Best Mac DV Capture Software?

[NA87]

Hi all, new to the site. I read that despite being professional level editing software, Adobe Premiere Pro CC is not the ideal software for capturing DV video (from an ADVC-55). What alternatives are available for Mac and how are they better? Thanks.

[MovingParts]

What generations of iMovie do you have?

since iMovie08, iMovie does a forced interlacing on material during capturing (no matter if needed or not). You will probably not see the effect, unless you play it from a DVD standalone player to a Tube TV. I also heard that iMovie08 onwards throw away half the fields (don't know, if that is true). The change is in chroma DV (4:2:0) and in DVCpro (4:1:1). A prouser once looked at the DV and the same file as DVCpro from me and you could see that they are different see picture http://forum.slashcam.de/download.php?id=11922

If you can get iMovie 06 or lower, you can use that (I used it with my ADVC-300 all the time). But be aware, when you save the files and than go to "send as highest quality", because you want to have a DV file, that you can use with other Apps (like Handbrake to convert the file to a smaller format), be aware that iMovie changes the DV into DVCpro upon export (called "send" in some versions of iMovie).

To overcome this I capture with iMovie05 or 06. Then I just save the project (don't cut it, unless you use a version up to iMovie3 or 4? maybe, because the cuts will be missing later. later iMovie versions always keep the whole scratch file and don't delete deleted scenes, they just set markers and let it look like deleted on the visible surface within the iMovie editor). After saving the project I navigate to the project icon and ctrl+click on it and choose "show package content", I then see the untouched DV file. I open that in Mpegstreamclip-App and in this App I cut it (it has far limited effect features, like fade out, than iMovie, though).
If you need effects from iMovie and want to have no degradation step in between (I mean DV -> DVCpro -> target h.264 but instead DV -> target h.264) I only cut out the scene I want the effect on and let that render by iMovie and then save as DVCpro by iMovie and then "glue" it together with the rest of the movie in Mpegstreamclip.

Why not export/send from DV-project file directly out of iMovie in the target format (e.g. h.264)? Because, a) if you use iMovie 08 onwards your material will be already touched upon capturing and b) if you use iMovie up to 06, you will have no recent h.264 encoder. Handbrake or Avidemux will come with the recent (better) encoders.

If you want to do this and have no iMovie 06 that can run on your Intel Mac, you can just buy a PowerPC Mac (I sugguest an ibook G4 or PowerBook G4 from 2004 or 2005 since it will come with iMovie 05 preinstalled, earlier years wil of course have earlier iMovie versions) for 20-60,-EUR with native Firewire support. Of course you can buy a PowerMac G4 (can be had for 10-100,- depending on model, a 500MHz G4 is capable enough for capture only, even a G3 laptop or iMac G3 is capable enough, 10.4 with iMovie05 still runs on a 400MHz iMac, even rendering effects, so the specs are really low), or G5 ranging from 40-250,-EUR/USD.
Or just get iLife 06 and install that on your Intel Mac.

That sounds quiet bizarre, I know, but it is the cheapest way. Unless someone knows a capture freeware that saves as DV.

[smrpix]

Nothing wrong with Premiere. Current versions of iMovie and FCPX automatically convert to ProRes, so avoid them.

[MovingParts]

Nothing wrong with Premiere. Current versions of iMovie and FCPX automatically convert to ProRes, so avoid them.

Hence my suggestion getting iMovie 06 or older (The OP still didn't say, what Mac he has, though).