TV>Mini-DV Camcorder passthrough>Powerbook

[bjolester]

I want to record TV onto my Powerbook (1,25 MHZ, 1,25 GB RAM, 80HD). I connect my Canon MV850i Mini-DV via composite cable to my JVC VCR, and firewire into the Powerbook. The Mini-DV is in AV > DV passthrough mode.

My problem is what application to use. IMovie HD 5 does not support this DV-bridge set-up, it only supports import from Mini-DV cassette. I tried QuickTime Pro 7, and the "record film" command enables import of 384x288 DV with PCM 48 KHZ audio. But I am not sure of the quality of this QuickTime import.

Are there other ways to import TV with my set-up?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Bjørn

[Frobozz]

Give the freeware application Vidi a try for this.

[willrob]

Using a Sony DV camera, I've done exactly this numerous times. iMovie should see the video passing through the camera—assuming your camra does do pass through conversions. My exprience, however, has been with VCR to s-video, which is the only input the Sondy camra has (other than firewire)

[bjolester]

Thank you for your replies!

To activate the AV>DV passthrough function on the Canon MV850i, one has to take out the cassette.
In iMovie HD 5 I get the message "NO CASSETTE IN CAMERA", and just a blue screen. I have just tried the same conversion strategy/set-up on an older MAC with iMovie 4 installed. Initially I also here get the message about the cassette, but when I double click on the camera symbol, the TV broadcast through the VHS camcorder>Canon MV860i, plays on the MAC. So my set-up works with iMovie 4, the only problem now is that iMovie 4 splits up the DV footage in 10 min clips...

When recording from VHS to Mini-DV, and then importing into iMovie 5, everything works fine. It is the passthrough modus that apparantly does not work with my camera. Maybe I just have to stick to iMovie 4 for passthrough set-ups, or check out other applications (as mentioned above).

[Frobozz]

Make sure some video is playing through the camcorder at the time you open iMovie and select the camera. Video should appear in the window and all you need to do is press the record button. If you stop recording and switch to the timeline you'll probably have to quit and reopen iMovie in order to get it to recognize the camera again.

Also, see that the "Play DV video through to DV camcorder" box is checked in the Playback panel in iMovie preferences.

There are many DV devices that can import straight to iMovie that have no tapes. That's why I think it should work for you.

[gspanos@comcast.net]

I've successfully used my Canon ZR80 to transfer VHS tapes to iMovie 5. However, on my latest project, iMovie imports 19:24:06 min clips, forcing me to import such clips individually rather than the entire tape in one big chunk. Is there a reason for this? A way to stop it. Sure would make the editing process easier.

[rumplestiltskin]

IIRC, there's a preference for this that you may rurn off. It is there to support older Macs that do not support >2GB files.

[gspanos@comcast.net]

Thanks for the tip. That box was unchecked, so hopefully it will work for my next project.

[havema-1]

> iMovie HD 5 does not support this DV-bridge set-up, it only supports import from Mini-DV cassette.

Some analog to DV passthrough converters don't work in iMovie HD 5.0.2 or 6.0.2 like they do in iMovie 4.0.1 or other apps:

1. For example, my Sony TRV320 can convert analog video to DV in passthrough mode in iMovie 4.0.1, but not in iMovie HD 6.0.2. Reportedly the same applies at least to Canon MV6iMC, Canon MV750i, too. This is why I still have a copy of iMovie 4.0.1 installed.

The same flaw was in iMovie HD 5.0.2, too: reportedly neither Sony DVMC-DA1, Sony DCR-PC110, Sony DCR-HC30E, Sony TRV-340E, Canon ZR80, Canon ZR200, Canon MV630i, Canon MV750i or Panasonic NV EX3 work in analog to DV passthrough mode to iMovie HD 5.0.2 while they work in iMovie 4.0.1 (apparently some models that don't work in iMovie HD 5.0.2 work in iMovie HD 6, though).

2. It is also not possible to record live DV with no tape in the camcorder (i.e. the camcorder in Rec mode, so that what goes in the camcorder's lens, imports in real-time to iMovie) from a camcorder (Sony TRV320, for example) to iMovie HD 6.0.1 because iMovie complains "Camera No Tape". In iMovie 4.0.1 and BTV Pro this works OK with no tape in the camcorder.

Analog-to-DV workaround #1: Import using $20/40 BTV/BTV Pro or iMovie 4.0.1. Then import it to iMovie HD or, to save time and HD space, drop the .dv file in the Media-folder (see below here and here).

Analog-to-DV workaround #2: (This worked with my Sony TRV320 with iMovie HD 5.0.1 but not anymore with v5.0.2 or v6.0). Put a tape in the camcorder and press the camcorder's PLAY-button to play the tape in VTR mode (usually the tape must be OUT when doing analog-DV conversion!), then in iMovie hit the Import-button (so iMovie starts to import from the tape), then press the camcorder's STOP-button. iMovie should then continue importing from the analog source as usual.

Live import workaround #1: Import using BTV/BTV Pro or iMovie 4.0.1. (Remember to disable the camcorder's demo mode).

Live import workaround #2: Put a tape in the camcorder and put it into CAMERA mode. Launch iMovie HD 6.0.2 -- its import mode should show the live feed from the camcorder. Remove the tape -- iMovie HD should continue to show and import live feed from the camcorder. The drawback with this approach is that it produces wear and tear to the camcorder. If you keep the tape in the camcorder, it may also go into standby mode if the tape is paused.

http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_6_bugs.html#analog_DV

[havema-1]

> iMovie imports 19:24:06 min clips, forcing me to import such clips individually

Sounds like your iMovie project disk/volume is formatted as FAT32 which has a max file size of 4 GB which happens to be about 20 minutes of DV data.

iMovie insists that its projects are stored on Mac OS Extended -formatted volumes. It can't properly save to other formats and you may get all sorts of unexpected bahaviour (slo-mo effect not working etc) if the format is wrong.

[gspanos@comcast.net]

Thanks for the tip. That box was unchecked, so hopefully it will work for my next project.

It did work.