Is it possible to play a DVD on my powermac and capture that video on my Sony MiniDV camcorder?
My camcorder has the pass-thru capability and I think I have all the settings right.

Is this a commercial DVD (ie with copy protection)?
If so then things are a little more complicated. If on the other hand it's not then there shouldn't be a problem. Post back and we'll take it from there.

Not commercial. It's a DVD of home video my sister burned on her PC.
I want to capture the video to use in an FCE project.

Hi Tommy.
First of all I'm a bit confused! You mention using your PowerMac,
but your profile lists only a DV iMac and you've posted in the PowerBook forum! This only matters because I'm not too familiar with the video output connections on anything other than the PB.
However in principle if you have video-out on your computer and analogue-in on your camcorder then there shouldn't be a problem.
On the PowerBook connect to the camera using the S-Video out port and the appropriate adapters/cables then use the "Displays" control panel to "Detect Displays" and "Turn on Mirroring" (you can then switch this feature on and off by using the F7 key.) Obviously you also need to make the audio connection. Hopefully audio and video from your PB will now appear as an input to your camcorder in VTR mode and you can play the DVD and dub it to the camera.
Plan B would be to just hook your camera up to a regular DVD player and do it that way.
Plan C - and probably the best option would be to import the DVD directly into FCE.
HOWEVER I'm afraid I'm not qualified to advise you on this as I'm not sure exactly which formats FCE can deal with.
I suggest you try a search or post again in the FCE forum.
Good luck.

PS
A quick check on the FCE forum turned up this discussion which might give you a couple of clues as to where to go next if you want Option C.....
Edward A. Oates, "importing m2v files" #1, 01:04pm Aug 23, 2005 CDT

Oops, I haven't updated my profile in a while. I do have a 15" powerbook (1.67ghz but only 512mb ram).
Anyway, I'll try what you say and see what happens. Thanks.

Hello,
I really don't know why you want to do this, but there is a free piece of software called Mpeg Streamclip .
The main purpose of this program is to convert mpeg files into AVI or Quicktime or DV files and vice versa, BUT, it also converts raw DVD movies files (.vob) files into DV files.
So what you can try to do is to copy the DVD onto your hard drive using MacTheRipper just incase there is copy protection, and then open the videoTS folder using Mpeg Streamclip, then export to DV.
The eventual DV file can then be transferred to your miniDV camcorder i think, using iMovie.

There may be a better idea, but 'tis the best i could come up with.

That's a clever bit of software David - well spotted!

Thanks and welcome. Just glad to be of assistance.