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Hooking My VCR to my Powermac Help!!
- Thread starter doucy2
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You have a number of options.
First, if you have a camcorder with Digital video out and analog in, you can use it to transfer from the VCR to the Mac. Older camcorders (like mine) don't allow both interfaces to be used at one time, so I need to tape the VCR tape onto a DV tape, then transfer that DV tape to the Mac.
There are various analog->digital converter boxes out there as well. HOWEVER, the cheaper ones tend to have the audio drift out of sync with the video on longer segments, so beware.
There are also, I think, dedicated cards for this, but then, if you buy a different Mac, you might not be able to use the card, whereas the external solutions are not going to be a problem.
First, if you have a camcorder with Digital video out and analog in, you can use it to transfer from the VCR to the Mac. Older camcorders (like mine) don't allow both interfaces to be used at one time, so I need to tape the VCR tape onto a DV tape, then transfer that DV tape to the Mac.
There are various analog->digital converter boxes out there as well. HOWEVER, the cheaper ones tend to have the audio drift out of sync with the video on longer segments, so beware.
There are also, I think, dedicated cards for this, but then, if you buy a different Mac, you might not be able to use the card, whereas the external solutions are not going to be a problem.
I don't own any, so Googling "analog digital converter Mac" will tell you all I could. I know there were some threads in MR about this, as I was thinking of buying myself one earlier and haven't yet.doucy2 said:
Edit: But, given that the good ones run ~US$300 or so, it might not be insane to buy a cheap camcorder with analog->digital passthrough.
jsw said:
This is how I've done it since I no longer have my G3 iMac DV
Basically, I run a 3-way RCA to mini cable/converter from my VCR to the input on my Sony Handycam. Then I run the DV to Firewire cable from my camcorder to my mac. I can use either iMovie or Final Cut to capture and it works okay.
I've also heard of PCI cards that have RCA or S-Video inputs right on 'em.