This finally motivated me to capture the DV tapes that have been on my desk since 2012 :) Windows Movie Maker has the ability to import in DV format. - Plug in your DV camera in PLAY mode. Windows should automatically recognize it. - File Menu, "Import from Device" - Advanced Options for additional features - Give it a name and select import The interface has the ability to control the camera, also.
I think a lot of people don't know there is a recording date and time on every single frame of video in the DV format on a MiniDV tape, plus other metadata. Services loose this metadata because they capture over SDI. To preserve this metadata, you must capture over Firewire bit-for-bit to DV-NTSC, as you've explained how to do. To see this metadata, you can use a program called DV Analyzer. I use DV Analyzer to be sure a capturing system is not transcoding the video.
As a family archivist with DV tapes and the Apple FireWire cable-chain, I admire the clarity of your demonstrations and the simplicity of the process. Yes, I could spend a lot of resources on this if I want to be creative rather than just transfer to current media. You touch on the factual necessities before helpful, future editing and production. Essentially this will save a lot of time and effort to achieve highly-presentable format footage. 😀😀😀
Unfortunately, after acquiring the suitable cable/adapter chain to use with a new M1 iMac, a minor OS update (so non-retrievable), the partial transfer I’d commenced became obsolete. Discussion with Apple helpdesk gained nothing but the latter status and I reverted to my Win 10 machine and capture chain (non-FireWire) to create soft copies of the media and then edited it on the iMac.
@@Mudge07May I ask what you mean by your video became obsolete? I mean dit it kinf of “destroyed” the footage from your Mini-DV? I just bought the cable chain to give it a try from my Sony Handycam to My Macbook, latest OS version and now wonder?!!
This is the best and accurate explanatory video of how to transfer DV footage, very useful to choose the best method to keep the best quality. Thank you, you save me hours of testing and researching.
I have a collection of hundreds of miniDV tapes and I was struggling to get them digitized. Thanks for this vid I will definitely use some of the things you mentioned here.
Thank you for covering how to capture these tapes. This is why I keep a PCI Express FireWire card in my editing desktop. I often use either Premiere or Final Cut to capture these tapes. I used three of those Sony HDV cameras too for years, and their tape mechanisms are also struggling to play tapes anymore.
Very interesting topic. Glad you are covering this. Lot of us have the problem of getting copies of stuff that's also in 1080p, 24fps. However, your topic seems easily solved now.
An easy way to get MiniDV video to a PC at least, is to use a camcorder that has HDMI output. You can then use a cheapy HDMI video capture device to directly record the signal using any capture software such as OBS. No firewire required. The only trick is to find which MiniDV camcorders supported HDMI OUT. My Canon HV30 has it, but I haven't seen too many others with the feature, which is a shame that even the high-end MiniDV camcorders did not offer HDMI out at the prices they were charging back in the day.
I tried using QT player to capture a tape, but the recording stops after a few seconds, every time. I have Lifeflix 3.5.3, but I cannot get it to see my DV signal. Running OSX Ventura 13.4.1
Sixteen years ago I had over 200 full size long play vhs tapes that I wanted to digitalize so I bought a pioneer 530 hard disk dvd recorder and I pressed play on the vhs player before I went to work and recorded the tape into the hard disk on the pioneer. I then split the massive video file into usable segments using the pioneer's inbuilt preocess and burned them onto dvd. Then erased the files on the hard disk and did the same the next day on a different tape. It took me over a year to do the lot ha ha. You can imagine the space I saved on the shelves when the tapes were thrown out after I'd put them all on dvd. Now the dvd disks are all ripped onto external hdd as mkv and what once filled a massive bookshelf now fits in both hands.
Back when I used my Canopus ADVC100 (another FireWire device, hooked up to an Audigy sound card with a FireWire port), I used the Panasonic DV codec. It’s handy to have a copy around in case Microsoft pulls DV support entirely. The last time I tried WinDV, I couldn’t get the video preview window to work, either. Windows support for FireWire devices hasn’t been reliable since Windows 7. Capturing analog video is a rabbit hole you can spend waaaaaaay too much time researching. Uncompressed codecs, deinterlacing, etc. etc.
I used EXACTLY the same set up you have and I imported my movies into iMovie. I also edited in iMovie but clicked the crop button and selected "Fit". This will put black bars on both sides when you export. I think use Handbrake to crop it to 4:3.
When I did the same back in the days with windows XP, I didn't need any additional software, save for the dv codecs that were download automatically, and Windows handled the acquisition process.
Lon, I bought the 400 800 cable from Amazon that you recommended and it was defective. There seems to be a few other complaints about this cable. If you could change it to another cable, it may help others in the future. Thank you.
I've used WinDV for years...what a great program. Previously I think I used Pinnacle studio or something to that effect. I still love and prefer DV tape!
Excellent - very useful! I bought the two Apple adaptors some months ago (they're sitting here on my desk and I haven't even opened the boxes yet). My PC has T3 over USB-C so I really must get down and do it!
I noticed a few years ago that home-recorded VHS tapes are rapidly deteriorating. Picture quality becoming almost unviewable. I found a device on ebay called EasyCAP that worked well to offload the few tapes I wanted to preserve. Was not expensive, $10-15 and I think there are clones. Three RCA connectors to VCR and other to USB. I don't remember what software I used.
You are the best! Nothing out there as precise as your video. You saved me $100 bucks for app. And for some reason I get Capture device offline on premiere although I can control camera from Premiere.
