Need to Convert Mini DV to MP4

No decks have thunderbolt.

You should use a FireWire cable. If your Mac doesn't have a FireWire port, you could try a Thunderbolt-to-FireWire adaptor from Apple.

You could then capture the tapes as you have been in the past and convert them to MP4 using something like MPEG Streamclip. To make it easy, you can use an "iTunes" setting for standard definition in MPEG streamclip.

Alternatively, you could use a capture device like one from El Gato or BMD. They come with software.

I use the Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire converter and connect my camera to it. Works well, but may get warm.

You may find DV camcorders (used or reconditioned) to be a lot less money than a DV tape deck, perhaps one with features you like. I picked up a older model Canon HD camcorder just for the purpose of capturing DV tapes (it will play both HD and SD tapes) for like $100. Most all MiniDV camcorders use the same tape deck mechanisms, it the features and lenses that drive up costs.

If these are home movies, you may want to think about media management and indexing. iMovie is great for capturing the video and then converting to whatever format you like, but it does run a little short with media management features. FCP has nice media management features, however. Snapshots of your entire video collection can be displayed so you can quickly find what you want. Tapes are indexed by date and time... other meta data if available.

If you are just archiving the tape, its a don't care. Its just when you want to find something, good media management can save you much time.

Most of us captured DV Video on the computer in uncompressed format and save it for posterity so it can be edited without quality loss. About 13GB per DV tape. Not enough HD space? 4TB drives are getting near $100. I have about 150 tapes stored on a 2TB drive.

There are several ways to skin the cat.... I like using a camera as the tape deck, capture/import with FCP (it can control the camera tape mechanism) and keep the tapes within FCP libraries on drives that are backed up. You can use iMovie to do the same thing.

If these are standard 60 minute tapes, you have 50 hours of Video capture ahead of you.

DV is DV, there is no difference in quality. Its a lossless digital transfer, no analog signals to degrade. There may be differences in deck features. If your tapes are worn or damaged, some decks are better than others reading the tapes. I have never had an issue that a tape cleaner cartridge failed to clear up. I'd use the camera to play the tapes for capture, and use the $200 toward a FCP update, if you don't already have 10.1.1 .... or for a backup drive.

Use what you are comfortable with. I've used FCP for years, the new 10.1.1 version has some really nice media management features that is helpful for large amounts of tapes. Otherwise overkill.

150 tapes just fit on a 2TB drive. I have a clone of that drive on a second 2TB drive for backup. If the drive fails, I could always go back an recapture tapes, but It would be painful. So I have two drives with captured video and the best video also saved out in the cloud in a compressed format.

FCP and your camera are just fine.. DV video uses firewire.. no USB.

advantage of renting a deck is that your not beating on your camera.. but.. you then have just a week to load in all that footage.

And there is no quality gain, but a deck will have better heads, so that certain parts of your footage may drop out and be un usable from your cam, but with the deck it may help these areas.

If aggressive use of the the head cleaner doesn't work, it would be cheaper just to buy a used DV camcorder off craigs list or ebay. They often are pretty much given away.

From what I've seen of tape decks, they use the exact same tape mechanisms as a camcorder of the era.

You may also need a suitable firewire cable or adapter. The TB-FW adapter has a FW 800 socket (newer square) where camcorders typically have a mini FW connector. Dunno what you have handy, but they do sell a cable with the right ends. When I couldn't find my mini FW 800 cable the other day, I used an old mini FW to FW 400 cable connected to a FW drive and then a FW 400 to 800 cable from the drive to the Laptop. These cables may be more easily found.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/HA834ZM/A/belkin-firewire-800-99-pin-cable-94-pin-adapter?fnode=51

Its a two edge sword. Cleaning tapes are abrasive and can wear the drum, so most wait until there is some signs of degradation before using them. But those are also looking to maximizing camcorder life. In your case, clean as much as you want. Just follow the cleaning tape directions.

I can't help you troubleshoot, but I can tell you what worked perfectly for me, with a few dozen DV tapes shot on a Sony PD150.

I used a Sony DSR-11 deck and FCP 6, on a 2010 Mac Pro (5,1), with a Firewire connection. Before I went to FCP 6 I did try FCP X without success, but I didn't wrestle with it much because I knew FCP 6 would do it.

Do you know anybody with FCP 6? It's old enough to completely understand tape decks.

Another alternative would be to download the free 30 day trial of Avid MC7, which I believe also understands decks well. All you'd have to learn to do would be to capture.

Sorry, but I can't answer that. Wish I could.

May not be much help, but both the new FCP10 and old FCP studio work perfectly for import once it recognized the camera, but I use canon camcorders. The FCP import settings need to match the camcorder.

Is the import screen flickering? When you just press play on the camcorder, does it flicker?

If you capture some video, export, and then try to play it back using something like QT player, do you still get flicker?

For film you have 2 options.

Send it to a company, or simply set up a projector and screen, and then shoot that screen with a camera, then digitize the footage.

As for color correction.. theres no simple setting.. but a decent start, especially with DV footage is to crush the blacks (contrast) and boost the color (saturation).. use the three way color correct filter.. its all in there.

to over come white balance issues, (yellow whites, or blue whites) you may want to read up on that, or while using the three way, adjust the mids to offset the whites.. so if your footage looks yellowish, slide the color to the opposite side, which in this example is blue. (adding blue removes yellow).

On import/capture you need to match the source, in this case its DV NTSC. An hour of SD footage is generally 12-16 gbs per hour.

I've always had better luck capturing/importing to a local scratch disk. Once it is captured you can move the file to a library of your choosing. I think latency, not so much bit rate, may be killing you. Although a 100Mbps Ethernet connection to your NAS will get you much less than 10MBps due to overhead. Even the slowest USB2 drives are better than that.

Sounds like there was a time code break. When the tape was made it may have been recorded with a break or gaps. The import software detects the blank space and thinks the tape or clip ended so it stops capturing. I forget if you can set capture to ignore breaks. What I used to do years ago is capture in full manual mode which ignores gaps (or live perhaps)... or standby and when it stopped, restart capture at a point after the break. . I'd have to stand by to stop things at the end of the tape I think. Things may have changed since then.

Unless the tapes were recorded with continuous time codes, you may be stuck babysitting the capture. Too late for you, but many of us would record a blank tape to fill it with time code and then record over it. Made capture easier, lest babysitting.