Problem importing mini DV tape
I have many old mini DV tapes which I want to digitalise, mainly for safe keeping but also potentially to perhaps edit at a later date. However, my primary aim is to create a back up of all the precious memories on the tapes onto the computer. I have an old working Sony DCR-PC3E camcorder and am using an iMac with OX-X Yosemite. I would have liked to import directly into iMovie but this doesn't work for me because it automatically splits the video into clips randomly. I have looked into this on the internet and gather that (particularly with Sony camcorders) iMovie will split the video whenever it detects the slightest shake/sudden movement etc thinking it is a new scene. I have tried linking these fragments (although this would be impossible to do on a large scale anyway) but there is a drop out which is noticeable. I then spent many hours (weeks!!) trying to get around this problem and looking on the net and came up with the idea of purchasing Quicktime 7 pro. I was so excited that this seemed to capture the video without splitting into tiny clips when I did a test on a few minutes of video and I was then able to successfully import this into iMovie (does this lose quality?). However, Quicktime now keeps stopping in the middle of importing and saying that there has been a media change. This is at random in the middle of a scene with no apparent reason! I am at my wits end!! I would like to import the tapes with the minimal loss of data if possible although right now I would just like to be able to import them whatever!
Please please help - I am getting desperate!
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012)