Possible to transfer Video8/Hi8 tapes via iLink-FW400 to cMP3,1?

[pullman]

Greetings everybody

I have a Sony DCR-TRV420E (thus PAL) which has a Sony iLink output. Does anyone know if that would be recognised by iMovie on my cMP3,1 (or some other application; I have also Davinci Resolve) if I were to connect it with a 4-pin iLink to FW400 cable? I would like to digitise old Video8 and Hi8 tapes.

The cMP3,1 also has a Blackmagic Intensity Pro (non-4K) card so I could use the S-Video output, but I'm curious if the slightly more modern Firewire connection might work.

Thank you in advance
Philip

 

[jackerin]

AFAIK, iLink is Firewire, so it should work just fine.

 

[pullman]

Thank you very much for the reply. I believe you are right. I just saw this thread (no idea why it didn't show up when I did a search earlier) which seems spot on.

Video Tape transfer to Digital File via Thunderbolt / Firewire / iLink connector for Video8, Digital8, Hi8, VHS, miniDV, etc.

UPDATED: Feb 19 2023: GUI based options and misc edits for clarity. A method for converting old videos on tapes (Video8, Digital8, Hi8, VHS, etc..) if you have a old device (camcorder, VCP, VCR, Playback Deck, etc..) that has an IEEE 1394 / Firewire / iLink connector built into it such as my...

forums.macrumors.com

AFAIK, iLink is Firewire, so it should work just fine.

 

[dandeco]

Yep. The official term for the connection is IEEE-1394. "FireWire" is Apple's trademarked term for it, and "iLink" is Sony's trademarked term for it. When capturing the footage, if you're using Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra or greater, if you plan to capture your footage via QuickTime Player, iMovie or Final Cut Pro, you should have your camcorder playing back video BEFORE you open the capture utility. That way it ensures the sound goes through. Then you can rewind the tape back to the part you want to start the capture at.

 

[pullman]

Thank you very much for explaining that. I'll give it a go this afternoon when the cable arrives.

Yep. The official term for the connection is IEEE-1394. "FireWire" is Apple's trademarked term for it, and "iLink" is Sony's trademarked term for it. When capturing the footage, if you're using Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra or greater, if you plan to capture your footage via QuickTime Player, iMovie or Final Cut Pro, you should have your camcorder playing back video BEFORE you open the capture utility. That way it ensures the sound goes through. Then you can rewind the tape back to the part you want to start the capture at.

 

[pullman]

Thanks again Dan @dandeco for explaining the bit about playing back video before starting to capture. I've now received the cable I ordered and my camcorder shows up in both iMovie and QT Player.

I began with iMovie since it has more options for adjusting the image, but I'm perplexed by a message that keeps being shown when I am importing. It says "No Data From Device" in the top right corner of the Import window.

It's strange, because if I stop the import data has evidently been captured as I can play back the recording from the iMovie "event" to which I saved it.

Any idea what this message means? I suppose if there's no problem with the recording in the "event" then there's no problem, but I'd just like to avoid going through lots of tapes and then find out later that there was an issue with the recording.

Cheers
Philip

Yep. The official term for the connection is IEEE-1394. "FireWire" is Apple's trademarked term for it, and "iLink" is Sony's trademarked term for it. When capturing the footage, if you're using Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra or greater, if you plan to capture your footage via QuickTime Player, iMovie or Final Cut Pro, you should have your camcorder playing back video BEFORE you open the capture utility. That way it ensures the sound goes through. Then you can rewind the tape back to the part you want to start the capture at.

 

[Kaspin]

"No Data From Device" is probably for timecode which isn't present on your Video8/Hi8 tapes.

 

[pullman]

Thank you, yes I think you're right. The captured footage does appear to be OK on the first tape I've ingested.

"No Data From Device" is probably for timecode which isn't present on your Video8/Hi8 tapes.