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-   -   Hi8/MiniDV import not working on macOS Catalina? (https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/10733-hi8-minidv-import.html)

allthingsmainy 06-17-2020 11:33 AM

Hi8/MiniDV import not working on macOS Catalina?
 
This has been a living nightmare for me the last few months. I have read numerous forums, watch endless youtube videos, read software manuals and have not been able to figure this out.

I am trying to setup a system where I can continuously import Hi-8 and Mini DV footage that is uncompressed/original quality and does not chop up my footage into small clips.

I still shoot with Mini DV and Hi 8 so having the ability to do this myself on my own computer indefinitely is the goal.

My setup is…

Sony CCD-TRV118 Handycam for Hi-8
Sony GV-D1000 Digital Video Cassette Recorder for Mini DV
connected to
ADS \ Pyro A/V link via s-video and red/white rca
connected through
firewire 400 to 800 cable - to a thunderbolt adapter - to a usb adapter
connected to

2017 13” MacBook Pro
running Catalina 10.15.5
2.5 GHZ Dual-Core Intel Core i7 Processor
16gb of memory
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 1536mb graphics card

I have tried the following software…

Adobe Premiere 2020 14.2.0 - no dv import feature

Adobe Premiere 2017 - dv capture available - when I open import and press play on my camera nothing happens.

iMovie 10.1.14 - reads the ADS and captures but cuts the video into clips that cannot be seamlessly edited together - meaning when I place them next to each other in the timeline there is a missing or skipped frame essentially making any footage with that split in it useless. This does not seem to be a dropped timecode problem because each clip is exactly 1 min. It feels like the “make footage into clips” feature implemented by iMovie which for some reason this version of iMovie does not let you deselect (I may be wrong though).

Final Cut Pro X 10.4.4 and 10.4.8 - reads the ADS and captures - but cuts the video into clips that cannot be seamlessly edited together. Same as iMovie.

Quicktime 10.5 - new movie recording mode - The ADS comes up as an option to select in the dropdown menu but when I press play on the camera and record on quicktime no video plays - just a black screen.

Life-Flix - import opens seemingly acknowledging the ADS - but when I press play on the camera and start import - just a black screen.

Parallels with High Sierra attempting to use iMove 9.0.9 - Parallels (as well as virtual box) I discovered does not read firewire devices that are not mountable.

Also just so you know I am not interested in hiring anyone to do this (because I shoot with these cameras regularly and that would be expensive and timely) and I am not interested in using the Elgato usb video capture device or any other like it (my experience with that is it is a lower compressed quality and does not do well with sharp movement of the camera)

The only idea I have left is downgrading my OS to an operating system that would let me run older versions of premiere, final cut, quicktime, or iMovie but this option is not ideal because there is other software I want to be able to update in the future and eventually that will cause a problem if I am not updating my OS.

Also I have tried every combination of turning off my computer, camera, the ADA, disconnecting, reconnecting in different orders etc.

I know one might think that is just a problem with Catalina not being able to read dv footage but if that is the case why can iMovie and Final Cut read and capture the footage !?

Please any help in getting me to my goal here would be deeply appreciated. I love shooting with these old cameras and would really love to be able to work with the footage uncompressed and without missing frames at random points

THANK YOU!!!!

lordsmurf 06-17-2020 11:54 AM

Mac was never a good capture OS, and has gotten completely unusable with 10.15.
With that setup, you're basically screwed.
But with willingness to downgrade OS -- or best yet, build a Windows XP/7 box only for capture -- then there is hope.

Newbie mistake #1 is trying to use NLEs for capture. That never ends well. So no Premiere, FCP, etc. Even iMovie is just a wimpy watered-down NLE, and not suggested.

VideoGlide is what you want. And then a specific card known to be quality. And no, Elgato is infamous, lousy card.

DV transfer is nice and all, but sometimes it simply will not cooperate. Your footage gets chopped into many pieces, and is a nuisance. If the footage is from consumer camcorders, realize the optics/sensor is blah, so it was never 720x480/576 anyway. The glass didn't resolve that detail. A wee bit less is s-video, and thus capturing DV over analog can look just fine. And that captures over analog outputs, in a single file.

Doing capture on your regular computer is almost never a good idea. Your main computer is hyperactive, and that just does not work for a video environment. It needs calm, not junk popping up for chats or whatnot. No web surfing, no anit-virus, etc. A clean barebones system, just for capture. Pretty much any hardware from the past decade works great, Windows XP or 7, good card, and done. Capture lossless, convert to ProRes422, and then head on back to the Mac.

You also don't want to DV compress that Hi8, you'll toss out 50%+ of the color data, colorspace compression.