Didn’t I hear on Wikipedia that iMovie reduces DV video to half the quality as the original tape? Might be outdated info but not sure about current versions. Also, you can switch to the proper 4:3 ratio when editing in iMovie, you just have to click on the crop button on each clip you add to the timeline then change the setting for each one.
I think I was in-need for a video like this, I know long time ago I bought a PCIe TV turner for my PC, with integrated AV recorder/capture card. And I used to record/capture my DVD's, while they were being played on my DVD Player.
Are you sure the footage is stored digitally on mini DV tapes? Looking at the helocoidal heads of the tape mechanism i'm under the impression that the footage is stored in analog form and then converted to digital before the dv/firewire interface. If my assumption is incorrect, that means the y-component output connection on my HDV camera has to go through an internal digital to analog conversion right? Also, i always find the y-component output connected to an HDTV and letting the HDTV perform the analog-to-digital conversion to yield better picture quality compared to playing back the digital file captured at 25Mbps. Again, i suspect the internal video ADCs (if indeed the footage is stored in analog form) was inferior in camcorders of the late nineties compared to those of modern HDTVs. Looking forward to learn more here, thank you!
I'm in the process of doing this now with a bunch of tapes, both DV, Hi-8, D8, and VHS, and have been using a HDMI -- USB capture device, which has been working out pretty well. I would offer it as an alternative to having to have all of those dongles for a single purpose...
When using the USB capture device, you still use a Firewire port on the camera? Or do you convert the composite signal to HDMI, and then input the HDMI in the capture card? The bottleneck in qualitiy is in the composite signal. Using Firewire preserves as much quality as possible.
@@Rensje94 I've been using a Mini-DV camera with a HDMI out, a D8 camera with a composite out, and a DVD recorder for the VHS tapes. You're certainly right about quality -- but I'm not finding the degradation when converting all that noticeable.
Hey Lon Thanks for a great video! Quick question about LifeFlix and timecode. If there is a break in the time code from one clip to another on a tape does LifeFlix continue to capture? In other words will it ignore any change in time code and allow me to walk away until the entire tape is captured?
Thanks for this - I'm starting to import a bunch of Beta, 8MM, Hi-8 and MiniDV family movies. Once imported is there a way to upscale them to HD? I've seen some videos this has been done to and the results are amazing. But I'm not sure what software is being used. Would love to see how we should do this (on MacOS).
Thanks for this informative video. Got me convinced to purchase Lifeflix. I spent much time recapturing with iMovie and FCPX, sometimes no Audio, sometimes crash at tape end. Lifeflix works better although with Canon DV40 camera you need to apply a work around to capture with audio. . I'm using my old 2012 MBP's to capture V8, Hi8, D8 and mini DV in uncompressed MOV format. Would be interesting to know at what parameters you generate the final mp4 (resolution, bit rate, ...). Thanks, Hans
I'm having an issue with the windows laptop set up shown at time marker 18:51 I have a Digital 8 camcorder with the exact same cord and adapter set up but WinDv is showing "Error: Device not found. Should I assume it's a driver issue even though the admin did not have that issue? Thanks, appreciate any help I can get
Great work on your explanations. I followed you to the letter but could not get my Windows 11 laptop to recognize the camcorder. Do you have any suggestions that might help with that?
What do people do when their original mini dv camera is now not repairable(JVC)? I don't know if I buy a Sony used on ebay if it will play my JVC tapes without issues. Does anyone know?
You’re amazing! I didn’t know Quicktime would import video. iMovie was creating way too many individual clips. When I’m importing the video it's a little choppy and goes to blue screen or blacked out on the computer. I kinda doubt it, but is there a way to keep it from doing that and just play what’s on the tape? I'm using a Sony Handycam. I think this particular tape has degraded somewhat because other tapes play perfectly fine. I’m not sure if it will start working right or not. Playback seems a little better if you rewind or fast forward a little bit. Thanks for this awesome video! Blue
This was very useful information. However, I use an iPad Pro, but it looks like I’ll need the latest model to pull this off, or at least if if it’s possible. But instead of final cut I’d be using The Luma fusion app, but before that import it with iMovie. Now I have an old XP Windows machine in storage for over 15 years 350 miles from my current residence, but I’m wondering if I could use it to work directly with the broadcast quality dv camera that I use to for the footage I have. I created it specifically for video editing back then, and that software was able to control my camera on screen. But I’m not sure if it would still work, since it been in storage for so long. You see I e gone over to only using an iPad Pro, and no longer build and windows PCs in 16 years. But that interesting wire combo adapter might be useful once I upgraded my gear.
Thanx for good and easy plan BUT I have a problem - my Mac do not see my camera ( at iMovie, adobe premiere or Vlc). I have Sony tcr33 connected via FireWire cable plus two apple connectors to Mac book pro at M1. What could be the reason for this problem?
thanks for a great video. i have an older sony handycam trv950 and canon opture 100mc. I can't seem to get either one of the to show up in quicktime under the cameras. i have the 2 apple adapters + a 400 to 800 FW adapter. I'm wondering if the cameras are to old to be able to capture the video onto my 2019 macbook pro. any suggestions? Thank you. Owen
This is super helpful! Thank you so much. I’m using the same setup as you, except with a Sony Digital 8 Handycam. How do I know if the recordings have captured all the material from the tapes? Is there a quick way to know all of the film has been recorded aside from fast forwarding and spot checking the full tape?
What a great video. Thanks for taking the time to go over these options for capturing old DV footage. I tried the Quicktime technique on my iMac Pro, but with mixed results on the audio. On some captures, the audio sounds fine. But other times, the sound seems overdriven and appears to clip in places. I haven't seen anywhere in the Quicktime player where I can adjust audio levels on input. It appears to be an auto gain situation. Or am I missing something? I've been scouring the web with no luck, so you could be my last hope! Thanks for any suggestions you may have.
