Camcorder purchase

I plan to purchase the Sony HDR-PJ50V camcorder and video my lectures in HD. Most will be burned to DVD and maybe some will be sent out on Blueray disk.
The camera is listed as AVCHD. I have to use Sony with my remote tripod.
Could someone tell me what Sony means by; HD PS, HD FX, HD FH, HD HQ and STD HQ?
Which one should I use with FCE or FCP X?
David

Could someone tell me what Sony means by; HD PS, HD FX, HD FH, HD HQ and STD HQ?
These are different video quality/length of recording settings in the Sony camcorder. They are technically different data rates at which the video is recorded, but the main thing people look at is that each setting allows a different maximum recording time. The tradeoff is more recording time = lower quality video.
But you also need to keep in mind that the quality is pretty high to begin with. You would need to experiment with the different settings to determine whether or not you see any difference between them.
The user manual is your friend. Check pp 28 and 63-64 for details on the differences between these video modes.
There should be no difference in FCE vs FCPX for a particular mode that you set your camcorder for.

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Help with deciding camcorder purchase

Hello all,
I'm not sure if I'm posting this in a right forum. I'm seeking advice/input on camcorder brand that is mac compatible to purchase. We had JVC HD, which was absolutely crazy to convert onto quicktime, so we wold like to get mac compatible/user friendly camcorder in the price range up to $1,000. We'll be using camcorder to tape our babies and their milestones....thanks in advance.

"..can you explain the difference between Minidv tape vs. mini dvd?.."
Yes.
iMovie is a program which edits anything recorded on small video tape cassettes called "miniDV" cassettes. They look like this:
"MiniDVD" discs are small DVDs, which look like this:
iMovie CANNOT edit anything which is stored on mini (..or full-size..) DVDs, unless the material on the DVD is first passed through some other program to re-encode it into a different form.
That's because the video stored on a mini (..or full size..) DV tape is in 'DV' format, and consists of a series of separate video 'frames' ..a bit like the frames of a film, or the individual shots you take with an ordinary camera.
iMovie cannot edit the video stored on a (mini or full-size) DVD because it's stored in a different format called 'MPEG-2', and it consists of only occasional complete frames, plus descriptions of how the video differs, over the next second or two, from that individual 'key-frame'.
So most of the frames on a DVD are "virtual frames" ..they don't really exist, except as descriptions, such as "the eyes which were at such-and-such a position in Frame 1 have now to moved a bit to the right".
A DVD player takes these descriptions, and reconstitutes the actual frames from these descriptions, then shows them on your TV screen (..or in the miniDVD camcorder's viewfinder). It uses built in fast circuitry to do that.
iMovie cannot edit those "virtual frames", and other software, such as 'MPEG Streamclip' has to be used to rebuild them into real, editable frames. This can be a longwinded business, and is nowhere near as fast as the immediate replay of DVD frames in a proper DVD player.
There is also - despite what it looks like when you play a DVD of a Hollywood film - some loss of quality when video is recorded onto a DVD, and even this loss can't be restored when 'actual' frames are rebuilt from the 'virtual' frames. So the quality of camcorder videos shot in miniDVDs is seldom as good (..unless you shoot in 'high-definition'..) as the quality of video shot onto miniDV tapes. (..In order to fit video onto those tiny discs, the video is 'compressed', and this irretrievably loses a little of the original quality..)
So why do camcorder manufacturers make miniDVD camcorders?
(1) You can jump back to any part of the video without long-winded rewinding.
(2) You can easily post - in the mail - a miniDVD of a movie you've just shot.
(3) You can slip the miniDVD into most DVD players, and instantly have your movie on a TV.
(4) The DVD mechanism is simpler to make than a tape mechanism.
But what you CANNOT do - and the manufacturers don't mention this - is easily EDIT it ..although many miniDVD camcorders do come with a rather poor version of an editing program which runs on PCs.
..And yes: Canon, Sony, Panasonic miniDV tape camcorders are compatible with Macs and with iMovie. But they generally come without the necessary 'FireWire' or 'i.Link' or 'DVD' cable to connect the camcorder to a Mac (..they usually come with a USB cable, instead..) so you'll need to buy a "4-pin-to-6-pin" i.Link or FireWire or DV cable in order to connect the camcorder to the Mac.
Oh; and Canon camcorders generally don't work with a Mac when an external FireWire hard disc is also connected to the same Mac ..but ignore that: plug in the camera, and it'll work with a Mac.

