Issues importing Mini DV tapes into iMovie?
 

I have been having issues with importing mini dv tapes into iMovie. The main problem was that it wasn't actually importing all of the clips, even though it appears to be working and says it imported all footage successfully when it reaches the end of the tape (I've since learned that this is not an entirely uncommon problem). Also had some issue with audio, a little static and the audio/video is very out of sync occasionally.

I'm not looking to do much editing at all, other than deleting some short clips here and there in their entirety. My only goal is just to import with the best quality I can, and store the footage long term and have it backed up, and so I don't have to keep the tapes around forever. It's about eight tapes of home movie stuff.

I've given up on using iMovie for this. I was going to try Quicktime, because someone said it would be better for the audio/video sync issue and wouldn't have the issue with not importing everything, but they also said it doesn't detect all the separate clips (most of my clips are quite short) so it just imports the entire tape as one long thing which would be annoying. Although I'm not sure if that is true.

Others have suggested Premiere (don't know anything about that) and Final Cut (probably don't need anything that fancy).

I was also going to try LifeFlix, but I think I may have read somewhere that someone who used that also had the same issue as iMovie with it not actually importing everything through to the end of the tape. But maybe it's worth a shot.
Any other suggestions?

Note: I am on a 2013 Macbook Pro, using a firewire to thunderbolt adapter, on Sierra 10.12.2 and iMovie 10.1.4, more than 150 GB of available storage, importing from a Panasonic PV-GS80. Thanks.

Hi, I always used a DV capture utility first that came with a special Canopus card. Once you do that, the videos were always available to me using Adobe Premiere. At this point DV is an older format. I would guess you need DV capture software and maybe Firewire MacBook Pro does not have software to do this without a card. You may need a card in a desktop. Maybe someone in the forum knows another solution.

Good luck.

Quicktime isn't an editor. That won't work.

iMovie is pretty terrible, yes. It's the Mac equivalent of the free Windows Movie Maker, which also sucks. That's what you get for free. You simply need a better editor.

Some older tools like Avid Free DV and Final Cut Express work nicely, but it will depend on your version of OS X. Some OS version may not official be supported, but it will still work. Try those.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/vide...d-free-dv.html

Mac has a limited workflow. It is DV centric, but it often requires pro-grade tools like Premiere or FCP to have a good experience. Unlike Windows, or even Linux, Mac has few options for video. I have a Mac, and it's fine for DV workflows, but I'm doing editing with Premiere and FCP.