Hmm.. If it works some of the time but not all of the time it's possible that it's there's some physical damage on the tape or perhaps a dirty head in the camera/vtr.. Have you tried iMovie to see how the same clips work there?
Question. For those of us who don't have friends with working camcorders, I have 50 mini dv tapes, two JVC mini dv camcorders both which are broken and unfixable. JVC repair shops will no longer fix them. Will buying used a used Sony(or other brand) mini dv camcorder play them without issues so I can capture/xfer them into my computer?
I have a Canon Vixia HV30 and am wanted to transfer video from miniDV tapes to my Mac. The manual indicates that I can transfer via the 4 pin DV Firewire port. However, I can no longer find my original cable and the 4 pin DV cable that I purchased doesn't fit in the slot, and that cable looks identical to other 4 pin cables I've found. Was there ever a slightly different 4 pin DV to Firewire cable that wasn't a bit curved/indented on one of the wider ends?
thanks so much for your teaps ;) but with final cut, iMovie and QuickTime even with the right setting, the sound does not come out , I can record the video but not the sound
Could you help me understand what's going on here - on my camera the tape playback has audio that's perfectly fine. when I plug the av into my computer and try to record it I get no audio, just a loud distorted buzzing sound. I'm using a ccd trv68 and an easycap adapter. not sure where to look on how to fix this problem
Interesting video. I was rummaging thru over 100 mini-DV tapes and some of which I would like to preserve / edit. My iMac is a late 2017 and does not have the thunderbolt connector you show as the 2nd add on Apple adapter, but it does look like the thunderbolt 1 or 2 connector. Will this single adapter (1st one) I believe is firewire to Thunderbolt 1-2 type connector work on my iMac? I will also probably need a new/different firewire cable as the one I have does not look like the one you showed. Great idea! Also as an FYI - have to tried to use the miniDV tape head cleaner cassette? I was using the Sony DRV27 camera and later went to the prosumer Canon XL H1A with XLR audio w/ +48v mics.
I am pretty sure that era of Mac is Thunderbolt 2 so you wouldn't need the that first adapter but still need the firewire one. The look of the firewire cables will vary based on manufacturer - I'd imagine they're not long for this world so get 'em while you can! Don't have any recs on a cleaning cassette, but looking on Amazon there is a Panasonic branded one that should work.
That's the problem with sony stuff...it stops working after so many tapes or the day after the guarantee expires. But when it works...good quality footage.
I managed to capture family videos from several miniDV tapes using mini USB port on my Panasonic camera. Just plugged it via mini USB -> USB type A cable. I used WinDV program which is very handy. But still I'm not sure if FireWire (IEEE 1394) capture would be better or not. Visually the quality is OK. Will you cover the process of capturing VHS tapes and handling them in the video editors, please? :)
Need some help here, I am trying to do the same what you did but to no luck my camera is not being recognized by WINDV any recommendations would be helpful. Thanks
Neither Quicktime nor iMovie on my MacBook Pro with the M1 chip 2021 are recognizing either my Sony camcorder fr my Sony DV deck. Bought all the adapters. If I click the Apple icon and hold the option key down to get System Information, I can see them recognized by the computer, but not the apps. Is my only option to buy another version of editing software to go with the new computer?
Hi Lon, thanks for this video it was really helpful. I imported all of my mini DV tapes a couple of years ago directly into iMovie, but some of the clips that were filmed as one clip separated on import, which was really annoying. I think iMovie thought there was a break when there wasn't one. They also didn't deinterlace so I had to use Handbrake to convert them. Do you know if Lifeflix deinterlaces on import like Quicktime does? I also want to keep the individual clips instead of one a long video.
You mentioned that some of the clips that were filmed as one clip separated on import. Possibly due to dropouts on the tape. Each time there is a dropout, the timecode restarts.
My m2 mac mini is not recognizing my Sony digital 8 camcorder. I used all the adaptors you recommended. Running ventura 13.4. Any idea? Update I bought another new fire wire cord and it worked.
what kind of mac are you using? I'm going to have to invest in one because my older ones take 3 hours to capture an hour movie using firewire to iMovie. My other Mac that has sierra won't use iDVD 9 for some reason.
Can you recommend the firewire 800 to ilink 1394 cable. I bought the bought the adapter but I think the 800 to 1394 cable is not working.. MacOS 11 can't identity the device connected. Was working on Windows
I have a firestore fs100 dvr that can only connect to a computer using firewire. I know connecting it directly to a firewire adapter card for pc works, so I was wondering if I could connect the fs100 through the same method you use as if the fs100 was the camera, and it would still work. thanks
Hey Lon! I have the same project on my agenda. Finding a working DV deck is indeed a challenge. I went through many cameras trying to find a working one compatible with my Canon LP speed recordings. As for upscaling video, I've been using Topaz Video Enhance AI. It even has presets for deinterlacing and upscaling DV video. I've been trying it out on a couple DVDs with decent results -- but it is entirely dependent on how good your video card is. I wonder how it would perform on an M1 Mac.
I was just told by a JVC repair shop that my camera is no longer repairable. This seems to be a big problem with a lot of people. Will a Sony play my JVC mini dv tapes without issues? Does anyone know? When you say you went through many cameras, did that mean you bought many cameras? There has be a better way, I can't afford that! Thanks.