Camcorder purchase recommendations?

Noob to iMovie...(sorry)
I'm trying to pick out a hard drive-based camcorder for amateur home movie use (new baby on the way). I figure hard-drive is easier to use with the iMac rather than converting from DVDs, etc.
I've noticed that some articles state that you have to connect your hard drive cam corder to the mac using firewire otherwise iMovie won't recognize it. Is that right? And I've heard problems with getting Sony cameras recognized. True?
Any advice is appreciated. Price range is $500-$1000.

Just throwing in my two cents based on past experience. I have a HP point and shoot digital camera that also takes video clips. While it's a nice function to have, you lose the sound when you import the video into iMovie for the reasons Sue mentions.
I just upgraded both my digital camera and digital camcorder, and did quite a bit of research before purchasing. The camcorders that record on DVD do not import into iMovie (at least based on the research I did). I only found one model of digital camcorder that burned directly to hard disc, so was reluctant to even try that format.
As for the digital camcorder, I own a Cannon, but wanted to upgrade to a better camera, so purchased the Panasonic GS 500. It is fabulous. It has optical stabilization and shoots well in low light. The color is excellent and it is by far the best camcorder I've owned to date.
I also purchased a Nikon D80 SLR digital camera and can't tell you how fabulous it is - I feel like I've died and gone to heaven. It shoots 3 frames per second which is fabulous for action shots.
If finances constrain you to one choice, which is probably the case with a new baby on the way, I'd recommend putting your dollars into an excellent digital camera that will last. Having three kiddos, I can tell you the video is great, but it's the pictures we look at more often. You can always borrow a camcorder from a good friend to make sure you have video of all stages, but you need that camera at hand immediately when s/he smiles for the first time . . .
Congratulations and good luck!
Raylene

Camcorder purchase video file type

I am researching a camcorder for my school. One thing I have run into is that some camcorders only record in MP4 file type, which is not compatable with Windows Movie Maker (this is the software that all faculty have). Also, we are a Career and Technical Center - so we have a wide range of settings - outside and inside - good light and bad. Our price range is around $500.00. Can someone explain the different file types and which file type is the best and most versitile?

kcollman wrote:
I am researching a camcorder for my school. One thing I have run into is that some camcorders only record in MP4 file type, which is not compatable with Windows Movie Maker (this is the software that all faculty have). Also, we are a Career and Technical Center - so we have a wide range of settings - outside and inside - good light and bad. Our price range is around $500.00. Can someone explain the different file types and which file type is the best and most versitile?
Do you have any Vista or Windows 7 computers there? If so, you can get the latest version of Windows Movie Maker for free from the Live Essentials Download package which supports the formats used by the low-end camcorders in your price range. Otherwise, you will have to use a media package such as Nero or some other such thing which allows you to edit and create a variety of media files.

Camcorder Purchasing Suggestions

Looking to buy a camcorder for home movie-type shooting, and I'm looking to find something that will work with iMovie more or less out of the box without workarounds and jumping through a lot of hoops. Anyone have any suggestions? I don't have a way to burn to Blu-Ray at this point, so SD would be a viable option, although I'm not averse to future-proofing with HD as I'm sure I'll be adding a BR burner at some point down the road...
Thanks in advance for any thoughts folks might have.

