[Madison]

Hi all,

Here is my problem in a nutshell. Just got my new G5 two weeks ago, I also have a Panasonic VHS-C palmcorder, the one that uses the mini tapes. I have DOZENS of these tapes filled with home movies. What is the best way to get them into the G5 so I can put them on DVD? There are no A/V ports on this thing, unless I had my eyes closed again. Keep in mind, I need something economical if possible, blew my wad on the machine, so a new firewire camera is OUT. Maybe a PCI card or something like that? Any ideas would be helpful...thanks.

[masugu]

Originally posted by Madison:
Hi all,

Here is my problem in a nutshell. Just got my new G5 two weeks ago, I also have a Panasonic VHS-C palmcorder, the one that uses the mini tapes. I have DOZENS of these tapes filled with home movies. What is the best way to get them into the G5 so I can put them on DVD? There are no A/V ports on this thing, unless I had my eyes closed again. Keep in mind, I need something economical if possible, blew my wad on the machine, so a new firewire camera is OUT. Maybe a PCI card or something like that? Any ideas would be helpful...thanks.

Does the camera have an S-Video out or USB? The camera has to have some out port...especially if it uses mini DV tapes. No?

[Rev-O]

Probably cheaper ways to do this, but off the top of my head I came up with this.

There are a bunch of analog to digital converters out there like this one. The one thing they have in common is they cost about $200.

A nice new Canon MiniDV camcorder with a built in analog to digital converter is less than $400.

I'd save up and wait 'till you can buy a MiniDV camcorder...

[jasonsRX7]

I use a Canopus ADVC-100. It works very well and the quality is excellent. It supports locked audio and video, so the capture doesn't get out of sync. Newegg sells them here.

[Madison]

It's just a cheap $250 VHS-C camcorder. I had no idea I'd be buying a new G5 when I picked this thing up before Christmas, so getting a digital ready camcorder wasn't on my horizon. I guess I'm hosed...is there no easy way to get the video off the tapes into the computer? The camera has standard A/V out ports, but that's it.

[jasonsRX7]

Originally posted by Madison:
It's just a cheap $250 VHS-C camcorder. I had no idea I'd be buying a new G5 when I picked this thing up before Christmas, so getting a digital ready camcorder wasn't on my horizon. I guess I'm hosed...is there no easy way to get the video off the tapes into the computer? The camera has standard A/V out ports, but that's it.

If by easy you mean not having to buy anything else, then no, there's not. But it's very easy to use an A/D converter. You plug it into a firewire port on your computer, and then you plug the camcorder into the Video In ports on the converter. That's all there is to it.

[Madison]

Well, not necessarily not buying something else, but not spending more than the camera would be great! Any suggestions on which to buy? That canopus one was about $225, any other solutions that are cheaper? If not, then I guess I have my answer! Thanks.

[drHo]

you can try this:
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/pro...e+and+Creation
not really cheap, but u can look around outpost.com for similar products. i remember seeing some for like $90. but make the sure the mac can use them

[DeathToWindows]

some of the tv tuner cards have av i/o
or look for the AVC-100 on ebay or something

[jasonsRX7]

You can also look for the Canopus ADVC-1394 card. They're basically an internal version of the ADVC-100, but they don't support video out. They're less expensive, too. I just sold mine for $180. One problem though: when it was installed in my G5, the system wouldn't go to sleep. The card worked just fine, it just wouldn't sleep.

If you're a student or teacher, and can show some form of ID, you can get the ADVC-1394 from Torcomp for $187 new. If you buy anything much cheaper than that, it's probably not going to be very good quality. I tried a couple Pinnacle cards on my PC before, and they're absolutely terrible.