@@MaxPowers1245 Yes, with mixed results. I had to acquire another Canon camera to use to rip. Though I've had some issues with the audio actually working. I ripped a whole bunch of tapes and then found the audio was missing entirely. But in general, if you recorded in LP in the day, you need a camera/deck by the same manufacturer because Sony, Canon, and JVC each had their own LP formats.
@@alextirrellRI thanks for the reply or maybe one of the very expensive in the day but now antiquated DV decks I think we’ve got floating around at work or the camera it was recorded on is also still at work pretty sure that’s stuffed though. What a pain oh well
Firewire cable to Thunderbolt, then Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 which slots into your Thunderbolt 4 port (USB-C) on your mac. Thunderbolt 1&2 are the same size. Thunderbolt 3&4 are the same size, but different to Thunderbolt 1&2.
@@johnbrennan8835 thanks! So I need one fireWire cable, 4 different thunderbolt cables (1,2,3,4) and than it will work? Sounds great but do I get a firewire cable? 😅
Hello, Sir,, Hope you can answer my queries. 1. Which one should i get? A 4 pin or 9 pin Firewire? 2. If i plug it on an iMac that has a built in firewire, should i use a male to male firewire plug or i really need an adaptor for thunderbolt? Thanks much!
Hi Lon, why is HDVSplit doesn't detect my PV GS35 but when i using Roxio Media import, it work fine. I just want to upscale the avi file. please help. Thanks
The amazon link in the description doesnt seem to be working? Just wanna make sure I buy the right cables. If anyone can link them id be very grateful :)
Great video. I'm doing the same thing but I'm having a problem. I can't seem to adjust the capture settings in imovie because I get no audio in my captured video, and for some reason the capture is breaking down on single continuous clip into 2 second slices of the same clip. Are you familiar with this issue?
Any one know why my video and audio is losing frames every few seconds? I wanted to use iMovie but it’s losing audio and video frames. Canon mini dv Optura
What if I told you a lot of large transfer companies down convert these formats from Digital to composite for capture. They claim stuff like there's only a marginal increase in quality for the added time required and that the customer won't care or pay for that extra time. This obviously is complete nonsense.
Great video. Just what I was looking for. Does anyone know what to do if the camera doesn't automatically appear in QuickTime or iMovie? I'm using an old Mac with MacOS 10 High Sierra, a FireWire port and a Thunderbolt 1/2 port, so it should be easier!!
Does the firewire connection capture the time code and the date. ? ????. If not all the captured videos are useless. I want the memories of the video date.
Hi - I can get the video going into my mac and recording it using Quicktime on my mac laptop no problem, but it seems that everytime there is a timecode jump, or I have stopped and started recording on the actual video, the Quicktime recording stops. A message comes up saying 'recording has stopped' and if I don't catch it in time, everything that is has recorded disappears and it comes up with a new recording window. It doesn't always stop at the same place, it's random. I just want to get one long recording of my 60 min videos, not numerous clips as I don't want to be editing them. Do you know how I can stop this random interruption of my recordings happening? Thanks
Thank you so much for the video! I started capturing DV video from a firewire source (minidv camera and Canopus 110). With damaged tapes, I always get more than 100 small clips MOV-DV, with FCPX... opposed to FCP9, there is no option to record "plain" without creating different clips for each scene. After viewing your video I tried windv and captured all the tape without creating so many clips, but it generated me a AVI-DV video that FCPX does not open... What should I do? I want to keep the original DV to archive (I don't mind on using bootcamp to capture with windv) and then to edit it on Mac with FCPX but without having quality loss converting from avi to mov in order to open with FCPX. Thank you so much for you help in advance... I read so many forums for so much time, but I cannot figure the best way to do this...
![Save precious memories BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE! | Mini DV and 8mm Archive Guide! [Everything you need]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fN9GJh8gVRc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Save precious memories BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE! | Mini DV and 8mm Archive Guide! [Everything you need]](/img/tr.png)
![Kodak Black - Sharp Vibes [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/oEV0OoLJeIs/mqdefault.jpg)
This finally motivated me to capture the DV tapes that have been on my desk since 2012 :)
Windows Movie Maker has the ability to import in DV format.
- Plug in your DV camera in PLAY mode. Windows should automatically recognize it.
- File Menu, "Import from Device"
- Advanced Options for additional features
- Give it a name and select import
The interface has the ability to control the camera, also.
which is a free app !
Hallelujah 🙏
plug in how ?
I think a lot of people don't know there is a recording date and time on every single frame of video in the DV format on a MiniDV tape, plus other metadata. Services loose this metadata because they capture over SDI. To preserve this metadata, you must capture over Firewire bit-for-bit to DV-NTSC, as you've explained how to do. To see this metadata, you can use a program called DV Analyzer. I use DV Analyzer to be sure a capturing system is not transcoding the video.
As a family archivist with DV tapes and the Apple FireWire cable-chain, I admire the clarity of your demonstrations and the simplicity of the process. Yes, I could spend a lot of resources on this if I want to be creative rather than just transfer to current media. You touch on the factual necessities before helpful, future editing and production. Essentially this will save a lot of time and effort to achieve highly-presentable format footage. 😀😀😀
Unfortunately, after acquiring the suitable cable/adapter chain to use with a new M1 iMac, a minor OS update (so non-retrievable), the partial transfer I’d commenced became obsolete. Discussion with Apple helpdesk gained nothing but the latter status and I reverted to my Win 10 machine and capture chain (non-FireWire) to create soft copies of the media and then edited it on the iMac.
@@Mudge07May I ask what you mean by your video became obsolete? I mean dit it kinf of “destroyed” the footage from your Mini-DV? I just bought the cable chain to give it a try from my Sony Handycam to My Macbook, latest OS version and now wonder?!!
