How to Transfer MINI DV to Computer FAST 

Sweet video, confirming this chain of adapters has been working without troubles on my PC under latest OS’s both to connect Firewire devices to my computer and to capture MiniDV tapes. Feel really lucky this knowledge has been transmitted among valiant youtubers through the years :)

Glad to hear it works, I figured it absolutely should since we’re all on the usb-c/thunderbolt comparability. 🙌

Is it possible to capture the footage if I transfer it from firewire to usb?

@@yaellehaab7598 well, I am not aware of any direct, all-in-one-cable adapter from Firewire (of any type) to USB (of any type) that'd allow you to capture DV footage. I may not know all the existent options, but it is generally believed there isn't one like that. However, as long as the USB port you refer to in your question is USB-C (Thunderbolt 3), you can make a daisy chain of adapters that Mark shows in his video and that will allow you to capture DV footage (going from the camera to the camputer): 1. Unless your camera has a Firewire 800 port, you'll need an adapter from Firewire 400 (either Firewire 400 6-pin or Firewire 400 4-pin, depending on the type of the Firewire connector on your camera) to Firewire 800, 2. then one from Firewire 800 to Thunderbolt, 3. then one from Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt 3. Note that I, personnally, am using genuine Apple adapters for No. 2 and No. 3 and it lets me capture DV but I cannot tell you whether an adapter from a different manufacturer for No. 2 and No. 3 will or will not allow capturing DV. Hope this helps.

You need a PC.. Go get one and show us how. LOL

😂 imma big fan of doing this and have with my VHS and H8 but only recently figured out the best way for DV that didn’t involve adapters or some third party software bundle.

Please reply me also sir​@@MarkHoltze

Hope it worked out for you!!! ✊

Best of luck mate!

The main bit for me, was when it just showed me sitting at my desk on the FaceTime camera. Was the little extra bit of info about switching and then my video opened. Thought I was going to have to get one of the old Macs out of the cupboard. Now to fine tapes of the Grandson 18 years ago. Best Dave

Awesome, so glad it’s working! Seems the process isn’t so smooth for everyone. Trying to find a more robust solution.

Great tip!!! Thanks! I always capture one short bite and it’s got a 20 mins saver so…brilliant mate!

Good luck! ✊

Hi Mathieu. Hmmm, I didn't have a sync issue when I captured the 20 mins of on camera at all. It captured at 29.97 frames per second (NTSC model). How long are your clips before the sync slips? Are you editing in a timeline that matches the frame rate of the captured video? Start a new project, drag the file into the timeline and allow premiere to auto gen the timeline settings based on the captured DV clip. I'll see if I can't re-create this issue. I had the same issue with a previous capture device if my frame rate wasn't matched to the camera (59.97) (hi-8, not mini dv in this case) Premiere should have a de-interlace video filer, if that doesn't after effects does. I had some issues with the Premiere one again with my older device and hi-8. I would apply it and it wouldn't do anything. I actually didn't apply any de-interlacing to the footage captured with this, maybe there wasn't enough movement, but even on my not shown whip pan and crash zooms, interlacing didn't appear to be an issue. I'll see if I can again re-create some of this in the next little bit, I've got a project being shot on mini DV so will run some tests.

Any time!

Pleasure. Good luck!

Ya it’s a great little device. Love that I don’t have to book it up the computer as well. Just make a cozy screening corner and have at it ;)

You're very welcome!

Best of luck mate!

@@MarkHoltze Thanks! I actually ended up using iMovie instead of Quicktime as it recorded continuously even when the camcorder would "glitch". (QT kept thinking the tape stopped when my camcorder glitched, and would stop recording which was problematic for me). Perhaps you could make tutorial for iMovie users in 2022 as well... has a very easy "import from camera" function that works really well... exporting will be another challenge though lol. Cheers mate!!!

