capturing analog video

Zoom said:

I used to be able to capture video from a VCR using pass-through mode on my Canon ZR60 MiniDV camera. Somewhere along the line in the iMovie upgrade process, this feature was broken. In order to do this, you hook the VCR to the Canon ZR, then hook the Canon to the Mac using Firewire. Before, iMovie would take the incoming video stream. Now, however, (iMovie 6 HD) is says "no tape in camera". (You can't put a dummy tape in the camera, either - iMovie then plays the tape, which kills pass-through mode.)

Great. Now it appears that I need to buy a video capture card, which ain't cheap. Any other options?

Is this likely a move by Apple to close an "analog hole" (ripping movies) or just a case of adding a software "feature" that had unintended consequences? I would say the latter, except I think this has been "broken" since iMovie 5.

Click to expand...

I've just got to double check here... you did go and explicitly turn on the "passthrough" option on the ZR60, right?

VCR Set Up: AV -> DV OUT = ON

Zoom said:

Yep. Used to work fine.

Click to expand...

OK I don't have the ZR60, but I do have a ZR400. I finally got around to testing this and it still works for me in iMovie HD.

I did notice I had to continually set AV -> DV mode if I ever adjusted other settings on the camera ( weird, I couldn't find any rhyme or reason for it ) and when Idid this, I got the "no tape in camera". But all I had to do was go right back in there and turn AV->DV on again.

If I were you I would set up your VCR and make sure it is playing correctly out the AV port to a TV, then while your test tape is still playing, hook up the camera without being attached to your Mac and see if you get audio and video on your screen. Double and triple check that you are in VCR/VTR mode and that if you go into Menu->VCR Settings-> AV-DV is set to "ON". Then be sure and hit the menu button again to exit instead of the dial.

If you still don't see a signal, I think you're AV input might somehow be dead. If you do see the signal, then plug in the firewire and you should see it duplicated on the imovie screen and you're good to go!

Hope this helps