• The Mac-Forums Community Guidelines (linked at the top of every forum) are very clear, we respect US law and court precedence when it comes to legality of activity.

    Therefore to clarify:
    • You may not discuss breaking DVD or BluRay encryption, copying, or "ripping" commercial, copy-protected DVDs.
    • This includes DVDs or BluRays you own. Even if you own the DVD or BluRay, it is still technically illegal under the DMCA to break the encryption. While some may argue otherwise, until the law is rewritten or the US Supreme Court strikes it down, we will adhere to the current intent of the law.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying unprotected movies or homemade DVDs.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying tools in the context that they are used for legal purposes as outlined in this post.

Choppy Mini DV imports

Joined
Jul 12, 2010
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
2.5 GHz Quad Core i7 Mid 2014 Macbook Pro 15" Retina, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB
Hi guys,

I finally got my cable today and I hooked in my Mini DV camera into my Macbook Pro. Playing back, the video looked fine, but when I click import, the video was choppy and after it was done importing, the video was in like 1 second clips. Anyone help?
 
OP
T
Joined
Jul 12, 2010
Messages
23
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
2.5 GHz Quad Core i7 Mid 2014 Macbook Pro 15" Retina, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB
Well then I tried later on in the tape and it recorded 28 seconds all in one piece. IDK if this makes a difference, but the one I described before was at the very start of the tape, but I wouldn't think that matters. So IDK.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2005
Messages
3,231
Reaction score
112
Points
63
Location
On the road
Your Mac's Specs
2011 MBP, i7, 16GB RAM, MBP 2.16Ghz Core Duo, 2GB ram, Dual 867Mhz MDD, 1.75GB ram, ATI 9800 Pro vid
The placement on the tape shouldn't matter.

If you mean it was choppy DURING the import, I wouldn't worry about that. If it was choppy after the import, then yea, there is a problem. During import the priority is to get all of the frames onto the hard drive.

iMovie recognizes where you started and stopped between recordings and uses that information as split points to create separate files.

What software are you using?

Are you importing to your startup (internal) drive?
 
Joined
Nov 10, 2010
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I am also having this exact same problem. I have mini dv tapes from 2006. When I try to import this video to my startup disk of my 2009 MBP using imovie 09', the video preview AND playback (after import is finished) is choppy and plays in 3-5 second intervals. There is also horizontal bars through the frame which comes and goes. This is my first time trying to import video to my MBP. Hope someone can help.
Thanks


The placement on the tape shouldn't matter.

If you mean it was choppy DURING the import, I wouldn't worry about that. If it was choppy after the import, then yea, there is a problem. During import the priority is to get all of the frames onto the hard drive.

iMovie recognizes where you started and stopped between recordings and uses that information as split points to create separate files.

What software are you using?

Are you importing to your startup (internal) drive?
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2005
Messages
3,231
Reaction score
112
Points
63
Location
On the road
Your Mac's Specs
2011 MBP, i7, 16GB RAM, MBP 2.16Ghz Core Duo, 2GB ram, Dual 867Mhz MDD, 1.75GB ram, ATI 9800 Pro vid
RE: Horizontal lines

First remember that interlaced material is not drawing a full frame at a time. It is only half a frame so you will notice horizontal lines. When producing output for the web or a computer, you should de-interlace the output. I use the QuickTime export for that. If you are exporting to create a DVD via iDVD, then the de-interlacing step shouldn't be needed since DVDs are interlaced material.

The other thing I can think of is a worse case scenario. iMovie 7,8 and maybe 9 have an issue with DV interlaced material. I found the problem being discussed on this very long thread at Apple; Apple - Support - Discussions - DV video quality ...

A possible solution to that problem was posted here; The iMovie Output Project

As for the choppy or short clips, I don't have an answer. Potentially your import is not clean and is dropping frames. It is best to capture to drive other than your internal one, although I have captured to an internal one with success. I could speculate a little further but don't want to write a guessing book.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top