Help! Incomplete import from MiniDV. Recording counter resets...

I've been having comparable issues importing Mini DV tapes from my old camera to iMovie. I get over a thousand clips per 60-minute import. The Record clock on iMovie also resets every few seconds while importing. Additionally, large groups of the imported clips are out of chronological order.

I've also tried importing to QTP and experienced the same error. QTP stops after a few seconds of importing and sends an error message "Recording Stopped".

The loose cable connection theory seems reasonable. The only connection I could imagine being an issue would be the DV port on the camera. The rest of the connections and ports being used are all basically brand new.

As Keith has suggested, possible cable issue.

Are all cable connections good??

Have you got a miniDV head cleaning tape to hand that you can run through your Canon?

Out of curiosity have you updated/upgraded any software since it last worked several months ago,

i.e. Sanoma or iMovie?? Several new versions of Sonoma since January.

Try importing using QuickTime Player> New Movie Recording. Paragraph 2 mentions using external camcorder.

Not ideal because you then have to import this into iMovie and you also don't get the scene breaks, just one long clip.

The counter resetting to zero suggests that timecode is being lost. Cable connections?? Heads require cleaning??

Link to QTP New Movie Recording

Record a movie in QuickTime Player on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

Canon ZR20

2023 Mac Studio

Ventura

You are not alone.

No solution so far. I just ordered a head cleaning tape. If that doesn't help, my next move may be to purchase another old ZR20 that, hopefully, is in better condition than mine.

The frustrating part is knowing that this can be done. People digitize Mini DV tapes regularly. In most cases, the tapes and recordings are going to be recent versus my twenty-year-old recordings on twenty-year-old tapes. Still, unless there are issues with all of my tapes, there is a way to successfully get this done.

Here's the detailed description of my experience:

Importing Mini DV to iMovie - Apple Community

Does it happen at the same place on the tape.

I note you did not try a new cable.

Wiggle the Firewire cable at the camcorder

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2019/08/why-side-mount-buttons-and-ports-break-on-cameras/

If there is an issue with loss of timecode then capturing tape using QTP, that I mentioned earlier, is more forgiving than iMovie .

Posts on here have shown over time that sometimes QTP can capture tape where iMovie/FCP can't.

Loss of timecode will not necessarily be observed when playing the tapes in the camera.

Problems, like yours, can sometimes be seen when playing back tapes on a different camcorder to what they were recorded on.

Also if tapes were recorded in Long play as against standard play mode then similar issues can occur.

No guarantee, but capturing with QTP might be worth a go.

The above are screen shots from the link I posted previously

Record a movie in QuickTime Player on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

Glad that worked better. We are getting into hail mary territory here, so you might want to try it in safe mode:

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

Have you tried a new cable?

Sounds like some sort of intermittent issue.

Are you using the Apple firewire/thunderbolt adapters?

Is this on multiple tapes?

In this case "updated" is not necessarily better. You would probably have better luck running an old ratty macbook running Mojave!