This is the 'official' Apple iMovie 09 camera support list however I find that it is not quite complete:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3290
Regards,
Z

Recommendations for camcorder purchase for a publisher

I am a photo editor for a national publisher who is currently increasing it's internet presence. We would like to start filming our own video clips for use on our website. I am looking for recommendations of which camcorders would suit that purpose. I would like to be able to add an external microphone, instead of using the one on the camera. The price range would be somewhere in the $1500 range.
Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

HD is not needed. The clips will be played on our website, so people will be viewing them on their computers.
Let me know your recommendations when you have a chance.
Sincerely,
John Klein

How to import MPEG-1 camcorder video into iMac?

I have a Sony digital camcorder purchased in 2002 which records to film. I would like to import the video from this camcorder into my iMac (purchased Jan. 2007) for playback on the computer and to burn the video to DVDs.
When I hook up the camcorder to my computer via Firewire cable and turn it on to the VCR position for importation into the iMovie HD program, nothing happens. There is no communication between the camcorder and the iMovie HD program. None of the steps recommended by Apple that I have tried to establish communication between the camcorder and iMovie HD have worked. It appears that the camcorder format (MPEG-1) is incompatible with iMovie HD.
I will appreciate any knowledgeable advice on how to successfully import this video into my iMac for the intended purposes.
Bob

Thanks for your responses.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I miscued in attempting to import the camcorder video into my computer. I corrected my mistake and successfully imported the video, watching it on the iMovie monitor and seeing the video clips appear as the import proceeded.
I added the clips to the movie and saved the project. I just got through playing back the whole movie. Yippee!
I was surprised that this 12-minute recording produced a movie file size of 2.14 GB. Ouch! Is this normal? If so, I’m glad I opted for a 500 GB hard drive on this iMac!
You may be wondering where I went wrong in my initial attempts to import this movie into my computer. John was right in saying “...it should be as simple as you thought.” Simple, that is, if you follow all of the necessary steps! Where I missed the boat was in not clicking the Create button after entering the various pieces of information into the Create Project window. I obviously overlooked the fact that Apple treats the importing of a simple camcorder video into a computer as a major movie-making event. The next time I go through this exercise I’ll don my Martin Scorsese hat to make sure it doesn’t happen again!
The next step will be to burn this movie to a DVD. Wish me success as I research how to do this without any further miscues.
Bob

I get an error message when trying to transfer iMovie folders

in FCE i go file > import > folder
then Movies > iMovie Events > Select Folder
then i get the error message
so far i'm getting rather irritated.
not only was i ripped off on my camcorder purchase by a Big-Name NYC store
i'm finding out that my camcorder isn't recognized by FCE

What error message? Are we supposed to guess or what?
Go inside the Events folder and select one of the sub-folders with media. It may not work anyway because iMovie can ingest media that is not supported in FCE.

IMovie 10.0 and re-dating movies - go missing

Hi,
I have used iMovie in the past for kids school projects, but now I have begun working with about 17 years worth of home movies.
I burned them to DVD on a sony DVD player and moved them to the mac using Handbrake to create m4v files (some are mp4 as I guess I used different settings on Handbrake when I created the files)
Anyway, I imported them to iMovie and then began re-dating the clips (using the on camera date stamp as my guide LOL). I did the whole set only to have iMovie Loose track of the video and tell me to re-import the files.
Like a fool I began doing the who process again and after re-dating about 6 files it showed the same error.
So, am I doing something wrong? Can I change the record date with some external application and them import?
Thank you,
Mike
(PS I found that I cannot split clips which are m4v or mp4, but the new clips from my 1DX which are .mov files I can split - any suggestions on this?)

The exact same thing just happened to me. In the prior version if imovie I had carefully dated all my old analog camcorder tapes that I imported. Yesterday I opened imovie 9 and noticed for the first time that all my older videos were missing. On further inspection I found they were no longer dated right. Dated at the import date. I changed a bunch of clips - I watched them and used the time stamp to re-date. The adjust date feature only let me change the end date - the start date was written in (unchangeable) as the imported date. I changed the end date to the proper date of the clips. After doing a bunch I noticed that the clips are now showing as missing files. Strange they first moved to the correct year and were still visible then one by a one a bit later changed to missing. I know the clips are still there as I watched them to date them and didn't move them. I think somehow imovie is getting confused as I put end dates before the start date (since it fixed the start date to be the import date). The clips are shiowing up chronologically in the year I changed the end date to. But all are now showing missing.
Any idea how to get my clips back and get them properly dated??? It seems like some of my clips were properly dated so it is possible the problem clips were never dated correctly but I am pretty sure they were (and they were important milestones like my wedding and honeymoon -- the first events after our first camcorder purchase!).

