Importing from VHS

Hi sean

use a converter box or your dv-cam...
http://www.macworld.com/2004/05/features/fromvhstodvd/

Hi Sean,

From Macworld as well, http://www.macworld.com/2004/07/reviews/firewiredigitalvideoconverters/index.php , this is somewhat dated, but nevertheless, it lists a few AV/DV converters. You probably want to visit the respective companies to see if any newer products are available.

Hi Sean:

You might think about this-why spend $130.00 for a converter when you can actually get a fairly decent DV camera for a bit more and then you'd be able to convert
i and
take footage that
i will
import to imovie? I mean ,
b if
you were ever going to use imovie again...I get pretty excited about imovie sometimes..sorry. 😉

Sue

I've been shopping online for converters, too. I was recently in my local Mac retailer's store, and the salesman there was raving about the ADS Tech Pyro A/V Link unit. "I've already sold 57 of them," he claimed. (He didn't have any kind words to say about the Formac Studio.)

I'm always skeptical about wild claims from sales reps, so I thought I'd do some further research on my own. I visited the ADS Tech website ( http://adstech.com) and found out that the ADS Tech Pyro A/V Link is only supported as far as OSX Jaguar. Is this information outdated, or is the Pyro compatible with Tiger?

I've also been wondering about the ADS Technologies Pyro AV Link. I have Tiger and I emailed the company about compatibility with it and have not received a response.

Has anyone used one of these successfully with Tiger and iMovie HD? Is it any good? I would like to hear from anyone importing footage from a Hi-8 camera using this Pyro AV Link.

Thanks,

Trev

I have just bought pyro a/v. is working but not on audio. from what i gather, i may have to send in to upgrade chip. seems they have older rev. 2 on market still. from other disscusion sites only way of firmware up dates is to replace chipset. transfers vhs dirrect to dv cam fine. no audio loss. goes to imovie fine shows audio in timeline, but play back no audio. you can take dv to imovie after capture but you better have stock in memorex tape. also i wish apple would get off butt and try to be alittle more compaitable with others. they just don't work well with 3rd parties.

I have been doing this for months with a ForMac DV that cost me 300. After the purchase everyone told me I could have don the same for less, oh well. It works great and I can watch cable and anything I have pumped into my house as well as record in iMovie and with its software ( it has a feature that - when on - opens a remote channel select in it's own window floating around iMovie). It's nice and having it all on DVD is much nicer in every way as I am sure you are aware. If you are looking at something you can attach internally I would recommend that as much as an external - depends on you.
You won't regret getting rid of all those VHS tapes!

Hi Sean
I don't have a digital video camera yet. So, I purchased a canopus ADVC 100 from the Apple web site a while back. I have no regrets. I can convert VHS through a VCR to the converter to imovie. I have an analog video camera and it contects to the converter through RCA jacks then through firewire to the mac to imovie. It's all good.

I have experienced no problems with audio drift during conversion in any of the projects I've done. Some converters introduce drift while it converts. I would highly recommend Canopus.

If you buy a digital camera be careful to select the right one. Not all support pass through, not all have RCA jacks for analog conection, and not all support Mac.

I hope this input helps

Regards

Carl

Hi Sean,

I've converted most of my old VHSC video taped using my Mac.

You will need a VCR player, an A/D converter of some type and a firewire cable and an audio video cable with a jack that fits into your A/D device.

For the A/D converter I use my new Cannon Digital Camcorder which I switch to A/D convert. I take an Audio/Video cable from the back of my VCR to my camcorder. Then the firewire cable from my camcorder to my Mac.

I then launch imovie in capture mode. Note that imovie wont be able to control your VCR, so you will have to do that manually.

Click the import button on imovie and the play button on your VCR simultaneously and off you go!

Does this help?

Steve.

If your camcorder doesn't have an A/D converter, Apple will sell you an Elgato Eye TV 200. Its awesome. I have imported my VHS tapes to the MAC (it will record compatible for iDVD, iMovie and Toast). You also end up being able to watch TV on your Mac and record live TV (or freeze it for later, if you wish).

hello 🙂
I just purchased the canopus advc300. i am trying to save my old vhs tapes. i have the vcr hooked up into the canopus advc300 via s-video cable. then i have the canopus advc300 connected to my mac mini via firewire cable.
I am using the latest version of imovie.
how can i get this to work? i am having problems 😟
what happens when i try to capture the vhs tape - just a black dvd screen appears. the time is elapsing, but nothing from the analog vhs tape is recording. what could i be doing wrong?
any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ron

i have the vcr hooked up into the canopus advc300 via s-video cable.

Most VHS VCRs doesn't have S-video out. Are you sure your models has it? (The models that usually have S-video out are the S-VHS decks.)

Try using the yellow RCA plug for composite video.

Do you hear the audio? (S-video doesn't carry audio, so you must use the red/white RCA plugs, regardless of your use of S-video or Yellow RCA.)

hello lennart
I just ran into the other room to double check on my vcr player (this is a panasonic pv-d4735s) ... there is an
s-video "out" ... whew!!
I did a little experimenting. thanks for the tip on audio. i thought s-video did it all. so i hooked up rca plugs and i can hear the tape ... there is sound, but no video.
so a little more experimenting. (this panasonic plays both dvd and vhs -only plays...not records) ... i can play a dvd (any dvd) and it goes right into imovie with sound and all. so the only thing i cannot do is get video from the analog vhs tape that is playing. this is very confusing.
thankyou for your response.
ron

hello again lennart
ammmmazing! 🙂
I unplugged the s-video cable and took your advice and used the yellow rca video adaptor ... it works.
why i wonder would it not work with the s-video?
why would the dvd work and not the vhs?
anyway i want to thankyou!!
much appreciated.
now i have a lot of work ahead of me 🙂
ron

why i wonder would it not work with the s-video? why would the dvd work and not the vhs?

Trying to not get too technical here: A VHS recording already is a composite signal on the tape. The VCR doesn't have any need to convert to the higher quality of S-video.
Now, a DVD is higher quality and will benefit from S-video.

By the way, can't you "hear" on the name "S-video" that it doesn't carry audio? ;-)