iM 4,1-14,4 Prepping a 2011 iMac for Firewire Video Capture

[wncmacs]

With Apple removing support for Firewire in macOS 26, I decided to finally get around to digitizing my collection of miniDV video tapes. So, I found a mid 2011 20 inch iMac with 14 Gb of RAM and a a terabyte hard drive that has a Firewire 800 port THAT i bought. I also got a miniDV player with a FireWire connection (an old Sony deck) to use on the project.

I decided to totally erase the iMac and zero its drive since it had data from a previous owner that I had no use for. So, I erased and installed High Sierra (10.13.6) which is the latest OS on the Mac and it is running well on the new OS. However, I can’t download iMovie or an old copy of Final Cut Pro from the App Store even though I had both those apps from back in the time that iMac was built (I tried to do that under my purchases tab in the App Store).

Any ideas on how I could get a copy of older installs of these apps or what would you recommend that I use to capture footage from these tapes on the iMac? I want to get them into QuickTime files (or mp4s) that I could work with on modern Macs and prep for archiving or produce some videos from.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

(I tried to do that under my purchases tab in the App Store).

Odd, attempting to download from the purchases tab should make it offer to install an older version of the app. What happens when you do it?

 

[!!!]

Odd, attempting to download from the purchases tab should make it offer to install an older version of the app. What happens when you do it?

It should, but I have found that the MAS sometimes just doesn't work right. Have you actually tested this recently?

Personally, I've been keeping copies of versions that support older OSes for all my apps, in part because of this. And on a related note to your signature, I do intend to try and get the MAS to download older copies for sub-10.13; does the mavericks app store still work?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Have you actually tested this recently?

Yes, but on Mavericks, not High Sierra.

does the mavericks app store still work?

Yes it does!

 

[wncmacs]

Odd, attempting to download from the purchases tab should make it offer to install an older version of the app. What happens when you do it?

It just says that the version of iMovie runs on a newer version of macOS and I should upgrade to a newer version (which I cannot). In the past, iMovie came installed on my Mac’s so I never really had to download it.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

It just says that the version of iMovie runs on a newer version of macOS and I should upgrade to a newer version (which I cannot). In the past, iMovie came installed on my Mac’s so I never really had to download it.

It probably won't help, but could you share a full screenshot of your screen when this message is displayed? I want to see if there's anything different from how I would do it.