8mm film to IMovie

Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can get from 8mm film to IMovie?
I had 400 feet of 8mm transferred to DVD But IMovie won’t accept it. Says QuickTime can’t parse it.
Called Apple and asked if QuickTimePro might do the job. The answer was yes and 100 bucks later I had Toast 8 Titanium. Rather than send it back( I thought I’d ordered QuickTime Pro) I called Roxio and asked if Toast would convert the DVD to something IMovie could use. Again, the answer was yes.
When I used Toast it gave me a message that it couldn’t do the job because the DVD “might be copy protected”. A call to the DVD provider indicated that the DVD was copy protected ... even tho’ it is my film on the DVD.
Someone said to try MacTheRipper. I did and it did rip the movie from the DVD but it was still “copy protected”. Running that through Toast didn’t help.
On online site suggests (buying) a digital movie camera and recording my movies from the projected movies, then transferring that to my MAC. I’ll probably do that if I can’t find something simpler.
I still have over 7,000 feet of 8 and super 8 film to work with so, if anyone has a suggestion I’d very much appreciate it?
For info, I’m very much an amateur.
IMAC G 5 (Intel) IMovie 6.03 QuickTime 7.0.3
and, I just downloaded all the info in IMovie comments re: help with deciding camcorder purchase .
Thanks,
JIm

A fascinating project!
My older brother had 4 hours of (silent) 8mm cine film dating back to 1958-1980 (when he finally bought a video camera!). He wanted me to convert them to carefully edited DVDs, with music, sound effects, titles and so on. Like a madman I accepted the challenge! To make life easier he lives in Belgium and uses a PC!
The process, to cut this short, was as follows:
At considerable expense he had all the film transferred to four DVDs in some PC-only friendly mpeg codec, and sent them to me.
I used Streamclip and the Apple mpeg thingy (saving time by not loking it up) to convert these to Quicktime DV files. To make life even easier, the Belgian moron who did the conversion to DVDs had not done so in chronologal order!
That made for a very large QT file, which I imported into iMovie, and set about carving it into date order, re-exporting the various years to QT as individual files, and then importing into iMovie projects to edit.
Only a couple of months later I had it organised into three projects, each of an hour or so, beautifully edited with titles, transitions, music, sound effects and other bells and whistles, and burnt them to 3 DVDs. I was generally agreed that I deserved an Oscar for technical merit!
That was just to let you know that it can be done!
Your only real hurdle is the copy protection. Can you get a fresh set that is NOT copy protected?
But before you even start I heartily recommend that you update your OS and all software to the latest versions, particularly Quicktime, and make that Pro.

Why Doesn't iMovie '08 allow QuickTime/.mov to be imported

I've been reading about others who have been unable to import .mov files into iMovie '08. Very frustrating indeed.
With all due respect, the solutions/answers that are being posted are extremely "techy" for the layman. Come On! This isn't Final Cut Pro. Furthermore, the bottom line answer is - you can't import .mov files. Earlier versions of iMovie were much more user friendly and allowed you to accomplish this task. I know that I had no problems dragging a .mov file to the clip window in earlier versions of iMovie. Why is this now such a problem? This is a major oversight in Apple's development of iMovie that needs to be resolved.
I believe that it's truly unacceptable to require loyal Apple users to revert back to earlier versions of iMovie to accomplish this task.
I demand that Apple get on this and fix it!

