Problems importing analog video using iMovie

[rssorensen]

I have several old Hi8 tapes that I want to import with iMovie HD.

I've bought Pyro A/V Link from ADS Tech, which capture analog video, converts it to digital format and sends it to my PowerBook G4 over FireWire.
I've also added an external harddrive and it's connected with USB2.

Everything seems to work OK.
iMovie does detect the signal/camera (allthough it does sometime say that no camera is detected), and I can see it on the screen (as well as on the LCD on the camera)

The problem is, that sometimes importing stop's; iMovie's preview window turns blue, says camera is playing, and then everythings working again. ie I can watch the video on the preview window.
The break sometimes last for ~1 sec, sometimes 3-4 seconds and sometimes it causes iMovie to stop importing the current clip. I can then start a new, but still.

The stop and break does show up in the imported clips and it's annoying.

Now - the "stop's" always happens at the same location!
Playback on the camera does not stop or show any kind of interuption.
I've tried to import to the locat harddisk, to see whether the external disk might be to slow, but same result.
I've tried 2 different Pyro A/V Link - same result.

PowerBook is 1.67 GHz PowerPC G4 with 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
Camera is (an old) Sony CCD-RV100E PAL

Does nyone have an idea what could cause this problem?

Thanks
Robert

 

[murphyslaw]

Same happens to me, I can import perfectly with a DV cam but I can't say that from any analog device (VHS, Analog cam, etc.) I tried to do the "without computer" configuration according to the manual, in order to convert the video from analog to DV but nothing. I already submitted a email to their support with your post because is the same situation with me, I don't know if You already done that but I will post here if any result appears.

Thanks

 

[ScubaDuc]

Same happens to me, I can import perfectly with a DV cam but I can't say that from any analog device (VHS, Analog cam, etc.) I tried to do the "without computer" configuration according to the manual, in order to convert the video from analog to DV but nothing. I already submitted a email to their support with your post because is the same situation with me, I don't know if You already done that but I will post here if any result appears.

Thanks

Your DV cam may have an analog/digital converter like my Sony PC120...Makes life simple except I can't convert tapes that are protected because the camera locks...

 

[HiRez]

It's possible you have some sync dropouts or irregularities going on in your camera, which may not be visible on playback but might be enough to choke iMovie since it relies on the nonvisible synchronization bits in the video to maintain a locked frame rate. There are pieces of video gear that will strip existing sync from video and replace it with fresh sync, but they are expensive. One thing I would try is to make sure the heads on your camera are clean. Buy a good quality head cleaning casette and run it. This may not be able to save the video you already have shot, but it might help anything you shoot in the future. Head cleaning should be done on a regular basis.

 

[julianps]

It's possible you have some sync dropouts or irregularities ....

I was using a different device a while back with the same problems. I found a iMovie comment forum (somewhere) that reocmmended an application called Tiger Cache Cleaner and it worked for me.

It appears Tiger's caches get clogged and this causes the flow to break. You might like to give it a go?

J

 

[erise]

I had this problem also. If cleaning the caches doesn't work for you (I never tried it personally), you might want to use an app called Vidi to record. I use it all the time and it always records perfectly for me. You do have to then import the DV files from Vidi into iMovie, which takes a while, however.

 

[Lebowski]

its becuase you are capturing using USB2. Its not fast enough to handle the files. IF you have the option of connecting using firewire, do that, if the external drive doesnt have a FW jack, return it and get a FW drive.