Camcorder passthrough not importing

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Level 1

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Camcorder passthrough not importing

Hello, I'm trying to convert old VHS tapes into digital and into iMovie. I've tried other ways but wasn't thrilled about the quality, so now I've attached a VCR to a DV Camcorder (that has the passthrough capability) and connected it to my iMac. I open iMovie and can see the VHS movie playing and it looks like it is importing but when I click stop importing there is nothing in the file. None of the video has been imported. I can upload my DV tapes and that works fine, but it doesn't want to upload the file from the VHS tape. It's odd as it does play back and it looks like it is recording but the file is empty. Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong? I feel I am missing something basic. Thank you for any help you can give me. Im on a iMac 27' i7, 12 GB ram, and running OS X 10.11 and iMovie 10.0.9

iMovie 10, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Nov 19, 2015 8:24 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

thesurreyfriends

Level 4

2,707 points

Nov 20, 2015 12:41 AM in response to Crash_Davis

iMovie 10 requires Time Code for import.Your camcorder generates time code from tape but not from passthrough.

Earlier versions of iMovie did not require time code for import.

Option one.

Record your VHS tapes onto DV tape on your cam' and then transfer from cam' to iMovie.

Option 2.

Use Quick Time Player to record and then import this into iMovie.

How to use QuickTime Player - Apple Support

In the options, set Recording Quality to Maximum.

If you have many VHS tapes then option 2 is probably the most straight forward.

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Answer 2

rik99

Level 1

9 points

Nov 20, 2015 7:08 PM in response to thesurreyfriends

I have the same problem as Crash_Davis except with DV tapes played directly on my DV Camcorder (attached via firewire to an 2009 Mac Pro tower). Some of my DV tapes output time codes and some DV tapes seem to either lack time code data or my camcorder (Sony DCR TRV740) is failing to detect them and output the time code. As stated above, some movies play fine on the iMovie import screen, but no file is generated on the MacPro. I found that the movies that are not saved show "no data from camera" in the window of the playing movie. I have used the QuickTime work around for these movies, but I wish that Apple would fix this issue perhaps by generating a pseudo time code in iMovie.

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