[G4] Analog to Digital Video Help

[charlie gibbs]

If you are serious about having a decent quality video after you have  
spent the time to shoot video and the hours required to edit your  
video... The best way to go from consumer analog to iMovie or any other  
NLE program is to copy the analog video to miniDV Tape first!  You can  
buy a used miniDV camera for $400.00 or less and a tape for $5.00 and  
you have a complete editing system... And also a better camera that you  
can use as an editing deck and also as a live feed to a TV monitor.   
The quality of copying analog to DV Tape somehow increases the quality  
of the original video.  Now you can feed in and out of your computer by  
firewire and store your finished videos on DV Tape which makes better  
master tapes than analog masters.

Several other things to think about is once you are using minDV, you  
have timecode on your tapes for precise editing over and over.  You can  
store your final video on the miniDv and feed it back all or part of  
your project into the computer to reedit without loss.

I have a huge library of Hi8 travel videos that I shot years ago.   
After a while they get ruined from sitting on the shelf.  I started  
transferring some to miniDV to use in some of my video production  
projects.  The video that I transfer to DV tape before inputting into  
my computer, look a lot better that if I went direct from camera to my  
computer.  The only question is if your project and future projects are  
worth the effort and expense.

On Monday, December 1, 2003, at 04:33  AM, Mel Krewall wrote:

> Wade,
> I don't know anything about the Belkin device, but the InterView USB  
> device from Daystar  
> (http://daystartechnology.com/products/xlr8_products/ 
> b_ps_usbivosx.html) will allow you to take composite video out and  
> converts it to Quicktime video, which you can then convert to DV with  
> Quicktime Pro. The converted video will work in iMovie. This is not a  
> high quality solution but it is only about $50 (plus QT Pro), which is  
> a lot less than the DV bridges (about $300) or DV video cameras. It  
> comes with some nice capture software and also some software that will  
> let you use your video camera as a webcam. I have used this method to  
> take Sony 8mm video into iMovie and it works fairly well. The capture  
> and conversion is a lot more tedious than just plugging your DV camera  
> in and having iMovie control it, but it is inexpensive.
> HTH,
> Mel
>
>
> "May thy ball lie in green pastures - and not in still waters."
> ~Author Unknown
> On Dec 1, 2003, at 12:35 AM, Wade Perry wrote:
>
>> Hello All,
>>
>> Somewhat off topic. When in need of real advice, I always turn here.
>> My daughter is a Film development class and I am looking for  
>> solutions or
>> suggestions for  analog video input into my DA 533 for use in iMovie.  
>> I
>> don't want to purchase a new video camera. Most of the choices I have  
>> seen
>> involve very good, but expensive (Canopus ADVC-1394) or unreliable
>> conversion (Dazzle bridge). Belkin makes an inexpensive  cable set  
>> that will
>> allow import NTSC video to be dropped onto the hard drive via a USB  
>> port.
>> Will this work in iMovie ? I know that some of you have opinions and
>> expertise to share. Any help would be appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Wade A. Perry
>
>
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