[MacDV] ForMac studio ???? Work????

[Erica Sadun]

At 7:41 PM -0600 7/14/03, Mac McMahon wrote:
>Hi I have an iMac g4 800 mhz & I've been trying to get into video , tapes to
>DVD , digital to vhs etc . I'm using iMovie 3.02 , a jvc mini dv and lacie
>pioneer DVD burner . Which only works with dvd-r . I'm not stupid ( I don't
>think ) but the learning curve haws been steeper than the literature
>accompanying most of the hardware and software for this stuff would have led
>me to believe . I use capty DVD for authoring  , it seems to work ok , just
>takes forever ( about 7 hrs for an hour of play time) . I bought a Dazzle
>Hollywood bridge to facilitate moving digital video back to vhs tape for
>those clients who don't have a DVD player . Well the dazzle didn't work , I
>tried everything but killing a chicken during a full moon  to no avail .
>So.... I bought a ForMac Studio , It seems to work ok . The lights come on
>(they didn't at first when I had it connected to a fire wire hub) but when I
>connected direct to a fire wire port everything seemed to be working fine .
>My iMovie even tells me that a camera is connected . (a minor miracle) I've
>checked the connections till im blue in the face and they seem to be ok .
>But when I export my Imovie to camera (to VHS Video tape machine ) the video
>comes out as having not recorded at all. Is there a need for more power? I
>don't have an auxiliary power supply hooked to the ForMac . Is there perhaps
>enough to make the lights work , but not enough to complete the transfer? Or
>is my old VCR just too out of date (it's about 10 - 12 years old)
>
>Any and all suggestions would be most appreciated.

A/D D/A converters, such as the ForMac generally need direct,
powered FireWire connections.

To export, you must switch your convert from import to export. (I'm
not familiar with the ForMac details).

Make sure you're monitoring the playback on a TV connected to the VCR.
If you can't see it on TV, it won't record to tape.

-- ERica