Editing mini DV 4:3 footage in 2021

[JohnOakley]

So, I'm an old VX filmer - 20 years or so behind the camera - who's not edited VX footage in a few years. It appears that today's macs (the only thing I have access to) don't accept .dv files into Premiere pro or Avid Media Composer (the only 2 bits of software i have access to) so I'm stuck.

I've captured in an old version of iMovie on an old macbook pro and ended up with .dv files but he only way i've successfully edited them outside of imovie so far is to encode them to HD 720p with black borders and edit those files in Prem/Avid.

Anyone who edits VX footage in 2021 care to share their set up/settings with me? I'd be stoked to be able to edit losslessly like the old days when DV was king.

[Dellson]

If you wanted to encode your .dv files you could use adobe media encoder which you could pirate. Alternatively you could use ffmpeg which is free but a bit more hands on:

https://gist.github.com/jcburns/48a529cf1e130fe7802f7c13944ab6e4

essentially you would have to install the program ffmpeg and run the command in the terminal program on your mac.

[GMAN]

I think the best solve is to have a separate laptop running an old OS with an old version of premiere or final cut

[yungthug]

FCPX accepts VX footage. I use an old macbook with a lightning to firewire cable to import the footage (I think the clips are uncompressed .mov files) then wetransfer it to myself and DL onto my modern macbook, which doesn’t have the requisite port.

Never had any issues with MiniDV footage on there. I feel like FCPX used to get shit on a lot in the skate editing world, but it can do just about whatever you want it to do. It’s not super expensive to buy, and I’m sure you can find a cracked version on the high seas if you want to.

[silhouette]

I remember people on SkatePerception recommending MPEG Streamclip as a light, simple yet powerful video converter about a decade ago and have been using it ever since for this kind of stuff. Never failed me.

[pedro_mayn]

I remember people on SkatePerception recommending MPEG Streamclip as a light, simple yet powerful video converter about a decade ago and have been using it ever since for this kind of stuff. Never failed me.

It didn't work with my raw DV files from the MRC1, so I went over to Handbrake which seems to work great.

However I did use that for years up until then.

[Olympus Mons]

I import on a 2012-ish macbook pro via firewire. I import directly into iMovie actually (because in order to run FCPX on there, I'd have to update the macOS, and I'm pretty sure in one of the recent OS updates around ~2020 apple disabled support for firewire inputs). Then I take the raw .dv files and throw them on an external hard drive and transfer them over to a new macbook pro and edit like normal in FCPX (2021 macbook pro and latest version of FCPX handle .dv files just fine - can confirm).

[Chatbot]

Agree with above as I had to change my capture routine as Adobe Premier removed the option to capture dv tapes.

[Garth Marenghi]

I'm using Premiere Pro CC / OS X Mojave and have no problem capturing mini-dv tapes.

[Chatbot]

I'm using Premiere Pro CC / OS X Mojave and have no problem capturing mini-dv tapes.

I’d suggest to stay on Mojave. There’s no option to capture dv in premiere on Catalina OS.

[Garth Marenghi]

Expand Quote

I'm using Premiere Pro CC / OS X Mojave and have no problem capturing mini-dv tapes.

[close]

I’d suggest to stay on Mojave. There’s no option to capture dv in premiere on Catalina OS.

No worries, can't update due to other hardware reasons anyway. Good to know they removed the support tho, wasn't aware of that.

[Robertdbanks]

FCPX accepts VX footage. I use an old macbook with a lightning to firewire cable to import the footage (I think the clips are uncompressed .mov files) then wetransfer it to myself and DL onto my modern macbook, which doesn’t have the requisite port.

Never had any issues with MiniDV footage on there. I feel like FCPX used to get shit on a lot in the skate editing world, but it can do just about whatever you want it to do. It’s not super expensive to buy, and I’m sure you can find a cracked version on the high seas if you want to.

My experience with vx2100 and FCPX was pretty iffy. The only way I could get capturing to work was to do it directly with the vx2100, no capture cam would consistently work when I would try it.

[fuckingawesomesauce]

Has anybody tried running Windows on their Mac through Bootcamp and capturing through Premiere on Windows ? Did Adobe remove DV capturing on all OS?

[bluntfullofmid]

this is the best method if youre working in Premiere

[Pappy Jones]

I was having the same exact problem as I recently got a newer Macbook and now I'm on Adobe Premiere (used to edit on FCP7 forever). I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to import vx1000 .DV files from my MRC1. My friend apparently used a program called Edit Ready to encode the files since he was editing the project I'd been filming for and that seemed to work perfectly. I'm going to download Edit Ready right now actually.

[ArnoCartable]

this is the best method if youre working in Premiere

I'm using that method too, it works well.

I plug my VX to my Mac via two or three adaptators and I capture with iMovie, then I download the files from iMovie to my harddrive.

The issue I have is the files are sooo heavy, anybody know a way to make these files lighter without altering the quality ?

Thanks guys

[Garth Marenghi]

Expand Quote

this is the best method if youre working in Premiere

[close]

I'm using that method too, it works well.

I plug my VX to my Mac via two or three adaptators and I capture with iMovie, then I download the files from iMovie to my harddrive.

The issue I have is the files are sooo heavy, anybody know a way to make these files lighter without altering the quality ?

Thanks guys

Heavy? What's the average megabyte per second?

[ArnoCartable]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

this is the best method if youre working in Premiere

[close]

I'm using that method too, it works well.

I plug my VX to my Mac via two or three adaptators and I capture with iMovie, then I download the files from iMovie to my harddrive.

The issue I have is the files are sooo heavy, anybody know a way to make these files lighter without altering the quality ?

Thanks guys

[close]

Heavy? What's the average megabyte per second?

I checked and it's like 1GB for 11minutes. I don't know if it's possible but I'd love to shrink that because my harddrives are filling at a quick pace.

[Garth Marenghi]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

I'm using that method too, it works well.

I plug my VX to my Mac via two or three adaptators and I capture with iMovie, then I download the files from iMovie to my harddrive.

The issue I have is the files are sooo heavy, anybody know a way to make these files lighter without altering the quality ?

Thanks guys

[close]

Heavy? What's the average megabyte per second?

[close]

I checked and it's like 1GB for 11minutes. I don't know if it's possible but I'd love to shrink that because my harddrives are filling at a quick pace.

That sounds smaller than usual. A minute of DV PAL footage is around 230 Mb, NTSC should be in the same ballpark.