This is the best and accurate explanatory video of how to transfer DV footage, very useful to choose the best method to keep the best quality. Thank you, you save me hours of testing and researching.
This is such a useful, in-depth video! Your channel is getting so good!
Agreed
It’s ALWAYS been great!
I did this a few months ago. I have these old Mini DV tapes and I converted it over FireWire to an old laptop from 2005 with an SSD and Windows 10.
I have a collection of hundreds of miniDV tapes and I was struggling to get them digitized. Thanks for this vid I will definitely use some of the things you mentioned here.
Thank you for covering how to capture these tapes. This is why I keep a PCI Express FireWire card in my editing desktop. I often use either Premiere or Final Cut to capture these tapes. I used three of those Sony HDV cameras too for years, and their tape mechanisms are also struggling to play tapes anymore.
Very interesting topic. Glad you are covering this. Lot of us have the problem of getting copies of stuff that's also in 1080p, 24fps. However, your topic seems easily solved now.
An easy way to get MiniDV video to a PC at least, is to use a camcorder that has HDMI output. You can then use a cheapy HDMI video capture device to directly record the signal using any capture software such as OBS. No firewire required. The only trick is to find which MiniDV camcorders supported HDMI OUT. My Canon HV30 has it, but I haven't seen too many others with the feature, which is a shame that even the high-end MiniDV camcorders did not offer HDMI out at the prices they were charging back in the day.
I tried using QT player to capture a tape, but the recording stops after a few seconds, every time. I have Lifeflix 3.5.3, but I cannot get it to see my DV signal. Running OSX Ventura 13.4.1
Sixteen years ago I had over 200 full size long play vhs tapes that I wanted to digitalize so I bought a pioneer 530 hard disk dvd recorder and I pressed play on the vhs player before I went to work and recorded the tape into the hard disk on the pioneer. I then split the massive video file into usable segments using the pioneer's inbuilt preocess and burned them onto dvd. Then erased the files on the hard disk and did the same the next day on a different tape. It took me over a year to do the lot ha ha. You can imagine the space I saved on the shelves when the tapes were thrown out after I'd put them all on dvd. Now the dvd disks are all ripped onto external hdd as mkv and what once filled a massive bookshelf now fits in both hands.
Thank you for an idea I'm going to try to get one to do that
Back when I used my Canopus ADVC100 (another FireWire device, hooked up to an Audigy sound card with a FireWire port), I used the Panasonic DV codec. It’s handy to have a copy around in case Microsoft pulls DV support entirely. The last time I tried WinDV, I couldn’t get the video preview window to work, either. Windows support for FireWire devices hasn’t been reliable since Windows 7.
Capturing analog video is a rabbit hole you can spend waaaaaaay too much time researching. Uncompressed codecs, deinterlacing, etc. etc.
Very interresting video! I have actually recently some hdv tapes (2011) to my computer. The quality was far above what I expected
I used EXACTLY the same set up you have and I imported my movies into iMovie. I also edited in iMovie but clicked the crop button and selected "Fit". This will put black bars on both sides when you export. I think use Handbrake to crop it to 4:3.
This comment should be pinned. Thanks!
When I did the same back in the days with windows XP, I didn't need any additional software, save for the dv codecs that were download automatically, and Windows handled the acquisition process.
Thank you for this video!! I've been looking for a guide on how to transfer my old miniDV tapes for a while now.
You are the king, being new to Mac I needed this very detailed exactly step by step information. Now to the pile of MiniDV's I have :)
Going to check back in with Brian because he knows his shit man Respect ✊
Just what I needed right now. I have a bunch of tapes to copy over as well. Looking forward to the upscaling info.
Lon, I bought the 400 800 cable from Amazon that you recommended and it was defective. There seems to be a few other complaints about this cable. If you could change it to another cable, it may help others in the future. Thank you.
I've used WinDV for years...what a great program. Previously I think I used Pinnacle studio or something to that effect. I still love and prefer DV tape!
Excellent - very useful! I bought the two Apple adaptors some months ago (they're sitting here on my desk and I haven't even opened the boxes yet). My PC has T3 over USB-C so I really must get down and do it!
I noticed a few years ago that home-recorded VHS tapes are rapidly deteriorating. Picture quality becoming almost unviewable. I found a device on ebay called EasyCAP that worked well to offload the few tapes I wanted to preserve. Was not expensive, $10-15 and I think there are clones. Three RCA connectors to VCR and other to USB. I don't remember what software I used.
You are the best! Nothing out there as precise as your video. You saved me $100 bucks for app. And for some reason I get Capture device offline on premiere although I can control camera from Premiere.
Not sure if anybody already said this but in iMovie if you go to the crop button and go to the original size it’ll be the 4:3
Didn’t I hear on Wikipedia that iMovie reduces DV video to half the quality as the original tape? Might be outdated info but not sure about current versions. Also, you can switch to the proper 4:3 ratio when editing in iMovie, you just have to click on the crop button on each clip you add to the timeline then change the setting for each one.
I think I was in-need for a video like this, I know long time ago I bought a PCIe TV turner for my PC, with integrated AV recorder/capture card. And I used to record/capture my DVD's, while they were being played on my DVD Player.
WinDV is the business!
Quite helpful and informative. Thanks for putting something useful on RUclips.
Excellent video, thx Lon
Thank you soooooo much this video was FANTASTIC!! Exactly the information I was looking for!!
Are you sure the footage is stored digitally on mini DV tapes? Looking at the helocoidal heads of the tape mechanism i'm under the impression that the footage is stored in analog form and then converted to digital before the dv/firewire interface. If my assumption is incorrect, that means the y-component output connection on my HDV camera has to go through an internal digital to analog conversion right?
