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ajdowntown · Jan 25, 2002, 04:12 AM

OK, I have have my G3 Beige 266 for 3 years or so now, however, i just got my hands on an analog video camera along with a new 100gb hard drive. So I figured I would finally take full advantage of my built in video inout card. Well, I am unable to pull in video from my camera, but I am able to bring in sound. I thought it may be a quicktime problem, so I have tried pulling it in with both quicktime 4.1.3 and 5. Any help or sugestions on how I can get this problem solved is greatly appriciated!

Thanks,
ajdowntown

ps- i was trying to used adobe premier to capture the video

DayDream Believers · Jan 26, 2002, 02:49 AM

What type of video capture card are you using to import videos from is it from Apple meaning mounted on the motherboard or is it in a PCI slot?

If it is an Apple go to Apple and download the update for the drivers or get the driver for the card.

Not knowing more it hard to give an exact answer.....

Tom

tullamore · Jan 26, 2002, 01:23 PM

You must use this card when you are in OS 9. Go get your system install discs and install the Apple Video Player. This will let you view the video and audio from your card. Even record it. I have used Premier successfully with that card but you can make sure you are getting a signal with the Apple Software. Also you may want to take the small video card out of your computer and then pop it back in to make sure it is seated right, I have had some problems with a 8500AV with the same card.

ajdowntown · Jan 28, 2002, 12:59 AM

Ok, the video capture card I have was the one mounted on the motherboard, not in an additional one in a pc slot, it is the capture card that came with the g3 266 AV model. As for the apple video player, i went to the apple website, and they have an older version then came with os 9, the site had 1.7.2 and i had 1.7.3 already installed.
I tried looking for drives from Apple, but I could not find any for the video card.
Tom, any other additional ideas you have, please help, thanks!

Jan 28, 2002, 02:25 AM

Originally posted by ajdowntown:
<STRONG>OK, I have have my G3 Beige 266 for 3 years or so now, however, i just got my hands on an analog video camera along with a new 100gb hard drive. So I figured I would finally take full advantage of my built in video inout card. Well, I am unable to pull in video from my camera, but I am able to bring in sound. I thought it may be a quicktime problem, so I have tried pulling it in with both quicktime 4.1.3 and 5. Any help or sugestions on how I can get this problem solved is greatly appriciated!

Thanks,
ajdowntown

ps- i was trying to used adobe premier to capture the video</STRONG>

The good, the bad, and the ugly.
I too have a G3 AV 266 and I have been importing video from my analog camera wihtout much problem.
I use the XLR8 Interview hardware/software solution. The bad news is that it hooks up via USB so you have to add USB to your computer if you haven't already. So if you don't mind spending some more money you can make it work.
InterView is around $79 plus the USB card. I installed an Orange Micro Firewire/USB card so I would have both upgrades in one slot since we only have 3 to begin with. Hope this helps

YOU CAN MAKE ANYTHING WORK IF YOU THROW ENOUGH MONEY AT IT

ajdowntown · Jan 28, 2002, 03:06 AM

I already have installed usb on my beige 266 AV, so that is not a problem...

What exactly is InterView and where can I get it?
Thanks

Ps-I thought that the whole point of the AV mac was that I didn't need anything additional! if it is needed, so be it, I want to import analogue video!!!!

[ 01-29-2002: Message edited by: ajdowntown ]

Moonray · Jan 28, 2002, 05:33 AM

The Apple video player along with all necessary utilities for the built in AV is automatically installed from the system CD and should get upgraded with a system upgrade if necessary. Don't get confused about third party solutions or USB interfaces.

If I remember correctly you have two video inputs there... maybe you just need to switch to the right one?

-

Jan 28, 2002, 02:54 PM

I checked yesterday after my post and see now that InterView is $70 at www.XLR8.com. You may also be able to pick it up at one of the online companies cheaper. Just do a search for "InterView" or "XLR8". BTW, I could not get Apple Video Player to recognize my Sony analog camcorder, hence the InterView solution.

ajdowntown · Jan 29, 2002, 02:26 AM

I tried installing and re-installing apple video player with different versions of the software yet to no avail.
I checked my video inputs again, and there is only one video input, there is also a video output with that...

Cinerama... how has your experience been with InterView? Dropped frames, etc? Thanks for the input

DayDream Believers · Jan 29, 2002, 04:32 AM

Sorry it a little while to get back here, I'll look for Media Player for you and email it to you...

Tom

I'm in the middle of pre-production of a short movie.....

DayDream Believers · Jan 29, 2002, 04:44 AM

Sorry it a little while to get back here, I'll look for Media Player for you and email it to you...

Tom

I'm in the middle of pre-production of a short movie.....

