VHS Transfer

I bought a new JVC MiniDV with A/V connection and firewire. I am trying to convert my VHS tapes to IMoive. I have setup a VCR with output to A/V of camera. They supplied a cable to camera from VCR. I inserted firewire cable to MAC, I inserted a blank tape in camcorder, opened IMovie, it showed camera connected. I put camcorder to play and VCR to play. IMovie showed some boxes and nothing happened.
Does the analog get recorded to the camcorder tape? I thought it was a pass through where the signal was just converted to digital and imported to IMovie.
What is the procedure?

I know you can record from VCR to miniDV and then read the miniDV tape into iMovie. I also have heard about the pass thru option, but have not figured it out as of yet. Hopefully we can get the corect procedure.

altyson said:

What is the procedure?

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Depends on the camera. Some have the pass-through function, others make you record to MiniDV tape first.

Take the tape out of the camcorder, then make sure it showes the camera is connected in imovie, then hit import and play the tape in the vcr.
cheers, hope this works for you.

McGyver said:

Take the tape out of the camcorder, then make sure it showes the camera is connected in imovie, then hit import and play the tape in the vcr.
cheers, hope this works for you.

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If I don't put in the tape, IMovie doesn't recognize the camera.

altyson said:

If I don't put in the tape, IMovie doesn't recognize the camera.

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I have done this. For me, I went VCR -> MiniDV by RCA to (stereo)A/V port on my camera. Unfortuately for me it only recorded the left channel because I had to go vid/right audio channel into my camera.

From there, "play" on VCR, "record" on camera. Import to iMovie when finished.

OK. I got the camera to play thru. There was a sub menu on the camera that had the A/V turned off. I started both VCR and camcorder. When I hit import on IMovie the first clip showed up but then stopped. I looked on the camcorder LCD and the movie was continuing.I tried starting over and the same thing every time.

When I took a straight DV video it would work fine in IMovie but this transfer is not working. It has to be something simple but I just can't find it.
I am taking a class on Thursday for a workshop in IMovie but I would like to get this
done before I go there. Thanks for the help.