Hi8 capture problems

[AndyR]

Hi all,

After succesfully burning all of my MiniDV tapes to DVD with iMovie/iDVD I decided the other day to start on my old Hi8 tapes.

I've connected my Hi8 camera through my MiniDV camera and into my Mac. I can't use iMovie as it doesn't like my Sony PC101 with the passthru (keeps trying to play the MiniDV tape) so after looking around I'm using BTX to capture the video.

Problem is its taking up 2gb for like 5mins of footage so I run out of space way to quick. The footage isn't great quality so don't understand why it captures such large files. Anyone used this before and have any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[rjphoto]

Try taking the tape out of the minidv cam and leave the tape carrier open.

Then hit the play button on the Hi8 and then the capture button in iMovie.

 

[xov]

If you can borrow a Digital8 camera, you can capture the Hi8 video directly into iMovie.

 

[AndyR]

Try taking the tape out of the minidv cam and leave the tape carrier open.

Then hit the play button on the Hi8 and then the capture button in iMovie.

tried that but it complains of no tape in the MiniDV camera. I ended up finding quite a large number of references in google to this having occuring in iMovie HD but not before. All of the suggestions were to try BTX.

I can capture the footage, just don't understand why its so big in BTX when copying thats all.

 

[FF_productions]

Every program is going to capture your video in the same way: UNCOMPRESSED. It's 13 Gigs for every hour of DV footage, and the reason the quality is so bad is because it is Hi8 video!!!

 

[AndyR]

Every program is going to capture your video in the same way: UNCOMPRESSED. It's 13 Gigs for every hour of DV footage, and the reason the quality is so bad is because it is Hi8 video!!!

Sorry didn't make myself clear. When I've captured MiniDV with iMovie it takes up yeah about 12gb a file.

When I tried with BTV to capture my High8 tapes (couldn't use iMovie) it used almost 20gb in 20mins and then fell over. I knew the quality would be worse as its Hi8 but what I meant by bad quality was the picture was REALLY dark and stuttered a lot, which it wasn't like when viewing on the camera. I tried capturing some on my XP box (urgh) and it captures fine.

Would prefer to use iMovie but as it doesn't like the passthru on my camera I think I'm stuffed.

 

[rjphoto]

Hi8 > MiniDV > iMovie

It will take a little longer (twice as long), but you could buy some blank DV Tape and copy the Hi8 to the MiniDV tape and then capture the MiniDV tape to the computer. This will also give you a new back up on Digital Tape so that you don't have the problem I have of a dead 8mm camcorder. I had to borrow a friends Digital 8 to transfer my last remaining tapes that had not been edited.

 

[AndyR]

It will take a little longer (twice as long), but you could buy some blank DV Tape and copy the Hi8 to the MiniDV tape and then capture the MiniDV tape to the computer. This will also give you a new back up on Digital Tape so that you don't have the problem I have of a dead 8mm camcorder. I had to borrow a friends Digital 8 to transfer my last remaining tapes that had not been edited.

Yeah this has crossed my mind and I think it might be the best thing for me to do. Will keep trying anyway as I have like 25 old Hi8 tapes to capture!!!

 

[evil_santa]

you could try avid free dv, to capture via your DV camera.

http://www.avid.com/freedv/index.asp

 

[AndyR]

you could try avid free dv, to capture via your DV camera.

http://www.avid.com/freedv/index.asp

Thanks but Dang, gotta get my mini up to 1gb for that.. Oh well, may be the reason I need to do it.

 

[springy]

Had Same problem, seems now to solved.

I had the same problem. Then tried to do the capture with FCP. If you switch of the Timesignal monitoring and select a dumb AV device input it works and you can set the encoding level (makes the files smaller). I have not found out how to switch of the timesignal monitoring in Imovie though.


Springy