importing VHS through DV camcorder?

I'm planning borrow a friend's DV camcorder to convert analog video
from some VHS tapes to DV over firewire and import the video into the
Mac and iMovie. My friend says, however, that iMovie refuses to
record if the camera isn't in "play" mode.

Now I could use the camera to record to DV tape and then play that
back and import to iMovie, or I could buy some software that will
record the DV over firewire when the camera isn't in play mode.

But is there a simpler, free solution to get iMovie or some other
program to record the DV stream directly from firewire while I'm
playing the VHS through the DV camera?

Thanks,
Martin

In article <>,
Martin Frost me at stanford daht edu <>
wrote:

> I'm planning borrow a friend's DV camcorder to convert analog video
> from some VHS tapes to DV over firewire and import the video into the
> Mac and iMovie. My friend says, however, that iMovie refuses to
> record if the camera isn't in "play" mode.
>
> Now I could use the camera to record to DV tape and then play that
> back and import to iMovie, or I could buy some software that will
> record the DV over firewire when the camera isn't in play mode.
>
> But is there a simpler, free solution to get iMovie or some other
> program to record the DV stream directly from firewire while I'm
> playing the VHS through the DV camera?
>
> Thanks,
> Martin

It depends on the camara. My Sony will through-put (convert an analog
input to a DV output) in the play mode as long as there is no tape in
the camara. If possible, get the camara manual from your friend - most
Sony and Canon camaras have a way to do this.

--
-Ernie-

"There are only two kinds of computer users -- those who have
suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure, and those who will."

Have you done your backup today?