Good luck! They’ll love seeing it

Adapt or die 😂 hopefully there are more direct routes now

@@MarkHoltze Even you laugh in the overdubs at 1:58 😹 Thanks for the video, helpful nonetheless and glad I stumbled on it! ✌

@ModernEraPirate nice catch! ✊ hope you have a great weekend mate!

Kind words, i guess the platform doesn’t like me or something 😆 that’s okay.

✊

I wish I never sold my XHA1….

Are you embarrassed easily? I am, and no better way to do that than resurrect old video from the 💀

How did it go for you with USB ?

yeah will it work with firewire to usb?

@@rosen9847 just got one Firewire 1394 to USB and it didn't work on my Macbook :( And I can't seem to find any Firewire to Thunderbolt anywhere anymore!! Need help

Yes there are other options for analog formats I’ve used and made videos on. Needed to complete the trilogy with this method as it’s the best I’ve come across in 11 years since IEEE went 🦤

Good luck!

Hopefully it works for you! Best of luck!

It cost you less than $70?!?! Wow!

@@MarkHoltze yes it was around $45 for 35 tapes and shipping as media mail came to the rescue. My camera was acting up in replaying the tapes. The guy who did it was on disability and this was a way for him to supplement his income so it was a win win.

Ya that’s not a price offered anywhere round here that’s good, but might br very specific. Also some aren’t comfortable sending their tapes off for whatever reason. Still great you found that price. 👍

@@barryobrien1890 so you paid a disbled guy $1.25 a tape ......wrong one way or the other

@@barryobrien1890 Do you have a contact number. thank you.

✊

Screen recording and DV capturing at the same time 😆 was trying to get premier and resolve to work but found out QT does it by accident.

@@MarkHoltze amazing!!

Good luck Shane! I’m doing that as well. Piles! 😆

@@MarkHoltze i recorded my sisters wedding on mini dv 16 years ago. I've been promising them I'll do a nice edit ever since. Nows the time I guess 😂

Some people are saying this isn’t working for them after an update. It still works fine for me. Just a heads up mate.

hope it works out for you!

✊

Pleasure!

Oh man that’s sucks! Not sure why I can’t reproduce any errors, it just works. Wonder if it’s the camera itself. I have 3 and they’re all detected. XL1, DVX100a and my Sony Handycam

Yeah thanks for replying. Your vid was the best on the web! I tried iMovie, Premiere Pro and QuickTime for DV import but none work. I can get the video through iMovie but with no audio and when you export it says ‘Export failed’. Premiere Pro can’t find the path to the camera and as you know from my previous note QT imports the video but you can’t record. It’s very frustrating as I have about 30 hours of video that I can never concert

By the way I am using a Canon X2 and running Mac OS High Sierra. I give up

@@guydwellyim in the same boat rn nd dont know what to do🤦🏽‍♂️

Ya it’s bizarre. Let me know if it works for you. Been getting some comments saying it’s not been working with certain cameras. I can’t test them all unfortunately, but curious to know.

@@MarkHoltze It worked just as shown in the video, although I was also given the choice of 720p during export. BTW, my camera is a Panasonic PV-GS39. It is at least 15 years old but works great.

So happy to hear that! So must be some camera brands. Some just don’t get detected apparently. Glad it’s worked for you. Be worse to get those adapters and not have it work. ✊

@@Banlman That's weird, that must be the software converting it(or offering to), as normally it would just be directly copying the data from the tape(which is often preferable, as there's no quality loss). A variety of different software should work with it anyway though.

From what I looked up, even though Thunderbolt 3 is described in the specs as vaguely 'compatible' with Thunderbolt 2 it seems it's really not. From pictures of the circuit board & component info it seems these converters have both a Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 2 controller inside - one demuxes the signal back to PCIE and Displayport signals then the other controller re-muxes it in the other Thunderbolt standard. There's also some other more minor circuitry in there, so while they're still bound to be making a good profit, it's a lot more than just a cable adaptor. The few non-Apple converters are even more expensive, but might have more features? I guess it's possible there is some kind of backwards Thunderbolt compatibility without using this method, but if so it seems it can't be perfect or Apple(& others) wouldn't have bothered with the more expensive method. Certainly not like standard USB for backwards compatibility, albeit USB3 & 4 are a mess with 'optional' current features. I think the Thunderbolt 2 to firewire converter is almost certainly using a PCIE to firewire controller, as it would be the same as used on common firewire PCIE cards. Apple could surely make Thunderbolt 3 to firewire converters that wouldn't cost any more than the old ones, but I doubt they will. It's also rather more profitable to sell 2 devices rather than 1 I guess.. The Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 converters are also useful for other things, but there must be quite a few people buying both only to use firewire.

