Yes.  If you don't have one, we recommend you either borrow one from a friend/neighbor, or buy one on eBay or Amazon. You should be able to get a used camcorder for less than $50. Still cheaper than sending them away to a transfer service!

If you get this Alert your Mac or LifeFlix is not recognizing your camcorder.
 
 

LifeFlix needs to see or recognize your camera, upon launch it automatically looks for a firewire device.  We are working very hard to support every camera, Mac and system configuration on the planet but unfortunately this isn't possible, which drives us crazy, but we add more all the time.  But it's also possible it's a bad cable, connector or a simple "reset" of the camera and software.

We know this can be frustrating and these steps work most of the time, please give them a try!

TRY THESE FIRST

1. Confirm you are using Mac OSX 10.7 or later.
2. Keep your camcorder powered on and in VCR mode (sometimes called VTR or Play mode)
3. Unplug the FireWire cable and any adaptor you're using from both the camera and the computer
4. Quit LifeFlix
5. Plug the FireWire cable and any adaptor you're using back into both the camera and the computer
6. Re-launch LifeFlix
7. Click "Import"

Yes! Here are the steps to import old VHS tapes:

• Use the AV Out port on your VHS camcorder
• Plug into AV In port on DV camcorder
• Rewind VHS tape manually
• Make sure no tape is in the DV camcorder
• Set DV camcorder to VCR mode
• Launch LifeFlix
• Uncheck Rewind
• Play VHS tape (rewind it first)
• Click Import in LifeFlix

These steps will work with a Hi8 or Video8 analog camcorder also. If you don't have a DV camcorder you can output the analog signal to a DV converter (ie. the ADVC110 from Canopus) which you then plug into your Mac.

You can either create a single file or multiple files (or video clips) based on the starting and stopping of the original camera recording.  

In both cases you import the tapes the same way.  LifeFlix imports all videos as multiple files

Creating a single file

To create a single file use the "Combine All" button above the Scenes to combine all video clips into a single clip/file.  This is useful if your intend is to archive all tapes and all videos to a hard drive or DVD.

Making a movie

Another option is to use the "Combine" button to assemble any combination of files by holding down the Apple Command key and selecting the individual Scenes or files you'd like to put together into a single Scene or file.  We recommend trimming each file before combining them to make a better more concise movie.

The short answer is we have two options, compressed and uncompressed, or we leave the file in its original DV format (uncompressed), or compress it during import (compressed).  This is a decision you make before Importing in the Import window that pops up.  

We recommend keeping the "Compress Video on Import" checked, this deinterlaces and compresses the incoming files using MP4 or H.264, which is very high quality and creates a smaller file. If you uncheck the box, if leaves the files in their original DV format. Learn more here.

All new iMacs and MacBook Air's do not have Firewire ports, instead they use Thunderbolt.  But not to worry, you can send Apple $29 and they will solve your problem with this adapter.  Buy here

If you'd like to read more about connecting your Mac and camera, go here.

Please check out our Connection Guide.

Yes, actually LifeFlix is a great companion app to import tapes then transfer files to programs such as iMovie, Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro.