Analog to digital conversion

[exncite]

New member here. Nice website BTW. Learning a lot going through the posts.

Could use some help. Just bought an iMac. I have an older Panasonic VCR recorder (analog not digital)that I'm trying to get onto the mac. I have a box converter for the PC but can't get the mac to recognize it. Is there a conversion adapter for USB to Firewire?

I also copied the videos off the PC which are in MPEG. iMovie and Quicktime Pro won't read them either. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[Buzz]

Check the box converters manufactures site for Mac software, there may be some available.

I don't know that I've ever seen a USB -> Firewire adapter. Not sure if they exist at all. I just did a quick search and couldn't find any such animal. I believe the speeds are so dramatically different that an adapter may not be the best route. It may be better to simply get a USB hub and use the USB connection. A great many of those conversion tools aren't designed to function on a Mac though.

The Mac should read most mpg formats. The only format it has trouble reading is AVI. You can purchase a special Quicktime add on from Apple that does allow AVI support though. Most mpg files are encoded in a way that doesn't allow full editing on the Mac. If you have Quicktime Pro it may help. There's also an application called Visual Hub that will allow you to convert between formats.

[exncite]

Thanks Buzz. We tried QT Pro and it didn't help. This is driving me crazy. I converted the videos to digital on the PC through the converter box using a program from Ulead. The movies are mpeg and open in Windows Media Player, RealPlayer etc.

Trying to make a highlight movie of my sons basketball season to send to some coaches using iMovie. That program doesn't recognize them either. I looked on the VisualHub site and while it appears this might be what is needed, my limited computer skills (maybe better said non-existent computer skills) aren't where they need to be to make a decision. In your opinion, would this program allow me to convert an mpeg to a format that imovie would recognize? I'm not adverse to spending the money to find out, but beyond this project, I don't see have a great need to be making conversions...even though these macs do a terrific job of working with movies and pics.

Thanks for your assistance.

[Buzz]

Try Flip4mac for the files. IT's great! IT works seamlessly with QTPro and t plays just about every format including wmv files.

[exncite]

Well Buzz, I did get VisualHub to work. First good news in this project. Problem is the quality is pretty bad. Lots of ghosts and pretty blurry. Really couldn't watch in full screen mode. I just used the trial version to see if it would work. Not sure if that had anything to do with the quality. And will have to spend more time with it to see if quality can be improved.

[exncite]

Ended up going with a digital box from Canopus. Works great. Visualhub would have been an alternative, but I have so many movies to transfer, it is much easier just recording direct from the camera. Otherwise, I had to do the same to the pc, copy the file to a stick, copy it to the mac and then convert it. Lots of work for each segment. These are fairly large files so they take awhile. Probably an easier way to go computer to computer, but the Canopus is simplest and fastest way...not the cheapest though. Guess I can justify it by the old saying "Time is Money".