I have an old G5 tower that does it while running fcp so I can even log it. Didn’t think that was a circumstance easily duplicated. I think they have some usbc to FireWire direct cables now. I should look into it.

There might be a time code break there on your tape. So try stopping just before that part shuttle past it and start again. Is there a scene cut on that spot?

So great ;)

Will all the apple adapters work on PC? Sound like it...?

@@benallison7825 *If* your pc supports Thunderbolt, a USB-C socket is no guarantee of Thunderbolt support unfortunately. USB3 & 4 have become a mess, with multiple 'optional' features.

Fingers crossed for you. Check out software options if QuickTime doesn’t work for you. I can’t test it on PC unfortunately

@@MarkHoltze So far it isn't working through Sony Vegas, which is the way I captured 100's of miniDV tapes 15 years ago. Quicktime can't update to a new version on PC anymore which I didn't know til now -_- Stupid gatekeeping Apple. Haven't figured out a way to make it work yet

Nope... I just tried that today and it does not work. My laptop would not recognize the device. I am on a PC though

Assuming the software on the computer isn't messing with it, it should be entirely identical with no loss of quality. The firewire signal itself carries a raw copy of what's on the tape, the computer receives an exact copy - so for MiniDV & other native digital formats, it will definitely be better than using an analog capture card. If converting an analog Video8/Hi8 tape in a compatible Digital8 camera(which internally converts the analog tape signal to digital out over firewire), *theoretically* you might be able to get better quality with an analog capture card - but it would require a good capture device and probably more messing around to get it right.

Hmmm, that’s a display setting on the camera I think. If you hook this all up and go to record mode it will give you all the overlays if you have it set in your settings I believe. I need to test this, but maybe I’m confusing that with the other analogue recorder I have that records to SD cards. Try your camera play back display settings and make sure they’re “on”. I could be wrong. Let me know if you see anything, I’ll see if I can test it when I’ve got a moment.

It re-encodes it. Once you were able to capture digital video you always had the option to select the encoding type depending what you wanted to prioritize. Even early days of FCP pro capture you always got to select a codec.

This is my worry too!

@@destyniiskywalker there is no difference! I have a media business in the Cincinnati area and transfer tapes all of the time.

There is no difference! I do this for a living.

If they're MiniDV, Digital8 or other digital tapes, it's a raw copy over firewire so there's no difference - it's identical data to what is on the tape. They may have been converting from analog tapes like VHS-C, Hi8 etc though. It definitely doesn't sound like the company you paid lived up to their 'professional' status though unfortunately.

hello mate, I have also got a Sony pd150 and I am trying to record the footage on a MacBook Pro right now but the MacBook is not recognising it, how did you end up transferring and do you have any tips?

@@user-yp8pf1vl9b Another Sony pd150 here :) I got a MAC mini 2012 luckily with a firewire port so a Firewire 400 to Firewire 800 cable is enough for my Sony pd150 to be recognised. However my issue is quick time player - anytime I recorded a 10 min clip it failed to save it whole but just first and last 1 min around.

Yes! It's impossible to find it, tried everywhere on the web, I even bought a straight Firewire 1394 to USB wishing it could magically work, but it didn't. Let me know if you ever find it again

Use iMovie if you can I haven’t tried it myself. I always used fcp pro or premiere but those programs have removed the ability to do that in updates :(

Really not sure mate, wish I could help you.

It should be good! I don't see why not!