Video capture problems on Intensity Extreme

Greetings everyone,

I'm trying to capture video from old 8mm tapes, using Intensity Extreme and Media Express (ver. 3.2.1) on OSX. The setup was straightforward, and I've had some success in capturing footage (when the damn tapes don't tear!), but I've also been experiencing some kind of issue where the camera continues to run yet the recording in Media Express stops. Interestingly, each file that corrupts ends up being 4.29GB, regardless of the runtime.

I've got a high-end Macbook Pro, 16GB RAM, and am recording to a recent model external drive. The issue tends to arise whenever I attempt to record longer clips, 15-20+ mins. This unpredictability is really slowing my workflow, and has me wondering if I'm doing something wrong.

Every time I play one of these tapes, I risk it tearing on me, so the less chance for failure, the better. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!

On the capture... how is that external drive formatted... the approx 4GB file size "limit" looks like a 4GB fle size limit with some drive formats (Fat32). Sounds like it would be a little unusual to find a new external drive formatted like that... but maybe that is what is happening.

What are these 8mm tapes? Is it mini-DV format? If so the best way to capture them is via Firewire direct from the camera. You won't get any better results by capturing using the Intensity.

Thanks for the suggestions, Liam. The drive is formatted with Mac OS Extended format, and works fine for the times it does actually capture. It's only when Media Express stops capturing does the file end up unreadable at that size.

As for the tapes, they are ~20 yr. old analog 8mm format, so digital conversion is necessary. I didn't realize how fragile they become, and am trying to recover as much footage as possible this way. Perhaps I should contact tech. support.