Even though it is still possible to capture old videotapes with a very recent Mac running Sequoia, doing that with FireWire (IEEE 1394) requires multiple adapters to two different types of standards: one from FireWire to older Thunderbolt and another to newer Thunderbolt. Even though it is indeed possible (as I have illustrated in prior articles), I have discovered that for around the combined total price as those adapters, an old Mac can do the job better, with several advantages. Ahead are some of those advantages, especially for those who must capture many old videotapes while getting other work done on a different (likely newer) computer. Later I’ll cover security issues and two solutions.
- Using an old computer frees your newer, modern computer if you have other work to do on the new one, while the old one captures videotape natively to the DV25 format for further processing, as covered in many past articles covered ahead.
- Some (but not all) miniDV tapes that sound perfect on a camcorder causes terrible audio dropouts (or even a silent capture) when captured on a modern Mac using the multiple mentioned adapters, even though those same miniDV tapes capture fine (with all of the clean audio) to an old Mac with native FireWire running High Sierra (macOS 10.13).
- There is fortunately deck transport control over FireWire from the video capture apps that run on High Sierra (macOS 10.13) on older Macs with FireWire, sadly not with the the few remaining video capture apps via converted FireWire I have tested that run on Sequoia or Sonoma on more modern Macs which lack native FireWire.
- There is fortunately the option to capture directly to an external drive with the FireWire video capture apps that run on High Sierra (macOS 10.13).
ABOVE: The old but better iMovie for High Sierra fortunately allows for deck transport control, while with the latest version for Sonoma and Sequoia no longer does. As indicated in prior articles, our only intention of using iMovie is to capture the raw and unadulterated interlaced video files (50i or 59.94i), including both fields, for later processing: de-interlacing to 50p or 59.94p, upscaling, etc. See my article Review: Canopus/Grass Valley ADVC110 analog to digital converter with micro-TBC to capture VHS and other analog videotapes to find the «secret locations» of these raw and unadulterated interlaced video files captured by iMovie or FCP via FireWire.
Considering those video capture programs for High Sierra allow capturing the native DV25 file directly to an external drive, and considering that even High Sierra supports the APFS file format, there is no problem to capture on the old computer and then «sneakernet» that external drive to another more modern machine for the rest of the process, as covered in other articles linked below.
Related articles on this topic by Allan Tépper
- Deinterlacing legacy material + upscaling with DaVinci Resolve (Studio) to 50p/59.94p for smoothness (or 25p/29.97p for a more dramatic look)
- Review: Canopus/Grass Valley ADVC110 analog to digital converter with micro-TBC to capture VHS and other analog videotapes
- Review: Sony DCR-TRV460 + other D8 camcorders for digital capture of Hi8 and 8mm analog tapes
- 4:3 programs upscaled to HD or 4K: technical & aesthetic decisions
Ideal old Mac for this purpose
Ideally, the old Mac should have a native FireWire port (IEEE 1394) and run High Sierra (macOS 10.13). Fortunately, most of those older machines are much more modular than modern Macs and easily allow expanding the RAM and/or replacing the internal magnetic spinning hard drive in favor of an SSD.
The old Mac I am using for this purpose
The old Mac I am using is a 17″ MacBook Pro from 2010, matte but not yet nanotexture, which back in 2018, I had helped my Dad add the above improvements. At that time, we expanded the RAM from 4GB to 8GB (the maximum allowed on that 2010 machine) and replaced the internal spinning magnetic drive by an SSD. My Dad doesn’t need this machine any more since he departed Planet Earth in 2020.
Force upgrade the operating system to Sequoia?
No, not for this purpose. Even though it is indeed possible to force upgrade Sequoia on unsupported Macs, it would be counterproductive to do that now that we know that the video capture software that runs on Sequoia —although some still allow capturing DV25 over FireWire, the ones I have tried no longer allow deck capture over FireWire, which is important for many native DV25 formats including D8, miniDV, DVCAM, DVCPRO 25 and HDV. Even without deck transport controls, the DV25 códec is also ideal for color-under analog formats like 8mm, Hi8, Betamax, Betacam, MII, S-VHS, VHS and U-Matic as covered deeply in Review: Canopus/Grass Valley ADVC110 analog to digital converter with micro-TBC to capture VHS and other analog videotapes.
Security on High Sierra (macOS 10.13)
Even though Apple no longer offers security updates for High Sierra (macOS 10.13), that doesn’t matter if you use this dedicated Mac offline (not connected to the Internet). If you must connect it to the Internet, then you should know that for users of High Sierra (macOS 10.13), Mozilla Firefox has a free and safe solution:
Firefox version 115 is the last supported Firefox version for users of macOS 10.12 (Sierra), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and macOS 10.14 (Mojave). If you have been using Firefox on these macOS versions, you will be moved to the Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) channel by an application update.
If you visit the Firefox download page at https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/new/ and you are using macOS 10.12 (Sierra), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) or macOS 10.14 (Mojave) you will be prompted to download Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) so that you can install the latest Firefox 115 ESR version.
Mozilla is providing critical security updates through the Firefox ESR channel up until the end of ESR version 115, August 2025.
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