Convert Video to DV out?

[netdog]

Hi,

iMovie seems to want DV in, so what is the best solution to get a standard VHS or DVD converted to a DV signal? Software conversion seems to take forever. I have a Canon 960, but I'd prefer something attached semi-permanently to my iMac.

Also, will FCP be happy with a DV stream?

[dwishbone]

there are lots of options. eyeTV from elgato is good. there are others as well.
personally i have a sony dv camera with firewire passthrough.
what i do is hook up a DVD/VHS player to my camcorders AV/IN and have it pass through the firewire into iMovie/FCP.

[notjustjay]

DV streams have pretty much become the standard for camcorder-based video editing, so yes, FCP is perfectly happy with it.

To add to the confusion, there are different types of DV streams (type 1 and type 2), and while iMovie prefers one, FCP seems to prefer the other. So there's a bit of converting/rendering involved when you capture with one program and use in another. But, it's not that bad.

As for converting old footage from VHS or other sources, you have a few options:

1. Keep using your Canon camcorder (assuming it has pass-through ability, meaning you feed the VCR signal into your camera's AV-in port, and out it comes simultaneously through the DV-out port). If your camcorder didn't have this pass-through feature, then you could buy a camcorder that does...

2. Buy a dedicated DV deck, which would essentially be doing the same thing as option 1. Decks are expensive, and you might even be better off just buying a second camcorder for the exclusive use of logging/capturing/converting your footage (DV or otherwise), to save wear on your other camera.

3. Buy a standalone AV-to-DV conversion box, like the ADS Technologies' A/V Link box. These have standard A/V inputs on one side, and a Firewire out on the other side.

edit: dwishbone, does the eyeTV box record (or transcode) natively to DV, or is there a conversion process that has to happen after the video is captured? Being a USB box I suspect the latter, but I could be wrong. I couldn't see anything about capturing to DV on the elgato website.

[dwishbone]

honestly im not sure. i just know a few people that have one and they all have had good results with it.
i just looked at the site and it says it records things to MPEG4 which wouldnt get THAT much loss converting back to DV.
i cant find anything on what it records natively at. also, the device might be possible to accessed directly out of iMovie/FCP and record to DV...but again im not sure since i dont have one. i use the firewire passthrough method as i stated above and that works excellent for me.