Options for miniDV import?

[MonocleRB]

I have some old family videos on miniDV tapes. Since it's a digital format, it should be possible to get a 1:1 copy of the bits on the tapes. I'm trying to find a hardware/software combo to achieve that.

 

Equipment available to me:

• Camcorder the miniDVs were recorded on, with 4-pin FireWire DV output.

• Custom-built PC running Ubuntu 23.10

• MacBook Air M1 running macOS 14.0 Sonoma

• Power Mac G5 with 6-pin and 8-pin FireWire ports, running Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard

 

What's my best option for capturing a 1:1 copy of the bits on the tape??

• Modern PC with OBS (needs FireWire —> USB cable)

• Modern PC with dvgrab (needs FireWire —> USB cable)

• MacBook Air M1 with OBS (needs FireWire —> Thunderbolt cable)

• Power Mac G5 with Final Cut/iMovie (FireWire native)

[tkitch]

long term it'll be A or B.  
Since the G5 is hella ancient, it's gonna die eventually.  And a USB to Firewire cable will be around a lot longer.

 

but if it's just one-time?  Use the mac and imovie.  Cuz it's there.

[AbydosOne]

14 minutes ago, tkitch said:

And a USB to Firewire cable will be around a lot longer.

17 minutes ago, MonocleRB said:

needs FireWire —> USB cable

Firewire and USB are inherently incompatible standards. AFAIK, there's no such thing as even an active adapter because of Firewire's use of DMA.

 

You'll need a stand-alone PCIe Firewire card for any desktop use.

[MonocleRB]

7 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

Firewire and USB are inherently incompatible standards. AFAIK, there's no such thing as even an active adapter because of Firewire's use of DMA.

 

You'll need a stand-alone PCIe Firewire card for any desktop use.

added that I have a MacBook Air M1, which can use a FireWire —> Thunderbolt cable, what's the best option (hardware and software) with that in mind?

[Kilrah]

With the M1 mac you'd need a chain of adapters, namely Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2, TB2 to FW800, then FW800 to FW400. 

With the G5 you'd be able to capture, but capturing on a mac is meh as the Apple apps wrap it in Quicktime container that has poor compatilility with other apps/platforms. Might be better now but it was a pain back then to use files captured with imovie/final cut on PC software.

Best is probably either an old PC with built-in firewire or an add-on PCIe card. On Windows there's WinDV that captures things as raw as it gets,Never done it on linux but apparently dvgrab is a thing. 

 

Would start by capturing in imovie on the G5 and see if you can use the files everywhere you need since you have that already.

  

57 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

AFAIK, there's no such thing as even an active adapter

Some have existed, but that was a niche thing 20+ years ago so they're unobtainium by now.

[MonocleRB]

I found this blog, which might be helpful:

 

leolabs.org/blog/capture-minidv-on-macos

 

I'll try it on the G5 and update with results.

[MonocleRB]

Update for anyone in the future trying to capture miniDV:

 

I ended up installing iMovie on the Power Mac G5 and connecting the camcorder to it via a 4-pin to 6-pin cable, then using the plain-Jane iMovie capture button, the way God intended.

 

Now, your captures will be in your .iMovieProject files, which are "MacOS Packages"; they are actually folders that the MacOS Finder makes to look like files. MacOS .app files are actually folders too! MacOS You can right-click these in the Finder, click "Show Package Contents", and see the files inside. the .dv files are what you're looking for.

 

I hooked up the SATA hard drives in the G5 to my Ubuntu desktop, and copied the .iMovieProject folders over. (turn out Ubuntu can read and write Mac HFS+ drives out of the box!)

 

Once you have the files on a modern PC, you can use Handbrake, VLC, or ffmpeg to transcode the .dv files into .mkv, .webm, .mp4, or what-have-you.

 

This is definitely the easiest way to get the raw data off your miniDV tapes and transcode them to a modern format. I would definitely archive your .iMovieProject files, though. Don't lose your original data after you transcode.