computer. it's the only way. and right now, it seems to be working.

    converter is a joke. refund time on Amazon.
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  7. Banned
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
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    Freedonia
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    Originally Posted by tedninetwo View Post
    converter is a joke. refund time on Amazon.
    Well, the converter may work fine to attach external disk drives via firewire to a Macbook Pro, which is a completely different task than trying to transfer DV over it. But I'd grant you that since the website strongly implies that DV transfer will work (one of the answered questions says so) and there aren't any warnings like "Probably will NOT work correctly for DV transfer from camcorder" that you certainly should be entitled to a refund for it not doing what you bought it for.
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