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Seeking info on compatible mini dv units for iMovie import

Doc Horrorshow

Doc Horrorshow

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
51
0
London
I have some mini dv tapes that I wish to transfer losslessly to my iMac (late 2013) running El Capitan. I've attempted to import to the iMac before with various cameras and the requisite cables/adaptors. All that side looks correct. But...the iMac using iMovie 10.1.6) always refuses to recognise the mini dv playback unit - be it a camcorder or a deck and regardless of manufacturer. I'm in the UK and basically looking for a high quality mini dv playback device (camcorder or deck) which will unerringly be recognised by my iMac or, at a pinch, my MacBook Air (early 2015, running Sierra) so that I can dump this stuff in iMovie or at least digitise it for posterity. Can anyone successfully importing mini dv with a similar set-up to or with better
experience than me please advise - could it be the leads after all or is it a common compatibility issue?
 
I don't usually have a problem with cannon camcorders via firewire and Apple's firewire-Thunderbolt adapter. The one I use most is a Cannon HV10.
 
Doc Horrorshow said:
Can anyone successfully importing mini dv with a similar set-up to or with better experience than me please advise - could it be the leads after all or is it a common compatibility issue?
Click to expand...

I have been using a Sony HVR-M15U deck to capture hundreds of legacy tapes in the DV, DVCAM and HDV format. No problems at all using it with a 2012 quad core Mac Mini directly into the firewire port and a 2013 MacBook Air with the Apple Firewire to Thunderbolt adapter. I have used both the legacy version of Final Cut Pro as well as Final Cut Pro X with no problems. Have used MacOSX Mountain Lion and Sierra for this.

But I'm sure there are many other cameras and decks that are also compatible. You said you are using "requisite cables/adaptors" but didn't provide any specifics. AFAIK, if your computers have thunderbolt ports instead of firewire, you will need the Apple firewire to thunderbot adapter. Is that what you're using?

I don't use iMove, so not sure what issues that might have. You could try using Final Cut Pro X, there is a free trial that's fully functional for a month. That may be enough time to capture all your tapes. The current version may not be compatible with El Capitan however. https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/trial/
 
I was just thinking that, if I remember correctly, USB doesn't work well with video. If his requisite cables are USB, that could be the explanation.
 
I don't recall any Mini DV cameras that used a USB interface to transfer video. Some of them used it for transfering still photos or files. But I agree, if he is trying to do this with USB then that is probably what's wrong.

As far as using USB disks, that works fine for me with newer machines and USB 3.0. My main video machine boots into Sierra from 1 TB Samsung T3 and it works great with video. But I also have had good results using USB hard drives. Didn't work so well back in the USB 2.0 days though.
 
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