MiniDV - think i'm well behind the times

[BigVeeGrin]

So, here's the thing. Got a stack of MiniDV tapes of when kids were younger etc and am about to get a new laptop. I now realise getting the material off the tapes is not possible as the old laptop has no FireWire or Express Card slot and neither do any new ones. sh1t!

What to do? As I see it -
- get an old machine (desktop or laptop) with FireWire to use solely for the transfer of the video
- a bloke at work has an iMac he doesn't use and says I can borrow it
- anything else for those who understand all this stuff?

Cheers

[edds11]

No, absolutely Not, definitely don't have a frikin clue

[VTRDark]

The simplest way would be to borrow the IMac and use Firewire to capture the footage. If not you may be able to use USB if your camera supports it, but I have never done this. Apart from being more slow, you will also only get one way communication with USB so wont have device control from the computer. The problem is all the cameras are mostly Flash memory storage instead of tape these days. So Firewire is not required as much for cameras and Apple have Thunderbolt now. I think you can get a Firewire adapter to use via Thunderbolt, but I'm a bit out of touch with the latest tech so don't no much about it. If the worst comes to the worst and it's not too many tapes then let me know and I can capture the footage for you.

{edit] I have just had a quick read up there defo a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter on the market. Whether it's OK for capturing footage will need some more research. It seems some have had good results and others haven't. This could be down to which software is being used to capture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OluAeppc4o

USB is a no go, there are also USB to Firewire adapters but these don't work for capturing footage.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-firew ... dapter.htm

You other option is to use a PCI Express card.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Belkin-USB-2- ... 27c8a741d9

It's very disappointing that Apple have deprecated Firewire. I use Firewire for external RAID and back up/storage drives as well as capturing footage.
[/edit]


(:-})

[BigVeeGrin]

Cheers Carl - I did find out there is no way that USB anything is compatible, not because of speed but because of the way they interact with memory management and a load of stuff I didn't understand!

[Wicky]

Yup try and borrow the imac - hopefully with imovie installed it. Should be able to get a cable for the camera to output to the mac - minidv to firewire* or sumfink (check your cams manual what's needed). Did the same a few years back and with the right cable and software you should be good to go. Hopefully the imac has the hard Drive capacity for all your recordings - if not get an external to shuffle your files to.

*

[BigVeeGrin]

Cheers guys - looks like its the iMac route, reckon the quality is not compromised either, and I've got a 500gb external drive knocking around so should be good

[VTRDark]

And if you can, use Final Cut Pro as it will capture as Quicktime files. I think IMovie captures to an IMovie specific format and possibly separate video and audio files, so you tied in with that and the quality is not as good. Otherwise you will have to export from IMovie as Quicktime files if you want to store the files for later or work in something else. Basically you have a lot more freedom to do what you like with a Quicktime file.

Make sure you have plenty of hard drive space, your looking at about 12.7GB for an hour of standard DV footage.

(:-})

[lloydie]

MINIDV can you get apps for them

[Wicky]

What imac do you know? Is it the original imac G3 or G4 or a later intel G4. Transfer over as you do it the movies to the back up drive (if its formatted for a PC you'll need to reformat it for the mac (OSX use Disc Utility). imovie should be on it preinstalled if not I can point you to it. Give us a heads up if you have any problems.

Cheers guys - looks like its the iMac route, reckon the quality is not compromised either, and I've got a 500gb external drive knocking around so should be good

[VTRDark]

MINIDV can you get apps for them

I doubt anyone will ever make an app for video editing simply because of the storage space required. IIRC HD footage is 36MB a sec. The only thing you will possibly get is basic editing of existing compressed footage, and when I say basic I mean trimming or maybe adding a colour effect or something. Anyway where would you plug you camera in Out of curiosity, how long can you shoot a video clip for on you IPhone.

(:-})

[lloydie]

until the memory is full ,
i took a 2h vid once without noticing

[Wicky]

MINIDV can you get apps for them

[lloydie]

nanu nanu

[BigVeeGrin]

Thanks for all the insight fellas - at work here a colleague found an old Dell XPS laptop kicking around no-one was using with a firewire port so getting hold of that.

[BigVeeGrin]

All working, popped into Maplin and got a firewire cable tonight. Big files mind, 200 odd mb per minute! Think i'll need an external drive to store it all on.