Getting Firewire (and DV) to new macs

Having legacy equipment comes in handy. Recently I was asked if I had anything the could read a floppy disc.🤔

I did and it still works on recent Macs.

Backwards compatibility is still alive and well for the most part . 🤠👍

Al

> anything the could read a floppy disc

Me, me, me! My PowerMac 8600/200 has a HD floppy drive.

DD floppies? No problem: my Mac Plus has a DD floppy drive. ...hmm but how to copy the data to a newer Mac? With the ZIP drive, of course ...but bummer, it is SCSI... ...but wait, there is also a USB ZIP drive in the basement.

Never throw old stuff away.

I haven't tested the USB device that I posted but I suspect that the results will not be drastically inferior to importing DV via FW.

Remember that we used to make VHS copies from our DV tapes which were quite watchable. I used Super VHS as well but could never see much difference between it and standard VHS.

At that price it might be worth experimenting to find out.

Ian R. Brown wrote:

Most Macs seem to have stopped incorporating Firewire around 2011 (iMacs & MBPs)to 2012 (minis) and those were using FW 800 so you needed a special cable to connect your camcorder.

I am well aware of that...

By older I meant older than that. I still have a 2009 iMac that works fine (alas my 2005 iMac G5 bit the dust last year). The last time that I tried, my first laptop (a 1998 machine) still worked - but that was already a while ago. 😎

Older Macs like PowerBook G4 have Firewire 400 and 800 ports (I had to go upstairs to confirm that to be true).

BTW my newer PowerMac 8600/200 (now updated to XLR8 G4 450) has a FirewireDirect PCI combo-card (3 external and 1 internal FW ports, 2 external USB ports, TI chip, internal bus power adapter, $110 from Cyberian Outpost at 2001).

...with that PowerMac 8600 I edited hours of old VHS footage converted to DV (and new D8 footage) with Sony TRV320E with a 20 GB IBM Deskstar (that "Deathstar" is still running OK as a backup to backups) and iMovie 1.0.2-6.0.3. Older iMovie versions allowed one to lossy trim DV projects so that humongous 20 GB did do it. ...old iMovie versions had many features, issues ...and bugs ... just ask me ... 20 years ago somebody in these forums replied "you complain a lot" when I reported iMovie issues and workarounds -- just ask me if you are still interested to read those "iMovie_4_bugs.html" - "iMovie_HD_5_bugs.html" - "iMovie_HD_6_bugs.html" files).

Clint Gryke, thank you.

The above is the spirit of the phrase intended.

Thank you Alchroma.

1. Yes, assuming you have the correct connections etc.
2. H.264 to produce an .mp4 file which will work on most computers, TVs, tablets and phones etc.

These settings will give you good quality . . .

My screenshot showed a 1080p50 project.

Obviously you would be using a DV appropriate one determined by your project specs . . . see Matti's answer.

1. Yes. Though it may handle the material differently than other applications.
2. H.264 QuickTime progressive in the non-fractional frame rate of the original.

Most Macs seem to have stopped incorporating Firewire around 2011 (iMacs & MBPs) to 2012 (minis and MacPros) and those were using FW 800 so you needed a special cable to connect your camcorder.