Need help capturing video via Firewire from JVC DR-DX5S to Mac Mini.

[Cyrax9]

Hi everyone,

Here's what I've done so far:

1. Connected my JVC DR-DX5S to my Mac Mini via Firewire cable.
2. Attempted to capture a recording from the DX5 using iMovie and Final Cut Express HD.

I can't find any topics on this, so I'm asking for your help. I realize this could go in three different forums, but since I'm trying to capture to a Mac I thought that the Mac forum would be best.

What I want to do is transfer the contents of my JVC DR-DX5S DVD Recorders Hard Drive to my Mac via Firewire. Nothing on this machine is copy protected and everything should transfer without a problem. I want to do a Firewire dub using the Firewire I/O port on the recorder and the Firewire connection on the back of my Mac Mini.

When I connect the DX5 to my Mac, the DX5 does recognize that it's connected to a Mac and labels the drive I'm trying to dub to "MACINTOSH" without the quotes. iMovie recognizes the DX5 and so does Final Cut Express HD.

Here's my question: How can I capture from the DX5's hard drive to my my Mac Mini? I want to capture DV files that I can edit, and I don't want to downgrade to an analog connection since my material is stored digitally. Can anybody help me? I just need to get the footage from my DX5 to my Mac Mini.

My Mac Mini's system specs are:

- 1.66Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
- 512MB DDR2 RAM
- 80GB Hard Drive
- Matshita UJ-846 DVD Writer
- Mac OS X Version 10.4.11 (Upgrading to 10.5 soon)
- Firewire Port
- iLife '08 (iMovie)
- Final Cut Express HD version 3.5

Any help is appreciated. I really don't care if I have to capture via iMovie or Final Cut Express, just as long as I can capture the footage I have to my hard drive from the DX5's hard drive. Any help is appreciated, thank you in advance for your time.

[patlabombe]

I don't own such device and never saw it. However, I would expect the DV stream to output to your Mac only when playing back MiniDV tapes in the unit. See this article:

http://earthlink.com.com/dvd-recorders/jvc-dr-dx5s/4505-9141_7-31594249.html

As far as PC connectivity is concerned, you can connect a FireWire cable from the DR-DX5S to the corresponding input on your PC, and transfer footage from DV tapes to the PC (saving wear and tear on your camcorder). While this worked fine for us, the DR-DX5S's manual includes this disconcerting note: "When you connect a PC to the DV IN connector, we do not assure the normal operation of this unit." In other words, if that's an important feature for you, caveat emptor. Granted, at this price, you might be better off buying a secondary camcorder.

[edDV]

I don't own such device and never saw it. However, I would expect the DV stream to output to your Mac only when playing back MiniDV tapes in the unit. See this article:

http://earthlink.com.com/dvd-recorders/jvc-dr-dx5s/4505-9141_7-31594249.html

...

I was thinking the same thing. Is there any indication in the manual that the hard drive in the DR-DX5S can be acccessed over the Firewire port? Also, are the files you want to access on the drive in DV format? And if so, does the drive store them in Mac raw *.DV format?

There are two ways DV format can be transferred over Firewire (Mac or PC). The standard way is through camcorder emulation where DV streams are acquired from the tape assisted with device control commands. The second way is as a network file transfer from a hard disk or other media. I suspect the JVC unit only does the former and only does it from the tape transport.

If the JVC disk worked as a networked drive that would be ideal but I doubt that is the case.

You may be able to copy disk files over to DV tape and transfer that way.

[Cyrax9]

I don't own such device and never saw it. However, I would expect the DV stream to output to your Mac only when playing back MiniDV tapes in the unit. See this article:

http://earthlink.com.com/dvd-recorders/jvc-dr-dx5s/4505-9141_7-31594249.html

...

I was thinking the same thing. Is there any indication in the manual that the hard drive in the DR-DX5S can be acccessed over the Firewire port? Also, are the files you want to access on the drive in DV format? And if so, does the drive store them in Mac raw *.DV format?

There are two ways DV format can be transferred over Firewire (Mac or PC). The standard way is through camcorder emulation where DV streams are acquired from the tape assisted with device control commands. The second way is as a network file transfer from a hard disk or other media. I suspect the JVC unit only does the former and only does it from the tape transport.

If the JVC disk worked as a networked drive that would be ideal but I doubt that is the case.

You may be able to copy disk files over to DV tape and transfer that way.

I actually thought this might be the case. There was a guide online awhile ago on how to "trick" the computer into recognizing the Hard Drive in the DX5 as a device to capture from but I can no longer find it.

Another question regarding quality and quality loss (when dubbing) that I had pertains to an alternative method somewhat mentioned above. If I...

1. Dub from DX5 HDD to DV Tape.
2. Dub from DV Tape to OS X.

... will there be noticeable quality loss if I continue to use the same tape? I'd prefer not to waste a full stack of tapes moving material off of the DX5 if I can avoid it.

I did see the notice in the instruction manual, and I'm still trying to find that work-around guide that has the exact "procedure" to get the DX5 to operate with my Mac.

In truth I wish I knew if the HDD on the JVC DR-DX5 stored data in *.DV format or in some form of MPEG-2 format, but there's no real way to tell, and I'm not keen on popping off the lid to dissect the unit as it's still under warranty and is the most expensive DVD Recorder I've ever purchased.

The transfer from HDD to a "fresh" DV tape looks excellent, but I'm using Panasonic AY-DVM83MQ tapes which are A) Hard to come by, and B) expensive for MiniDV, so I'm really trying to avoid paying for a stack of tapes just for dubbing. Granted, I want to make sure what I transfer comes out well, but I'd like to avoid spending too much money to move the contents of the DX5's hard drive to my Mac and subsequently edit and archive said contents either on a hard drive or on DV Tape.

On a side-note, I really like the new iMovie interface and hope that Apple will consider incorporating that new "real-time scrubbing" interface into the next version of Final Cut Studio -- it's definitely a cool little feature they've come up with. (I don't mind capturing in iMovie although until I saw the new interface I'd have probably never used it to edit anything with Final Cut Express sitting on this machine and Final Cut Studio on the way sometime this year.)

[edDV]

It would have been possible for JVC to allow "pass-through" playback from the hard disk to the firewire port from any playable format. There may be ways to trick it into "undocumented features".

Transfer of DV format from hard disk to tape and from tape to Mac should be lossless until the head clogs or the tape wears out. First signs are flickering pixels in the copied video. DV format chips include error correction for random bad pixels. You will only notice when the wear gets excessive.

I don't know how many long files you have but a single PQ83 tape is probably good for 20 or more uses. After that monitor playback samples. A 63 min tape would be thicker and more robust.

[Frobozz]

I don't know about your JVC unit but my Pioneer DVR-510H DVD recorder allows DV Firewire output from videos it has recorded. I have done this with iMovie. It's been awhile since I did it but as I recall it merely required playing the video on the recorder and clicking record in the main iMovie window when camera was selected. The Pioneer recorder has a special menu for exporting to a DV camcorder and that can't be used when transferring to iMovie. Instead I just play the video as if I'm watching it on TV.