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My Sony DCR-VX2000 is not supported by imovie Mojave. It imports but its full of dropped frames so unfortunately useless. Is there a program that could convert .dv into mp4. Thank you

Hi -My 2010 Mac died and I am now using my latest Mac 2017 Mojave. I just found a box of 30 year old movies on mini dv cassettes. It would be awesome if I could import, edit and add them to my youtube channel for my kids and grand-kids to see. I purchased all the adaptor cables to connect my Sony DCR-VX2000 camera to my Mac and tried to import into iMovie Mojave. Unfortunately iMovie dropped so many frames the video is impossible to use. Apple Support says My Sony DCR-VX2000 is not supported by iMovie Mojave - I brought my 2010 Mac to a suggested Apple approved Service Center who will change my hard drive and bring it back to life - unfortunately they will have to download High Sierra as that is the oldest version they can access and I pray that it will support my camera. QUESTION: If that does not work out, would there be a program out there that I could safely download which could import .dv and convert to mp4 which then I could use in iMovie Mojave.?


Thank You




Posted on May 16, 2020 10:24 PM

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Posted on May 17, 2020 10:06 AM

Hi, ilona132,


You might try purchasing iMovie 6 as part of the iLife '06 package from Amazon. Then import into iMovie 6. iMovie 6 is designed for .dv. I don't know if you will get a better result, but might be worth a try. I am running iMovie 6 on Mojave and it works just fine. I think I downloaded it while using Mavericks or El Capitan. It could be a little tricky to download on High Sierra but I think it can be done.


If your video tapes were recorded on a camera different than your Sony DCR-VX2000 that might cause some difficulties.


Also, maybe the recording heads need cleaning.


-- Rich



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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 17, 2020 10:06 AM in response to ilona132

Hi, ilona132,


You might try purchasing iMovie 6 as part of the iLife '06 package from Amazon. Then import into iMovie 6. iMovie 6 is designed for .dv. I don't know if you will get a better result, but might be worth a try. I am running iMovie 6 on Mojave and it works just fine. I think I downloaded it while using Mavericks or El Capitan. It could be a little tricky to download on High Sierra but I think it can be done.


If your video tapes were recorded on a camera different than your Sony DCR-VX2000 that might cause some difficulties.


Also, maybe the recording heads need cleaning.


-- Rich



May 17, 2020 12:49 AM in response to ilona132

When importing DV from tape into iMovie the import is divided at the points of scene break, i.e. at the points of start/stop record.

Hence the import will consist of many separate files but will play seamlessly in the time line. Could this be what you are seeing when you are importing your tapes and are assuming that they are dropped frames?


You could try the Record feature in QuickTime Player to import your DV tape.

This is sometimes more forgiving than iMovie.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201066


Be sure to select your cam' and the cam' microphone in the drop down menu and select quality to high.

If maximum is selected your file size will be huge with possibly no benefit in quality. When using QTP to import from tape you will obtain just one long file with no scene breaks.You will need to then import this into iMovie.


Do you still have the 2 grey discs that came with your 2010 Mac ( OS Snow Leopard plus applications software)?

If so you could install that on the old Mac and then upgrade to El Capitan instead of High Sierra.

As you have iMovie 10 on your new Mac you could download a compatible version of it on your old Mac ( El Capitan).

Be sure to use the same Apple ID on the old Mac that you use on the new Mac.

You would likely to be more successful importing your DV tape on El Capitan than with High Sierra on your old Mac.

If all is successful then you can upgrade from El Capitan to High Sierra at a later time or keep it at El Capitan just in case you find more tapes.

May 17, 2020 1:14 AM in response to ilona132

" unfortunately they will have to download High Sierra as that is the oldest version they can access "


If you want them to install El Capitan, tell them they can find it on this Apple link.


https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886


Also, you don't need to convert .dv files to mp4 for use in iMovie with Mojave. They should work without conversion.



May 17, 2020 10:12 PM in response to thesurreyfriends

Hi Thesurreyfriends - thanks for these great tips! working down your list of possibilities. I just sent an email to the Service Center giving them the link to El Capitan, as well as telling them that I still have the 2 grey discs that came with the computer.

I imagine they're the right ones, because it says "2010Apple Inc" Application Install DVD and Mac OS X Install DVD. Keeping all fingers crossed :)



I also tried QuickTime Player, it sees my camera but does not want to engage it, so the camera icon stays black. I will call

Apple Support tomorrow and see if they can guide me through the problem.


About the dropped frames, it's really a problem, all clips are 3 to 5 sec long and parts missing in between them, really unusable.


Again thanks for the help. I'm confident something positive should come out of all this. Will let you know.


ilona

My Sony DCR-VX2000 is not supported by imovie Mojave. It imports but its full of dropped frames so unfortunately useless. Is there a program that could convert .dv into mp4. Thank you

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