Please help with a Formac Studio?

[timdmgd]

Hello, I've just got hold of a new toy, a Formac Studio. I'd wanted one for about a year for a couple of reasons. First was to get a lot of stuff from analog VHS to DV, which I've got no problem with (finally, I'll be able to dump my video collection ). The other reason I wanted one was so that I could put some rather large .avi i.e. DivX movies onto VHS for people that still only use analog. I can convert them to Quicktime so that I can get them into Final Cut Express, FCP or Premiere easily. I'm not interested in making any fancy transitions of effects, all I would like to do is to transfer a few QT files to my VHS recorder. Can anybody please help me by telling me if this is possible without needing to render? It takes absolutely ages, uses too much space and is getting on my tits. I'd (perhaps wrongly) assumed that this kind of stuff would be taken care of by the hardware inside the Studio. I'm really fed up with it if I'm wrong. I can get analog into my Mac without a problem and instantly, why can't it be the same the other way around?

[gregorym]

Sorry, but you're out of luck when you have to transcode from those other formats. I have the same device for capturing and then compress for DVD or SVCD, but that's about the most I use the device for. To transcode, you are processor dependent. Try recoding during downtime like when you're asleep, or at work or such...

Good luck!

[akpslp]

if you can get them into Quicktime and they are under 2gb (i assume they are) then have you tried importing them to iMovie? You should be able to do that and then all you have to do is chose export --> camera --> make sure you have cables going from the output of your Formac to your vcr. Press record on your vcr and you should be all set.

I have never done what you are trying to do, but i have sent many movies that i have made to vhs this way.....so unless there is some problem importing to iMovie, should work just fine.....

[moegreen]

First was to get a lot of stuff from analog VHS to DV, which I've got no problem with (finally, I'll be able to dump my video collection ). The other reason I wanted one was so that I could put some rather large .avi i.e. DivX movies onto VHS for people that still only use analog. I can convert them to Quicktime so that I can get them into Final Cut Express, FCP or Premiere easily.

If you want to just export to VHS, you're all set. The video comes in as DV and can be exported as DV through any video program. Just take your DV files and import them into iMovie, Final Cut or whatever, then bring it into the timeline and you should be set for an export. You'll probably have to render it inside the program, but if you don't have any transision or changes, it should be quick work since you're basically exporting it as-is. A program called

If you want to go to DVD, you'll need to convert to MPEG-2. iDVD is stupidly simple to use, just dump the DV file and let it work. Otherwise you'll need DVDSP w/ the MPEG-2 exporter (or 3rd party app) and then author in DVDSP.

[timdmgd]

Thanks a lot for the answers.

akpslp, unfortunately all of the movies (after they've been exportet to .dv & therefor rendered) are well over 2gb. The other night, I left my Mac rendering GONY andd the result was a 32gb file.

moegreen, I don't see how I need to be doing this. The file I import to Premiere, FCP or whatever, is a QT .mov file. To print/export to video, the editing program requires that the source is in (native) digital video .dv format. I'm confused.

[moegreen]

Thanks a lot for the answers.

moegreen, I don't see how I need to be doing this. The file I import to Premiere, FCP or whatever, is a QT .mov file. To print/export to video, the editing program requires that the source is in (native) digital video .dv format. I'm confused.

Not sure about this. I've used the Formac device and thought saved it as DV. The video stream coming into your Mac should be DV. I imagine it doing anything different. Open your movie inside of QuickTime and get info on the video track format and find out what codec is being used.