Also, i always find the y-component output connected to an HDTV and letting the HDTV perform the analog-to-digital conversion to yield better picture quality compared to playing back the digital file captured at 25Mbps. Again, i suspect the internal video ADCs (if indeed the footage is stored in analog form) was inferior in camcorders of the late nineties compared to those of modern HDTVs.
Looking forward to learn more here, thank you!
I'm in the process of doing this now with a bunch of tapes, both DV, Hi-8, D8, and VHS, and have been using a HDMI -- USB capture device, which has been working out pretty well. I would offer it as an alternative to having to have all of those dongles for a single purpose...
When using the USB capture device, you still use a Firewire port on the camera? Or do you convert the composite signal to HDMI, and then input the HDMI in the capture card? The bottleneck in qualitiy is in the composite signal. Using Firewire preserves as much quality as possible.
@@Rensje94 I've been using a Mini-DV camera with a HDMI out, a D8 camera with a composite out, and a DVD recorder for the VHS tapes.
You're certainly right about quality -- but I'm not finding the degradation when converting all that noticeable.
Great video everything proven vhs tapes last longer then your computer does everything proven
Hey Lon Thanks for a great video! Quick question about LifeFlix and timecode. If there is a break in the time code from one clip to another on a tape does LifeFlix continue to capture? In other words will it ignore any change in time code and allow me to walk away until the entire tape is captured?
Great video! Just the info i was looking for :)
Thanks for this - I'm starting to import a bunch of Beta, 8MM, Hi-8 and MiniDV family movies. Once imported is there a way to upscale them to HD? I've seen some videos this has been done to and the results are amazing. But I'm not sure what software is being used. Would love to see how we should do this (on MacOS).
Great video. Did you figure out how to convert the digitally archived HDV videos yet? Would love to hear your best practices and tips.
Just what I needed! Thank you thank you.
You are my hero. AMAZING video ❤️
Thanks for this informative video. Got me convinced to purchase Lifeflix. I spent much time recapturing with iMovie and FCPX, sometimes no Audio, sometimes crash at tape end. Lifeflix works better although with Canon DV40 camera you need to apply a work around to capture with audio. . I'm using my old 2012 MBP's to capture V8, Hi8, D8 and mini DV in uncompressed MOV format.
Would be interesting to know at what parameters you generate the final mp4 (resolution, bit rate, ...). Thanks, Hans
Super useful and very fluent video, thank you!
I'm having an issue with the windows laptop set up shown at time marker 18:51
I have a Digital 8 camcorder with the exact same cord and adapter set up but WinDv is showing "Error: Device not found.
Should I assume it's a driver issue even though the admin did not have that issue?
Thanks, appreciate any help I can get
Great work on your explanations. I followed you to the letter but could not get my Windows 11 laptop to recognize the camcorder. Do you have any suggestions that might help with that?
Does your computer have a thunderbolt port ? This won’t work with usb-c
@@LonSeidman , if I purchase an older Macbook (pre m1) will the solution you propose on this video work?
It should provided it has thunderbolt
This is a great video. I have lots of DV tapes and an inop camera. Question: have you tried capturing and editing with cross-platform DaVinci Resolve?
What do people do when their original mini dv camera is now not repairable(JVC)? I don't know if I buy a Sony used on ebay if it will play my JVC tapes without issues. Does anyone know?
You’re amazing! I didn’t know Quicktime would import video. iMovie was creating way too many individual clips. When I’m importing the video it's a little choppy and goes to blue screen or blacked out on the computer.
I kinda doubt it, but is there a way to keep it from doing that and just play what’s on the tape?
I'm using a Sony Handycam.
I think this particular tape has degraded somewhat because other tapes play perfectly fine. I’m not sure if it will start working right or not. Playback seems a little better if you rewind or fast forward a little bit.
Thanks for this awesome video!
Blue
Thank You Sir. Just what I needed to learn. 100%
This was very useful information. However, I use an iPad Pro, but it looks like I’ll need the latest model to pull this off, or at least if if it’s possible. But instead of final cut I’d be using The Luma fusion app, but before that import it with iMovie. Now I have an old XP Windows machine in storage for over 15 years 350 miles from my current residence, but I’m wondering if I could use it to work directly with the broadcast quality dv camera that I use to for the footage I have. I created it specifically for video editing back then, and that software was able to control my camera on screen. But I’m not sure if it would still work, since it been in storage for so long. You see I e gone over to only using an iPad Pro, and no longer build and windows PCs in 16 years. But that interesting wire combo adapter might be useful once I upgraded my gear.
Thanx for good and easy plan BUT I have a problem - my Mac do not see my camera ( at iMovie, adobe premiere or Vlc). I have Sony tcr33 connected via FireWire cable plus two apple connectors to Mac book pro at M1. What could be the reason for this problem?
I have the same problem, my Mac does not see my camera. Did you solve it?
@@444bro9 sorry, no. Only solution I see here - to use 3rd part service to make files from tapes.
thanks for a great video. i have an older sony handycam trv950 and canon opture 100mc. I can't seem to get either one of the to show up in quicktime under the cameras. i have the 2 apple adapters + a 400 to 800 FW adapter. I'm wondering if the cameras are to old to be able to capture the video onto my 2019 macbook pro. any suggestions? Thank you. Owen
This is a lifesaver. I have over 80 tapes. I am embarking on this project and just bought an MacBook Pro. Any updates on the transcoding?
His friend let em borrow the camera decades ago and he still got it🤣🤣🤣
This is super helpful! Thank you so much. I’m using the same setup as you, except with a Sony Digital 8 Handycam. How do I know if the recordings have captured all the material from the tapes? Is there a quick way to know all of the film has been recorded aside from fast forwarding and spot checking the full tape?
Cool Sega Genesis (and video)!
cool stuff
Very helpful video 👍🏽
windows portion starts at 18:50
What a great video. Thanks for taking the time to go over these options for capturing old DV footage. I tried the Quicktime technique on my iMac Pro, but with mixed results on the audio. On some captures, the audio sounds fine. But other times, the sound seems overdriven and appears to clip in places. I haven't seen anywhere in the Quicktime player where I can adjust audio levels on input. It appears to be an auto gain situation. Or am I missing something? I've been scouring the web with no luck, so you could be my last hope! Thanks for any suggestions you may have.
Hmm.. If it works some of the time but not all of the time it's possible that it's there's some physical damage on the tape or perhaps a dirty head in the camera/vtr.. Have you tried iMovie to see how the same clips work there?
Question. For those of us who don't have friends with working camcorders, I have 50 mini dv tapes, two JVC mini dv camcorders both which are broken and unfixable. JVC repair shops will no longer fix them. Will buying used a used Sony(or other brand) mini dv camcorder play them without issues so I can capture/xfer them into my computer?
Was able to transfer video but the audio didnt go thru in both quick time and i Movie
Great video! Thank you!
I have a Canon Vixia HV30 and am wanted to transfer video from miniDV tapes to my Mac. The manual indicates that I can transfer via the 4 pin DV Firewire port. However, I can no longer find my original cable and the 4 pin DV cable that I purchased doesn't fit in the slot, and that cable looks identical to other 4 pin cables I've found. Was there ever a slightly different 4 pin DV to Firewire cable that wasn't a bit curved/indented on one of the wider ends?
Using the same setup but my camera isn’t appearing as an option after I open QuickTime?? Just the webcam :(
thanks so much for your teaps ;) but with final cut, iMovie and QuickTime even with the right setting, the sound does not come out , I can record the video but not the sound
Could you help me understand what's going on here - on my camera the tape playback has audio that's perfectly fine. when I plug the av into my computer and try to record it I get no audio, just a loud distorted buzzing sound. I'm using a ccd trv68 and an easycap adapter. not sure where to look on how to fix this problem
Interesting video. I was rummaging thru over 100 mini-DV tapes and some of which I would like to preserve / edit. My iMac is a late 2017 and does not have the thunderbolt connector you show as the 2nd add on Apple adapter, but it does look like the thunderbolt 1 or 2 connector. Will this single adapter (1st one) I believe is firewire to Thunderbolt 1-2 type connector work on my iMac? I will also probably need a new/different firewire cable as the one I have does not look like the one you showed. Great idea!
Also as an FYI - have to tried to use the miniDV tape head cleaner cassette? I was using the Sony DRV27 camera and later went to the prosumer Canon XL H1A with XLR audio w/ +48v mics.
I am pretty sure that era of Mac is Thunderbolt 2 so you wouldn't need the that first adapter but still need the firewire one. The look of the firewire cables will vary based on manufacturer - I'd imagine they're not long for this world so get 'em while you can! Don't have any recs on a cleaning cassette, but looking on Amazon there is a Panasonic branded one that should work.
That's the problem with sony stuff...it stops working after so many tapes or the day after the guarantee expires. But when it works...good quality footage.
Very interesting!
I managed to capture family videos from several miniDV tapes using mini USB port on my Panasonic camera. Just plugged it via mini USB -> USB type A cable. I used WinDV program which is very handy. But still I'm not sure if FireWire (IEEE 1394) capture would be better or not. Visually the quality is OK. Will you cover the process of capturing VHS tapes and handling them in the video editors, please? :)
Need some help here, I am trying to do the same what you did but to no luck my camera is not being recognized by WINDV any recommendations would be helpful. Thanks
Thanks
Neither Quicktime nor iMovie on my MacBook Pro with the M1 chip 2021 are recognizing either my Sony camcorder fr my Sony DV deck. Bought all the adapters. If I click the Apple icon and hold the option key down to get System Information, I can see them recognized by the computer, but not the apps. Is my only option to buy another version of editing software to go with the new computer?
Panasonic dvx100b too ?
Imovie run only few cameras! HdvSPLIT ?
Hi Lon, thanks for this video it was really helpful. I imported all of my mini DV tapes a couple of years ago directly into iMovie, but some of the clips that were filmed as one clip separated on import, which was really annoying. I think iMovie thought there was a break when there wasn't one.
They also didn't deinterlace so I had to use Handbrake to convert them. Do you know if Lifeflix deinterlaces on import like Quicktime does? I also want to keep the individual clips instead of one a long video.
You mentioned that some of the clips that were filmed as one clip separated on import. Possibly due to dropouts on the tape. Each time there is a dropout, the timecode restarts.
My m2 mac mini is not recognizing my Sony digital 8 camcorder. I used all the adaptors you recommended. Running ventura 13.4. Any idea?
Update
I bought another new fire wire cord and it worked.
What was the playback issue on the old cameras? Would they not play at all or were there artifacts in the video?
what kind of mac are you using? I'm going to have to invest in one because my older ones take 3 hours to capture an hour movie using firewire to iMovie. My other Mac that has sierra won't use iDVD 9 for some reason.
