iMovie v10 doesn't play nice with Analog to Digital (FireWire) converter

[LimeiBook86]

Hello everyone,

I recently upgraded my iMac to 10.9 and updated to iMovie v10 (from v9.0.9). I use a Sony DVMC-DA2 to import analog video signals via FireWire, and then import them into iMovie v9. I had no issue doing this in OS X 10.8 with iMovie v9.

However, along with the 10.9 upgrade I updated to iMovie v10, now the Import feature does not seem to like my FireWire Sony analog to digital converter. The video signal cuts in and out, and if that stabilizes, the audio lags on recorded content. This does not happen in iMovie v9. But will happen in QuickTime Player X (but not QuickTime 7 Pro).

I am assuming that some core functionality in 10.9 (that maybe both iMovie v10 and QT X) rely on, is the culprit here? It's quite frustrating! Has anyone had an experience like this or found a solution?

I've tried different cables and analog multimedia, all have the same effect. I'm hesitant to try 10.10 at this point, I assume it may make things worse.

Mac specs:
iMac 2011 27" - OS X 10.9.5
3.4GHz i7 / 32GB RAM
Plenty of internal and external disk space

 

[Dave Braine]

Unless you've deleted it, you should still have your old version of iMovie.

 

[LimeiBook86]

Unless you've deleted it, you should still have your old version of iMovie.

iMovie v9 has a similar issue, but it's not as bad. I tried this on my MBP running 10.10 and it has the same issues with QTX and iMovie 10. I'm going to install 10.7 (Lion) on the non-SSD drive of my iMac. Hopefully that will regain my video transfer abilities without as many hiccups. Then once the footage is imported, I can just move the files around and edit them elsewhere if needed.

Thanks!

Update: Well I finished the install of 10.8. Now everything works perfectly with iMovie 9 and QTX. No video import issues at all. Sad it doesn't work on the new OS, but at least there is a work around

 

[iizmoo]

Another option to consider is to use an old DV or Digital8 camcorder if you have one of those around. That's what I'm using as the bridge for my analog to digital conversion, I have an old Sony TVR-340 Digital8, it has an S-Video input that allow it to be use as a bridge. Some of these things are pretty cheap on eBay now, you don't even need the mechanical moving bits to work, as long as the hardware encoder and passthrough work.

I'm using iMovie v10 and Yosemite. Been transferring just the home video so far using the Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter and going directly to the camcorder, work pretty good, no drop frames or anything.