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Old home video capturing issues

G

gretschdrummer

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 1, 2011
69
13
So I have an "Ion Video2PC" that is capturing videotape from an old 8mm videocamera that is playing old home videos. Playback is fine but I'd like to record these and put them on a DVD.

The capturing device came with some software, called "EZCap." It works fine up to a minute or so, then it stops recording randomly. No clue what to do.

Quicktime works fine, but always stops recording at 300mb.

Can someone help me out here or lead me to some free software?

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
G

gretschdrummer

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 1, 2011
69
13
ppc_michael said:
Do you get any error messages when it stops?

Can you give us some details about your system?
Click to expand...

1st generation Macbook w/ Superdrive running Snow Leopard. 320 GB hard drive, 2GHz Intel Core Duo, 1GB RAM.

Good thing is I reinstalled Quicktime and now it works fine. My problem now is the file size. 20 minutes of less than VHS quality video takes up 1GB. Considering that a DVD-R takes 4.7GB, I will only have about 80 minutes of footage with (menus) on it. But the 8mm tape records 120 minutes... I am recording at the medium setting.

Is there some way I can compress the file so it's smaller? I have a hard time believing that a low quality video source can't fit on a DVD. Thanks.
 
ppc_michael

ppc_michael

Guest
Apr 26, 2005
1,498
2
Los Angeles, CA
gretschdrummer said:
My problem now is the file size. 20 minutes of less than VHS quality video takes up 1GB. Considering that a DVD-R takes 4.7GB, I will only have about 80 minutes of footage with (menus) on it.
Click to expand...

Actually, your video will be recompressed to MPEG-2 when you burn your DVD, so the filesize of the original video is almost definitely not indicative of the filesize that it will end up being on the DVD.

Your goal right now should be to capture the best quality you can from the Ion.

Unfortunately I am unfamiliar with both the Ion hardware and the Quicktime recording options (lol) but generally you can increase the quality of the video by increasing the bitrate. This will also increase the file size, but again, that won't matter for your final DVD output.

I think Quicktime uses H.264 by default. If you can change it to use the DV codec (big "if!"), that will be capable of recording very good quality.

Yet another option would be to see if you can use your Ion thing with iMovie. I think it may help you capture better quality (since it uses the DV codec).

But of course, keep in mind that 8mm tape doesn't look that great to begin with. ;)
 
K

Keebler

macrumors 68030
Jun 20, 2005
2,960
207
Canada
Hi there,

Have you tried launching iMovie to see if it recognizes the Ion2Pc? If so, then that would be your best capture method.

The Ion product line is sketchy at times.
 
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