capture video from old unsupported tape and camera

FFirst you need something to digitize the analog tape. It might be easiest to dub it to DV. You can probably capture the digital media using either FCP or the QT player.

AApple tests very few devices and has almost certainly not tested any tape based devices for quite some time. You have no deck control in either FCP or the QT player. Playback has to be done manually.

Final Cut Pro X is compatible with most MiniDV tape-based camcorders using DV and HDV formats, which use a FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.LINK) cable to transfer video.

AGain there is no device control in FCP.

YYour first sentence is incorrect or perhaps you misunderstood what you read. FCP can capture DV and HDV from tape with timecode even if it has no device control.

You should be able to connect and capture using the ADVC110.

You must use Analogue on the INPUT side of the 110.

The 800 to Thunderbolt adapter will work OK.

See here for some details discussed earlier:

Re: Setting FCP X to "Non-Controllable Device"

This discussion is based on an older version of FCP X and there has been major changes to FCP X since.

Al

"The others are legacy cameras; i.e., Hi 8, VHS, and SVHS. Since none of them has device control, I don't understand how to import them"

These are all analog formats. They are not digital. Computer based video editing applications only work with digitized video. You can do what Al said and use a device that can convert this media to a digital format allowing the computer to capture it, or you can dub the material to a digital tape format like DV and use FCP or QuickTime to capture the digital tape.

Did you not read the section of the compatible camera page that said

Final Cut Pro X is compatible with most MiniDV tape-based camcorders using DV and HDV formats, which use a FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.LINK) cable to transfer video.

Hi,

One suggestion is to invest in a device from Elgato or Black Magic to digitize to a MP4 file or Pro Res the anologue tape formats, like Hi8 and VHS. I have a Black Magic product and it works great. Check out Amazon for options.

B.

All this implies that I can't "import" or "capture" analog data into the latest version of FCP X.

We seem to be at cross purposes. The JVC camera is a DV camera, right? You can capture from it (unless you use a rocketfish adapter). I suggested one solution for capturing your analog media is to dub it to DV. Others have reported that the Canopus box works to capture analog media into FCPX. There are other hardware options. Not sure about Elgato for this, but Black Magic should work and they have there own software to capture. You can then import it into FCP.

You have all the hardware you need.

For the analog tapes, connect the camera to the Canopus and connect the Canopus to your mac using the TB-Firewire adapter.

Use Quicktime Player to record (File->New Movie Recording). Like has already been said, you'll have to start/stop the camera manually.

For the DV camera, you can record to FCP X directly (never mind the list of compatible cameras; try it out!).

However, I would also go with QT for this one. The reason is that FCP X will break into separate clips for each break in timecode. You may end up with tens of clips for each tape.

FWIW, in the past year I've digitized several hundred hours of analog footage – using FCP X and the Canopus 110. The source of the analog material was a variety of camcorders. Worked perfectly well.

Russ