Eric-Jan 06-17-2020 12:09 PM

First you need to be sure which hardware interface you have on your MAC the correct Thunderbold version on both ends !
Yes, there's no capture support for Firewire on the most used editors.
Only with a certain version of Quicktime you can make it a little work, but you get stuck with capturing in the correct resolution,
if you get the hardware part working, (correct Thunderbold version or conversion of that) then you can use OBS to capture,
Better is just to capture through s-video or composite the regular way, maybe use a vcr for Firewire, s-video or composite passthrough, whichever gives the best result to your taste.
The (mini)DV tape format was also used for professional recorders, (legacy equipment... check eBay) some of these devices could playback all recording formats, but you should see such a device working with your miniDV recordings.
A device that has component video out, and you can capture also with component video input on the capture device will always work is my experience, then you have a stable video signal, then no TBC is needed, this works with the Vestel RW200,
and the Panasonic DMR-ES35V, (this last one aslo has iLink/Firewire in,) both convert to component, and works with the Intensity Shuttle, The PCI (card) version does not support progressive mode, The Shuttle version does, and is available in Thunderbold2 or USB 3, And use the BMD capture software but.... again... Davinci Resolve does not support direct capture, you need Media Express for that, with the support of Desktop Video Setup utility, and are 64bit compatible, (Catalina)

(only 2012 - 2015 Macbook's support Thunderbolt 2, below that(below 2012) have display ports that look the same but are not, above 2015 are Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 2 is faster then USB3, Thunderbolt 3 isn't always the same as USB-C)

(your Thunderbolt to USB conversion could have a mismatch?)

A combo VHS/DVD recorder or DVD recorder with component video output, and a capture device with component video input would be a good setup. Otherwise you should try to get good TBC equipment, that you can buy localy, otherwise it will get very expensive.

allthingsmainy 06-18-2020 03:26 PM

@ Eric-jan I believe my cable connection is correct because I am able to view video and sound in apps like iMovie. Thank you for telling me about OBS I have downloaded it and found it works for my DV device straight into the computer (avoiding the ADS) for video but for some reason does not allow me to capture sound coming from the camera. I asked on the OBS forum for help on this.

As far as your advice on hardware I got a little lost in the weeds but I think you are saying my Hi-8 camera and DV player would possibly work with the intensity shuttle? I am aware of the intensity shuttle and thought something like the ADS or even the Canopus were similar - except that they did not offer upscale options.

My cable setup is as follows ADS firewire 400 out port - firewire 400 to firewire 800 cable - firewire 800 to thunderbolt 2 adapter - thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 adapter (both adapters are official apple products)

I have 2 thunderbolt 3 ports on my macbook (that was my mistake in the post saying it was usb-c).

@lordsmurf

Thanks for this clarification.

Although I was hoping to make this work on my current operating system and computer your advice about using an older operating system seems like the most realistic option at this point. I am not sure what you meant by building a Windows XP/7 box. Does that refer to a bootable drive or a virtual machine (I tried the virtual machine approach and had no luck) but think a bootable drive might be my best next step.

Also unfortunately I have to do this on my main computer because I am homeless by choice and take all my equipment with me whereever I go. Having to lug around another laptop would just be impossible! My tactic would be to close all software and not touch it while capturing.

Videoglide software recommend this video card capture device on their website.

https://www.amazon.com/Geniatech-iGr.../dp/B002LRMOPO

Do you have any experience with it?

-----------------

Thank you to you both for responding with your great advice.

Also thank you for the info about color quality loss on converting Hi8 to DV. I did not know that!

hodgey 06-18-2020 04:31 PM

It's possible to do capture firewire when running Ubuntu Studio (or other linux distro) from a usb stick, at least with normal firewire ports. Haven't tested it with thunderbolt. That way you wouldn't have to mess with an extra hdd etc, at least for firewire stuff. Analog usb dongles aren't any easier than on macos though.

allthingsmainy 06-19-2020 11:46 AM

Also if I am using windows 7 what software do I use. It seems Videoglide is only for Mac?

lordsmurf 06-19-2020 12:33 PM

VirtualDub for Windows.

Dual-booting in Windows (preferably XP or 7), using Bootcamp, is fine.

Correct, capturing video does not work in VMs. Direct hardware access is required, not an abstraction layer (VM).

From what I can remember, as it's a decade-old device, iGrabber is a garbage generic rebadged Chinese card. You want something more along the lines of the ATI 600 USB or clones.

allthingsmainy 06-19-2020 06:26 PM

Great thank you! I will try this out

ELinder 06-20-2020 12:22 PM

Bootcamp on your machine probably won't support going as far back as WinXP or Windows 7. I've got a mid-2015 MBP running Mojave that I have Windows 10 Bootcamp on as well as Yosemite for older Mac programs like Final Cut Studio.

allthingsmainy 06-23-2020 11:46 AM

@ Elinder

Yes! you are right bootcamp is not letting me install anything older than Windows 10 and I am also having a lot of trouble finding a way to create a bootable USB with windows 7 or XP with Catalina. I am trying to find instructions online and am having no luck. If anyone has any advice please let me know.

ELinder 06-23-2020 12:20 PM

You won't be able to use WinXP or Win7 even from a bootable USB drive. The problem is that there are no drivers for the modern hardware for those ancient operating systems.

My Macbook Pro and my iMacPro both have Windows 10 Bootcamp partitions. I boot into them and capture with a Diamond VC500 USB device. A lot of people here warn about using Windows 10, but it's definitely doable. Then again, that Windows partition is never ever connected to the internet, so I also don't have to worry about any Microsoft updates breaking something. I used the original Windows 10 install disk image, and manually downloaded all necessary C++ distributables and other programs in Mac mode and copied them to the Windows partition for install.

Erich

lordsmurf 06-23-2020 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ELinder (Post 69636)
Then again, that Windows partition is never ever connected to the internet, so I also don't have to worry about any Microsoft updates breaking something.

That's why it works for you. :congrats:


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