VHS to iMovie question

[Ray Zimmerman]

Yesterday I was trying to import a VHS directly to iMovie using my 
Sony Digital8 camera as a converter. I was not able to do it directly 
because every time I hit the Import button in iMovie it switched my 
camera to "Play". I hit "Play" on the VCR and everything displays 
fine on the camera viewfinder and in iMovie, but as soon as I hit 
"Import" in iMovie it sets the camera to play. So I ended up 
recording it to Digital8 tape and later importing it into iMovie from 
the digital tape.

Does anybody know of a way to make iMovie record without it telling 
the camera to "play"?

(It occurs to me as I type this that maybe removing the tape from the 
camera would be a workaround. I was hoping to copy it to digital tape 
at the same time. When I hit play on the VCR and record on the 
camera, everything was passing through to iMovie and I just want to 
tell iMovie to capture what it's displaying, without sending any 
control signals to the camera which switch it from record to play)

-- 
  Ray Zimmerman  / e-mail: rz10 at cornell.edu / 428-B Phillips Hall
   Sr Research  /   phone: (607) 255-9645  /  Cornell University
    Associate  /      FAX: (815) 377-3932 /   Ithaca, NY  14853