Capturing Hi8 video tape into iMovie

In QTP FILE> NEW MOVIE RECORDING

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/quicktime-player/qtp356b55534/mac

See section 2 regarding connecting external camera.and ensure you also select the audio ( microphone) from the camcorder.Also note quality settings,

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Old tapes that have been stored for a long time can get corrupted. Or perhaps the issue is with the camera or the cables. Also, if the Sony camcorder is different than the camcorder that was used to record the tapes, sometimes that can cause problems. Perhaps you can run a head cleaner through the camcorder and see if that improves the quality. Or try importing with a different camcorder. Check to see that your cable connections are tight. Or, you might swap out the cables for new ones.

-- Rich

Can you clarify a few points first ?

The TRV310 ( as you well know but others reading this may not ) is a Digital8 camcorder.

A Digital8 camcorder can use either Hi8 tapes or Digital8 tapes as they are the same product but labeled differently so as not to confuse the purchaser.

Therefore a Hi8 tape can have analog video on it that has been recorded by a Hi8 analog camcorder or have digital video on it that has been recorded by a Digital8 camcorder.

Finally your Digital8 camcorder has the ability to play back a Hi8 analog tape and transfer it to digital DV ( .dv ) output from the FireWire port of your camcorder.

So the question is, have your Hi8 tapes been recorded on another Hi8 camcorder and you are using the TRV 310 to transfer to digital or were they originally recorded on the TRV310 Digital8 camcorder that you have?

I have laboured the point in order for others to follow.

You could try capturing with QuickTime player but from what you describe is happening above I am not convinced it would be any different but might be worth a try.

Sometimes the hardware/software just won't give you what you want, so possibly a workaround is necessary.

Since the footage plays fine in iMovie, try playing your iMovie project at full screen and take a screen recording of it with Command-Shift-5. You will get a screen recording video on your desktop, with audio, . If the screen recording audio sounds a bit tinney, import the screen recording into a new iMovie project. Then go back to your original project and do a Modify/Detach Audio. That should leave you with a good audio clip that you can Select/Copy, Edit/Paste, into the new iMovie project that contains the screen recording. Then mute the audio in the screen recording clip, and substitute the detached audio clip. Then export out.

-- Rich

QT definitely is good for screen recording. Lately, I have been using Command-Shift-5 because of the Options feature. I use the Timer feature to delay start of recording for 5 seconds so I can fiddle with the source video and sync the recording with the start of the playback.

We'll outsmart the software yet! Let us know how it worked.

-- Rich

Is it possible that the tapes that are captured OK were recorded in SP mode and the ones that don't were recorded in LP, long play, mode?