With all due respect, the solutions/answers that are being posted are extremely "techy" for the layman.
It is no more "techy" to expect a layman to know what kind of data is stored in a file container (MOV) than it is to expect a consumer to know what kind of media (tape, HDD, DVD, memory card, etc.) is used to store his files on a camcorder. In short, if this too much trouble or beyond the capability of the potential camcorder purchaser, then it is likely the individual should not be shopping for a camcorder in the first place. In a similar manner, if you do not understand what kinds of files your editor can edit, you should probably not be using that editor.
Furthermore, the bottom line answer is - you can't import .mov files.
Since August of 2007 millions of MOV clips have been imported by hundreds of thousands of users.
Earlier versions of iMovie were much more user friendly and allowed you to accomplish this task. I know that I had no problems dragging a .mov file to the clip window in earlier versions of iMovie. Why is this now such a problem?
This is the crux of your problem. All previous versions of iMovie performed or attempted to perform an automatic conversion of non-edit compatible, fully supported QT compression formats to edit compatible compression formats as part of the import process. iMovie '08 does not do this. iMovie '08 can edit DV, AIC, Motion-JPEG, Photo-JPEG, as well as, supported profiles of MPEG-4 or H.264 content. The application assumes that if you import a DV file that you want to edit the file natively in DV. So it does not arbitrarily convert the file to one of the other compression formats behind your back as iMovie HD might do. If this auto conversion process is what you value most in your editor or you don't know and don't care what types of files can be edited, then download and use your free copy of iMovie HD v6.0.4 which is readily available to all iLife '08 owners. iMovie '08 is simply "not for everyone" and even the people who use it will admit that it is not the best tool for all projects.
This is a major oversight in Apple's development of iMovie that needs to be resolved... I believe that it's truly unacceptable to require loyal Apple users to revert back to earlier versions of iMovie to accomplish this task... I demand that Apple get on this and fix it!
You consider this an "oversight." That's your opinion. I disagree and firmly believe the application does what they wanted it to do. But this is beside the point. There is no "reverting back to earlier versions of iMovie" since the iMovie '08 application is not an update or upgrade of any previous "version" but rather a totally new editing concept with all new code and a totally different look that "just happens to share the iMovie name." This is also not the forum to use to "demand" changes to an Apple product. Use the application's built-in "Provide iMovie Feedback" menu option to access the official form in which you may express your dissatisfaction, submit an enhancement request, or make a "bug report."
I personally prefer the ability to edit multiple forms of content within a single project but if you don't, you could always request a compromise of sorts. To wit, you could simply request that an additional import module be added which allows users be given the option to designate a specific project format (e.g., DV, AIC, M-JPEG, Photo-JPEG, MPEG-4, or H.264) and have any content not already in that compression format be automatically converted to that format in much the same manner as the current version of iMovie HD does. However, this does seem to defeat the purpose of being able to do "native" edits in multiple formats within a single project and I suspect you will likely then complain about the time it takes to convert to some of the format choices or object to the default settings employed for QT file level conversion.

What software would you recommend for an HP Z230 Workstation?

I just purchased a new Hewlett Packard Z230 Workstation with the intent to catch up on a big backlog (hundreds of hours) of family videos I want to clean up and edit. This computer is configured as follows:
Intel I7 4770 Quad Core running 3.4 GHz (showing 8 processors in control panel/system/processor)
16 GB ram
256 GB solid state C: drive
3 TB 7,200 rpm D: Drive
nVidia Quadro K2000 video card with 2 GB video ram
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
When I bought this, I planned on using Cyberlink PowerDirector because they advertised it to run well with the features on this computer. I downloaded a trial version of Power Director, and it met my functional needs. But it locked up three times in an hour. When I wrote Cyberlink, they asked for information like the DxDiag.txt file that describes my computer, and the Windows Event logs of the lockups. Their response was BAFFLING, because they said they design their software for "consumer level platforms," and since they don't test their software on "workstations," they cannot recommend my using it on the Z230.
That said, I'm now looking for alternate software. I've used Pinnacle a lot in the past, but it has changed so much from the version I used, I'm not wed to any brand at this point. In addition to usual editing capability, I want to verify that the software I buy has some specific capabilities I need:
-- Ability to crop video clips and expand the remaining cropped scene back to 16:9 (because I have some incroachment in some video clips from the lens hood of a camera).
-- Ability to normalize audio levels for different clips (some too loud or too quiet) before producing the video.
-- Desired, not required: Ability to burn BluRay or DVD on a separate computer than the one where I am editing.
Most, if not all, editing software has these abilities now (PowerDirector and Pinnacle do), so this shouldn't be a problem, but I just want to check.
Any help or guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Terry Quinn