Jan 29, 2002, 03:28 PM

Cinerama... how has your experience been with InterView? Dropped frames, etc? Thanks for the input[/QB][/QUOTE]

InterView works great for what I do, It also is the only way I have found to get my analog video into the computer short of Sony's DVMC-DA2 Analog/Digital Video Converter, which has been discontinued but you can still find it for about $400 if you do a search with Sherlock (way more than I need)
Unfortunately I am not a pro so I can't answer your question on dropped frame rates. I have never had a dialog box pop up telling me I'm loosing data. InterView does work as advertised and since I only do family stuff that is good enough for me. Just remember that it is USB which only transfers at 12 mbs if memory serves me.
Also, Belkin sells a similar item called "USB VideBus", looks the same and probably made by the same people, but they want $99.

ajdowntown · Jan 29, 2002, 04:42 PM

thanks cinerama

I am not doing anything professional but I am doing a promotional video for myself and would like it too look as best as possible

Jan 29, 2002, 08:51 PM

Personally I think it would work fine for you, but.... thats a decision only you can make thru research. I would let you borrow mine to try it out but I am in Alaska and that is just a little far.

Good Luck!

ajdowntown · Jan 30, 2002, 03:15 AM

hmm, road trip to alaska, now that seems fun!

DayDream Believers · Jan 31, 2002, 04:24 AM

I'm sorry I have not found the answer. The only thing I found was Video Player 1.7.3 and that you already have. I am looking into it more as I have a friend who has a 7200 with on board A/V connections.

Tom

lucylawless · Jan 31, 2002, 07:33 AM

I have the Belkin Videobus (1.0; the one they sell now is called 2.0, because it added stereo audio inputs. This is convenient, but since bandwidth was already probably a problem for this USB device, I don't know why they did it. but I haven't seen the 2.0 in action so I don't know)

I don't recommend this or any similar USB product. I'm reasonably sure it did not drop any frames, though I mostly captured animated shows so it would be hard to tell. However, it could only go for about 30-45 seconds before the picture became horribly pixelated. Not the fat 16x16 pixelation you see as mpeg artifacts (in mpeg1, mpeg2 occaisionally, divx and 3ivx). It was this strange elongated pixelation, like 4x16 (width, height). If you want to wait a week or so I could capture 5 minutes of something and you can see how it gets all strange. I archived several important tapes, through a painstaking process of pasting together the 30-second windows of decent video, and adjusting the 7-frame offset audio caused by capturing the audio separately with the microphone jack. But this was un-bearable for day to day use. This christmas I got a firewire bridge from Dazzle (229 at buy.com), and it is much better, though I'm a little disappointed in the quality loss of broadcast or VHS combined with the lossy DV codec. But at 4x the resolution it has a big head start on the Belkin.

That said, I would be happy to sell you the Videobus for $50 or so. It's a pretty cheap solution if you just have some important personal tapes you want digitized, and a lot of spare time. Or maybe my particular unit is defective. I went back to the vendor twice with software problems (it only seems to work with the pathetic Strata VideoShop, and I later learned BTV), but I did not ask them about this pixelation problem; maybe there's a fix

HTH

ajdowntown · Jan 31, 2002, 09:22 AM

Thanks for the info lucy.....

If you could put up some of that video, that would be great. I am looking to put put together maybe about 10 minutes of footage, but in about 30 second intervals being the longest segments. Is the belkin solution good for that? I still hope to be able to use this stuff after I am done this project, so if I invest in something, i want to make it wirthwhile. Thanks.

lucylawless · Jan 31, 2002, 09:51 PM

I suppose if you're putting together your own stuff, the usb devices are ok. I mostly wanted to digitize tv episodes, and it sucks for that. Now that I look back at what I have, the pixelation was probably exaggerated a lot because what I was doing was animated, and from old Beta tapes that are not in the best condition. I have two mpg's from the Belkin, but they're too big for iDisk. catch me on icq and I can send them to you. I'm at 22444645

I can digitize a few new samples, but not until next week

bojangles · Feb 4, 2002, 02:11 AM

I�ve used Apple Video Player before, never any problems. However, I tried to import some analog video from a VCR today and found that the sound gets saved at a much slower tempo than the video. I tried it at all three standard resolutions with the exact same results. I then tried to line it up in SoundEdit 16, but that involved a lot of trial and error and never lined up perfectly anyway. (And besides, the audio cuts off too early, since the video ends first.)

Any thoughts?

Power Mac G3/266 AV
Mac OS 9.2.2
768MB RAM
30GB ATA/66 HD
Apple Video Player 1.7.3
lotsa peripherals that shouldn�t matter in this case

[ 02-04-2002: Message edited by: bojangles ]