iDVD Won't Record Video In OneStep DVD

Hi jcwarrior91




Welcome to apple discussions. First off .... verify your firewire camera / camcorder is supported in iMovie here:



http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1014



Assuming it's listed above, do you have at least 25 GB's of available on your mac's hard drive / the boot volume (main HD)?


if so, reboot your mac while the camcorder is connected and powered up via firewire (4 pin to 6 pin FW cable properly connected at both ends). Launch iDvd and it will default to the proper settings. Now try the one step dvd again. Assuming device control is working properly .... you'll know if it starts to rewind the tape. This is also assuming there are no breaks in the tape with nothing recorded for short segments (known as time code breaks). Did you check the tape to make sure of continuous playback? There can't be so much as a single spot of snow / blank tape area for this to work properly. Feel free to post back with your results.



And good luck!

Dear SDMacUser,

For those of us who don't have one of the listed cameras on the link you kindly provided, what options do we have?

I am playing my hi8 tapes through my inlaws Digitalhi8 player and routing through a firewire into my macbook pro. I get the same 3 seconds of pretend recording and then the message that says it is complete (without having captured anything).

Any ideas? Thanks!

Many times, even if it's not listed it will work anyway; assuming it has a digital firewire or i.Link input/s (but not always). However, if you have already narrowed the issue down to device control within iDvd, then there still is a possible work around. The drawback of the work around is it tends to be more time consuming than the traditional approach of going from iMovie directly to iDvd.


Nevertheless, you can still do a One Step from a QT movie (from the file menu in iDvd) you have already captured or successfully imported into your mac (or pretty much any QT movie loaded to the desktop or media browser). Btw, I personally use iMovie 6 => iDvd whenever I experience device control issues. It's cumbersome and slow, but it has the virtue of often working exactly as expected.




Message was edited by: SDMacuser

Hi

May be my list offer any help ?

*NO CAMERA or A/D-box*

Cable
• Sure that You use the FireWire - USB will not work for miniDV tape Cameras
FireWire - Sure not using the accompany USB-Cable but bought a 4-pin to 6-pin FW one ?
• Test another FW-Cable very often the problem maker.

Camera
• Test Your Camera on another Mac so that DV-in still works OK
• Toogle in iMovie pref. Play-back via Camera (on<->off some times)
• Some Cameras has a Menu where You must select DV-out to get it to work

Does Your Camera work on another Mac ?
Sorry to say it is to easy to turn the 6-pin end of the FW-cable 180 deg wrong.
This is lethal to the A/D-chip in the Camera = needs an expensive repair.
(Hard to find out - else than import/export to another Mac ceased to work
everything else is OK eg recording and playback to TV)

Connections
• Daisy Chaining most often doesn’t work (some unique cases - it’s the only way that work (some Canon Cameras ?))
Try to avoid connecting Camera <--> external HD <--> Mac but import directly to the Mac then move
the Movie project to dedicated external hard disk.

Mac
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk ? Please specify the amount of free space.
(Other hard disks don't count)
I go for a minmum of 25Gb free space for 4x3 SD Video - and my guess is 5 times more for 16x9 HD ones
after material is imported and edited.

SoftWare
• Delete iMovie pref file may help sometimes. I rather start a new account, log into this and have a re-try.
• Any strange Plug-ins into QuickTime as Perian etc ? Remove and try again.
• FileVault is off ? (hopefully)

Using WHAT versions ? .
• Mac OS - X.5.4 ?
• QuickTime version ? (This is the heart in both iMovie and FinalCut)
• iMovie 8 (7.1.?) ?
• iMovie HD 6 (6.0.4/3) ?

*Other ways to import Your miniDV tape*
• Use another Camera. There where tape play-back stations from SONY
but they costed about 2-4 times a normal miniDV Camera.
• If Your Camera works on another Mac. Make an iMovie movie project here and move it
over to Your Mac via an external hard disk.
(HAS TO BE Mac OS Extended formatted - USB/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange WILL NOT DO)
(Should be a FireWire one - USB/USB2 performs badly)


from LKN 1935.
Hi Bengt W, I tried it all, but nothing worked. Your answer has been helpfull insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos) to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before. Thank you. LKN 1935


from Karsten.
in addition to Bengt's excellent '9 yards of advice' .. 😉

camera set to 'Play' , not rec/computer/etc.?
camera not on battery, but power-line?
did your Mac 'recognize' this camera before...?

a technical check.
connect camera, on, playback, fw-connected...
click on the Blue Apple, upper left of your screen ..
choose 'About../More..
under Firewire.. what do you read..?

More
• FileVault - Secure that it’s turned off
• Network storage - DOESN’T WORK
• Where did You store/capture/import Your project ?
External USB hard disk = Bad Choise / FireWire = Good
If so it has to be Mac OS Extended formatted
----> UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange is NOT Working for VIDEO !

mbolander
Thanks for all your suggestions. What I learned is that I had a software problem. I had something called "Nikon Transfer" on my Mac that was recognizing my Canon camcorder as a still camera and was preventing iMovie from working properly. After uninstalling Nikon Transfer and doing a reboot, everything worked great.

I never liked the Nikon Transfer software anyway--I guess I'll get a cheap card reader and use that to transfer photos in the future.

*No Camera or bad import*
• USB hard disk
• Network storage
• File Vault is on

Yours Bengt W