4.10. Importing Footage from Non-DV TapesWe live in a transitional period. Millions of the world's existing camcorders and VCRs require VHS, VHS-C, or 8 mm cassettesthat is, analog tapes instead of digital. DV camcorders are rapidly catching up; they're the only kind people buy these days. But in the meantime, potential video editors face a very real problem: how to transfer into iMovie the footage they shot before the DV era. Fortunately, this is fairly easy to do if you have the right equipment. You can take any of these four approaches, listed roughly in order of preference: 4.10.1. Approach 1: Use a Recent Sony or Canon CamcorderIf you're in the market for a new digital camcorder, here's a great idea: Buy a Sony or Canon MiniDV camcorder. Most current models offer analog-to-digital pass through conversion. In other words, the camcorder itself acts as a media converter that turns the signal from your old analog tapes into a digital one that you can record and edit in iMovie. The footage never hits a DV tape. Instead, it simply plays from your older VCR or camcorder directly into the Macintosh. (Not all Sony and Canon camcorders have this feature, so ask before you buy. And on some models, you must use the camcorder's on-board menu system to enable the live passthrough.) If you've got a drawerful of older tapes, such a camcorder is by far the most elegant and economical route, especially if you're shopping for a new camcorder anyway. 4.10.2. Approach 2: Record onto Your DV CamcorderEven if your newish digital camcorder doesn't offer real-time analog-to-digital conversion, it may have analog inputs that let you record your older material onto a MiniDV tape in your new camcorder. If so, your problem is solved .
4.10.3. Approach 3: Use a Media ConverterIf your DV camcorder doesn't have analog inputs, you can buy an analog-to-digital converter a box that sits between your Mac and your VCR or older camcorder. It's an unassuming half- pound gray box, about 3 by 5 inches. Its primary features include analog audio and video (and S-video) inputs, which accommodate your older video gear, and a FireWire jack, whose cable you can plug into your Mac. Your options include the Canopus ADVC-55(www.canopus.com, $215, shown in Figure 4-16), and the Director's Cut Take 2 box(www.miglia.com/products/index.html; about $280). In either case, you'll be very pleased with the video quality. And when it comes to converting older footage, the media-converter approach has a dramatic advantage over DV camcorders with analog inputs: You have to sit through the footage only once. As your old VCR or camcorder plays the tape through the converter, the Mac records it simultaneously . (Contrast with Approach 2, which requires you to play the footage twice: once to the DV camcorder, and then from there to the Mac. )
Unfortunately, you can't control these devices using iMovie's playback controls, as described in this chapter. Instead, you must transfer your footage manually by pressing Play on your VCR or old camcorder and then clicking Import on the iMovie screen. In that way, these converters aren't as convenient as an actual DV or Digital8 camcorder. 4.10.4. Approach 4: Use a Digital8 CamcorderSony's Digital8 family of camcorders accommodate 8 mm, Hi-8, and Digital8 tapes, which are 8 mm cassettes recorded digitally. (Low-end models may not offer this feature, however, so ask before you buy. ) Just insert your old 8 mm or Hi-8 cassettes into the camcorder and proceed as described in this chapter. iMovie never needs to know that the camcorder doesn't contain a DV cassette. Actually, a Digital8 camcorder grants you even more flexibility than that. Most Digital8 camcorders also have analog inputs, shown back in Figure 1-3, which let you import footage from your VCR or other tape formats, just as described in Approach 2. |