A. Setting up the Hardware

You will use the Sony Converter box to convet the vhs signal coming from a vcr or laser disc player to a digital signal which can be used by iMovie.

You will need the following:

• Sony Converter Box
• RCA cable, 3 plugs to 3 plugs or 3 separate cables
• VHS source such as VCR or Laser Disc Player
• Firewire cable

1. Plug RCA cables into the "out" connections on the back of the vcr.
2. Plug the other end of the RCA cable into the "in" connections of the sony converter box.
3. Insert the smaller end of the Firewire cable into the “DV in/out” socket on the back of the converter box.
4. Insert larger end of the Firewire cable into the Firewire socket on the back of the computer.
5. Make sure the Sony Box is set to "analog in," is plugged in and turned on.

Option 2- from miniDV tape to the computer

You will need the following:

• Digital camera (or other miniDV playing device such as a minidv vcr)
• miniDV tape with content
• Firewire cable. 

1. Insert the smaller end of the Firewire cable into the “DV in/out” socket on the front panel of the camera.
2. Insert the larger end of the Firewire cable into the Firewire socket on the back of the computer.
3. Turn the camera on and make sure your miniDV tape is loaded.
4. Make sure the camera is in Play/VCR mode.

• iMovie Monitor- shows a single clip or entire timeline based on highlight
• Clips pane- your holding bin for all your clips and a great place to storyboard
• Timeline- 2 views, audio tracks, sequence your clips

1. Specify where you want to save your project. You need at least 2 gigs of free space.
2. Name your project.
3. Save it.

Go to iMovie > Preferences - turn off "automatically start new clip at scene breaks"

Drag the blue knob that is positioned between the DV camera and film icons on the bottom left corner of the Viewer window to the left.

After dragging this knob to the left, you should see a blue viewer window that displays the text “Camera Connected.” You are now in capture mode.

Once your camera is connected, the control buttons located in the iMovie viewer window can be used to control your digital camera's playback. This is made possible by Firewire. You will use these buttons to control the particular sections of the tape you want to import into iMovie.

If you are capturing through the converter box you do not have device control.

Use the rewind or fast forward buttons (on the vcr or through iMovie) to get the area of the tape you desire to import.

1. Make sure you are at the beginning of your tape by pressing the rewind button underneath the viewer window
2. Once at the beginning of the tape, click the play button
3. Click the Import button immediately
4. Press the Import button again to stop recording this clip
5. Try importing a few different movie clips.

• Once you have footage in the Clips pane, you need to move it to the clip viewer (or timeline view) to edit or combine with other clips to make a movie.
• Drag the clip to the clip viewer (timeline) and position it where you want it to appear. Hold down the option key while you drag . This will leave a copy in the clips pane which is useful when first learning iMovie. You can always go back to the clip if you do not like your edits.

Let's take off the first few seconds of unrelated footage

1. Select the clip from the timeline so that it appears in the viewer window
2. Put the mouse underneath the playback head at the beginning of the clip- white arrowheads appear
3. Click and drag to select the first few seconds of footage you want to delete
4. Select Edit > Cut from the menu

Try dragging the arrows to include the area of the clip that you want to keep. The footage before the first arrow and after the second arrow will be removed.

Edit > Crop deletes what is not selected

1. Drag another clip from the shelf to the timeline
2. Position the playback head somewhere in the middle
3. Select Edit > Split Video Clip at Playhead
4. You now have to clips on the timeline. The second clip starts at the point that you split the original clip.

1. Select Edit > Select None or "apple button + D" to make sure that none of your clips are selected on the timeline
2. Click the Transitions button in the iMovie shelf
3. Select the Cross Dissolve transition. You can preview it and change the duration of the effect.
4. Drag it between the first and second clip. You will see a red line that indicates that the effect is rendering.
   

1. Launch iDVD
2. Select "Customize " button to select a design theme. (Simple themes are easier to find in the 3.0 Themes folder.
   
3. Bring movie into iDVD by using File > Import > Video menu
4. Select movie file just saved with iMovie.
5. Click on text to edit title of movie or of dvd.
6. Hit the Preview option to see what final dvd will look like.
7. Save project.
8. When satisfied, double + click the burn button to burn project to DVD.