Importing DV footage without firewire - an idea and question

[hak187]

Here is my dilemma:
Our video camera uses mini-dv tapes. Earlier this year I purchased a unibody macbook. At that time I didn't realize that they don't have firewire ports. No biggie I guess.

I also have a Windows XP desktop that does have firewire ports.

My question is:
Would it be possible if I captured the footage off of the DV tape on my Windows XP machine, and them copied the dv capture off of my XP machine and onto my Macbook.

Theoretically this should work correct? Has anyone else tried this with success/failure?

Thanks in advance.

 

[LethalWolfe]

That will work but you'll have to transcode the footage because what you capture w/Windows won't be compatible w/Mac editing software.


Lethal

 

[notjustjay]

That will work but you'll have to transcode the footage because what you capture w/Windows won't be compatible w/Mac editing software.


Lethal

That shouldn't take too long. The data is stored in DV format either way, just wrapped differently (on the PC, generally wrapped in an AVI container, while the Mac wants to see it in QuickTime). iMovie, FCE/FCP, etc. should be able to convert it quickly.

I've done this before quite frequently, using footage captured on a PC and brought into iMovie and FCE projects.

 

[hak187]

That shouldn't take too long. The data is stored in DV format either way, just wrapped differently (on the PC, generally wrapped in an AVI container, while the Mac wants to see it in QuickTime). iMovie, FCE/FCP, etc. should be able to convert it quickly.

I've done this before quite frequently, using footage captured on a PC and brought into iMovie and FCE projects.

thanks for the info. Did you notice any quality loss when doing this?

Thanks to everyone for their replys.