Noob - How to capture firewire to avi on MAC

[Gerard V]

I am making the switch from PC to MAC. I have a Mac now with OS X and parallels to run my windows software.

I used to use WinDV to capture video from the camera on XP, then VirtualDub, avisynth and DVD Lab Pro to make DVDs.

Now I want to capture via firewire on the MAC, but I want the format to be something I can readily use with Vdub and avisynth on a parallels XP VM so I can continue to use my old workflow and avisynth scripts.

I am struggling to find a straightforward way to capture on the Mac (I bought quicktime pro and regret that). WinDV was great and I want to achieve the same effect. I tried kino but got caught up in package and dependency hell with compilations and have shelved that never getting it compiled. My problem is simple. Video from camera to machine via firewire in a container and codec format that Vdub and avisynth can use.

Any recommendations for software and or advice would be great. I am sure it is simple, but I am a real Mac noob. Please help if you have experience at this.

[belloq]

You are connecting a firewire-based camera? I believe you can capture both live and camera playback with iMovie, for real simple stuff. For most of my video work these days, I use Apple's Final Cut Express. That software is all I need for video editing, no other tools.

For non-camera, I capture stuff from my DVR (HD MPEG2 + AC3) using Apple's AVCVidCap, which is part of the FireWire SDK. This is a free download; you just have to sign up for an account. I would think that AVCVidCap would also be able to capture from your camera as well.

[Gerard V]

Thanks - but the docs for Avdvidcap are scant and imply that it is HD only. Also it captures to QT format which I don't want to do as I said originally. I want to capture a PAL video stream from firewire to AVI and encoded into something high quality that I can use with windows when I edit it.

[AeroQ]

Hi, Gerard.

Capturing with Firewire and saving in AVI without quality loss is not easy.
The main reason is that you're taking the road less travelled. Not the easiest if you're new to Mac platform.

Maybe on Windows, AVI is considered as a good video format, but on Mac platform it's considered "not worth your time (http://www.aeroquartet.com/wordpress/2009/01/10/avi-not-worth-your-time/)".
Nobody is using that.

The second reason is because if you capture DV PAL, video and audio signals are multiplexed in the DV stream. AVI cannot manage that. Audio has to be extracted and converted into separate tracks.

What you can try:
1. Capture with iMovie: Will give you .dv or .mov files.
2. Open those files with MPEG Streamclip, then do Save As... and select AVI format.
3. This produces an AVI file with your video without quality loss.

The problem: No audio.

My recommendation: Embrace Mac technologies end to end. The tools on Mac platform, even the free ones (iLife package) are far better than what you imagine. You won't regret it.

Regards, BJ

[belloq]

Thanks - but the docs for Avdvidcap are scant and imply that it is HD only. Also it captures to QT format which I don't want to do as I said originally. I want to capture a PAL video stream from firewire to AVI and encoded into something high quality that I can use with windows when I edit it.
Well, I know for pretty darn near sure that AVCVidCap does not capture in any kind of QT format. It will capture, in a stream file, whatever the source is. I suggest giving it a try. It's free and fast.

Take the output from AVCVidCap and open it directly in MPEG Streamclip, set an in/out point and do a test export to AVI and see what you get.

From download, install, capture to export should take you all of 15 minutes.

[Gerard V]

Thanks guys. The challenge still seems to be that my options involve capturing in Mac technologies and then reexporting - adding another step and delay in my process. I will in time move al the way over the Mac, sadly leaving avisynth behind - but for the next few months, before I make that transition, I need to be able to keep working and ideally without booting into XP just to capture. I wil keep searching, but for now I guess I am stuck using a windows pc to capture. Oh the shame.

[cacepi]

Thanks guys. The challenge still seems to be that my options involve capturing in Mac technologies and then reexporting - adding another step and delay in my process.Why do you have to re-export? AVIsynth has a QuickTime import plugin (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=104293), you know. Add Darwine (http://www.kronenberg.org/darwine/) to the mix and you could dump your Windows install right now while still keeping AVIsynth if you want.

If you're simply capturing DV from the camera, iMovie or recdv (http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mycometg3/) can do the job just fine.

[Gerard V]

Thanks for the ideas. I tried QTreader and QTinput (QTsource), the first did not work at all, the second has no sound. The links I found seemed dated - is there a version that has sound, and any idea where to find it? I have googled to avail.