[Mediaman_12]

In order to get some video footage from a old Hi8 camcorder I have I am thinking of buying This, Belkin USB VideoBus II for Mac
But I have some questions.
1. does it work with Apples iMovie?
2. (related to 1) if I cant use iMovie what low cost editing solution can I use with it (preferably in OSX, haven't booted into 9 for months, doing video editing in Classic is going to be craptacular)?
3. Has anyone used this product with any success, before I splash out?

[hadocon]

Originally posted by Mediaman_12:
In order to get some video footage from a old Hi8 camcorder I have I am thinking of buying This, Belkin USB VideoBus II for Mac
But I have some questions.
1. does it work with Apples iMovie?
2. (related to 1) if I cant use iMovie what low cost editing solution can I use with it (preferably in OSX, haven't booted into 9 for months, doing video editing in Classic is going to be craptacular)?
3. Has anyone used this product with any success, before I splash out?

iMovie can only import and use DV footage. I am guessing that this Belkin thing imports video as a crappy mpeg1 stream. As far as I know, the only way for you to convert your Hi8 (analog) tapes to DV is by using a DV converter box which cost about $399 or so.

if you are on a budget you could get the Belkin device and use Quicktime Pro to convert the mpeg1 stream into a 720x480 DV stream and you shoul dbe able to bring that file into iMovie - it will look like $hit though.

sorry.

[macaddled]

The Dazzle (ugh, that name) is $250...

http://www.videoguys.com/hollywood.html

[lucylawless]

I own the Belkin VideoBus I, which as far as I can tell is identical to version II, but lacks audio support. It came with an OEM verison of Strata VideoShop, which I've never heard of before or since (so probably no OS X version). I had to use a separate audio cable to capture sound to my Pismo's Sound In port. The capture format was .Mov, which is swell, but it means there's basically no hardware accelerated compression, so the quality was perceptibly worse than MEPG-1. After a year of light use I bought the Dazzle for $225 at buy.com

For what it's worth, I believe you could find a shareware for OS X that will work with it. I have BTV and it's a good app with good support, though I never tried it with USB. I also saw MediaCapture, and the driver for the EscapeTV product (or whatever it's called) might work, since I think it's the same hardware as the Belkin one.