Can you recommend the firewire 800 to ilink 1394 cable. I bought the bought the adapter but I think the 800 to 1394 cable is not working.. MacOS 11 can't identity the device connected. Was working on Windows
I have a firestore fs100 dvr that can only connect to a computer using firewire. I know connecting it directly to a firewire adapter card for pc works, so I was wondering if I could connect the fs100 through the same method you use as if the fs100 was the camera, and it would still work. thanks
I like to click buttons.
Thanks for the video, is it possible to record at 60 frames per second?
Hey Lon! I have the same project on my agenda. Finding a working DV deck is indeed a challenge. I went through many cameras trying to find a working one compatible with my Canon LP speed recordings. As for upscaling video, I've been using Topaz Video Enhance AI. It even has presets for deinterlacing and upscaling DV video. I've been trying it out on a couple DVDs with decent results -- but it is entirely dependent on how good your video card is. I wonder how it would perform on an M1 Mac.
I also recorded mostly in LP to save money on tapes, I wish I didn’t !
I was just told by a JVC repair shop that my camera is no longer repairable. This seems to be a big problem with a lot of people. Will a Sony play my JVC mini dv tapes without issues? Does anyone know? When you say you went through many cameras, did that mean you bought many cameras? There has be a better way, I can't afford that! Thanks.
Did you find a way to capture LP recordings?
@@MaxPowers1245 Yes, with mixed results. I had to acquire another Canon camera to use to rip. Though I've had some issues with the audio actually working. I ripped a whole bunch of tapes and then found the audio was missing entirely.
But in general, if you recorded in LP in the day, you need a camera/deck by the same manufacturer because Sony, Canon, and JVC each had their own LP formats.
@@alextirrellRI thanks for the reply or maybe one of the very expensive in the day but now antiquated DV decks I think we’ve got floating around at work or the camera it was recorded on is also still at work pretty sure that’s stuffed though. What a pain oh well
Im totally new to the topic. Arent there any FireWire Cable to USB? Isnt it possible to connect via USB Port?
Firewire cable to Thunderbolt, then Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 which slots into your Thunderbolt 4 port (USB-C) on your mac. Thunderbolt 1&2 are the same size. Thunderbolt 3&4 are the same size, but different to Thunderbolt 1&2.
@@johnbrennan8835 thanks! So I need one fireWire cable, 4 different thunderbolt cables (1,2,3,4) and than it will work? Sounds great but do I get a firewire cable? 😅
@Lena Sorry 3 Cables.
Thank you so much!
Hello, Sir,, Hope you can answer my queries.
1. Which one should i get? A 4 pin or 9 pin Firewire?
2. If i plug it on an iMac that has a built in firewire, should i use a male to male firewire plug or i really need an adaptor for thunderbolt?
Thanks much!
Definitely 9-pin.
Hi Lon, why is HDVSplit doesn't detect my PV GS35 but when i using Roxio Media import, it work fine. I just want to upscale the avi file. please help. Thanks
The amazon link in the description doesnt seem to be working? Just wanna make sure I buy the right cables.
If anyone can link them id be very grateful :)
Does LifeFlix do a better job of importing video as compared to iMovie, in terms of quality?
What if video is not playing on camera?
Thank you. Just found you. Just subbed.
Great video. I'm doing the same thing but I'm having a problem. I can't seem to adjust the capture settings in imovie because I get no audio in my captured video, and for some reason the capture is breaking down on single continuous clip into 2 second slices of the same clip. Are you familiar with this issue?
Any one know why my video and audio is losing frames every few seconds? I wanted to use iMovie but it’s losing audio and video frames. Canon mini dv Optura
What if I told you a lot of large transfer companies down convert these formats from Digital to composite for capture. They claim stuff like there's only a marginal increase in quality for the added time required and that the customer won't care or pay for that extra time. This obviously is complete nonsense.
Slight correction: It will only work with USB C ports that are USB 4 but really the only devices with USB 4 are the M1 macOS devices
And the fact that USB 4 is Thunderbolt 3 but open source
How do i split audio channels
Good stuff thank you
Great video. Just what I was looking for. Does anyone know what to do if the camera doesn't automatically appear in QuickTime or iMovie? I'm using an old Mac with MacOS 10 High Sierra, a FireWire port and a Thunderbolt 1/2 port, so it should be easier!!
Does the firewire connection capture the time code and the date. ? ????. If not all the captured videos are useless. I want the memories of the video date.
Hi - I can get the video going into my mac and recording it using Quicktime on my mac laptop no problem, but it seems that everytime there is a timecode jump, or I have stopped and started recording on the actual video, the Quicktime recording stops. A message comes up saying 'recording has stopped' and if I don't catch it in time, everything that is has recorded disappears and it comes up with a new recording window. It doesn't always stop at the same place, it's random. I just want to get one long recording of my 60 min videos, not numerous clips as I don't want to be editing them.
Do you know how I can stop this random interruption of my recordings happening? Thanks
using Lifeflix how good was the HD conversion?
Thank you so much for the video! I started capturing DV video from a firewire source (minidv camera and Canopus 110). With damaged tapes, I always get more than 100 small clips MOV-DV, with FCPX... opposed to FCP9, there is no option to record "plain" without creating different clips for each scene.
After viewing your video I tried windv and captured all the tape without creating so many clips, but it generated me a AVI-DV video that FCPX does not open... What should I do?
I want to keep the original DV to archive (I don't mind on using bootcamp to capture with windv) and then to edit it on Mac with FCPX but without having quality loss converting from avi to mov in order to open with FCPX.
Thank you so much for you help in advance... I read so many forums for so much time, but I cannot figure the best way to do this...
I would use the software I demoed on the Mac for capture it’ll give you a single MOV