Jim,
Thanks for the recommendations.
You'll get a kick out of this. I started with a Betamovie in 1984, switched to Hi8 in 1993, and D8 in 2005. My initial editing was from one beta VCR to another one. Then I bought a good Sony TR101 Hi8 camcorder, and soon bought a $1,300 EV-S3000 Sony Hi8 VCR that connected to the TR101 by wire, which gave some syncronization of the linear edits (about plus or minus 3 frames when it was happy). In 2004 I bought a powerful (for then) computer and Pinacle Studio 9, which with some upgrades is still what I've edited with until now. Some of all three formats of video have been digitized (or downloaded from the D8) as .avi using various hardware. I expect to complete all of that as .avi.
I've just bought a new Panasonic HC-X920 camcorder (very nice) that produces files in .m2ts, which I think is AVCHD. As you can probably tell from my history, that may prove to be my last camcorder purchase and format change. I have no plans now to shoot 4k.
I checked, and I've overstated the number of hours of video I have left to do. I recorded just under 200 hours total in all three formats. 45 hours of that (the Beta) are fully edited, and about 22 hours of the Hi8 are finished. So I'm looking at about 130 hours of video I still need to edit, plus whatever I shoot in HD going forward.
I appreciate what you say about stability. I fought that with Pinacle 9, and frankly didn't change from that because I finally got it to run stably doing what I did for years. (However recently it has started behaving badly again, which is another reason I'm upgrading).
The Quardro came with the HP computer. The Quadro and GeForce both are spec'd on nVidia's website, and I assumed that since its specs were higher than the GeForce and "matched" Cyberlink's specs for OpenCL, I would be better with the Quadro than the GeForce. From what I'm hearing here and your recomendation, it sounds like I should sell the Quadro on Ebay and buy a GeForce. In case I still might end up with Cyberlink, I'll run the card model you suggested by them and see if they "bless" it.
I know the HP computer supports RAID, because I've seen that come up during boot-up. I always thought RAID was only about reliable backup. Are you suggesting that if I put a second 3 TB hard drive in my computer, and somehow tie it into RAID, that will improve performance, too?
Terry

I just purchased a Sony HD Camcorder need to down load the movie, How do i do this?

I just purchased a Sony HD Camcorder and can not find how to import the movies. Does any one know how to do this?

You will not be able to download the video directly to your iphone or iPad.
I suggest you download to your computer to edit.
If you meant to put this on the iMovie Mac forum, then you should re-post there.
I suggest you also state your camera model, computer model, and version of iMovie.

I recently purchased a refurbed iMac with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. It came with iMovie ver. 9.0.5 installed. I do allot with iMovie and iDVD and would like to get a camcorder to add movie clips. Does anyone have any suggestions for a reasonably pri

I recently purchased a refurbed iMac with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. It came with iMovie ver. 9.0.5 installed. I do allot with iMovie and iDVD and would like to get a camcorder to add movie clips. Does anyone have any suggestions for a reasonably price camcorder that would work with my setup?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I recently purchased a refurbed iMac with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. It came with iMovie ver. 9.0.5 installed. I do allot with iMovie and iDVD and would like to get a camcorder to add movie clips. Does anyone have any suggestions for a reasonably price camcorder that would work with my setup?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Have a canon dc310 camcorder that uses mini dvd's. How can I get my new Imac to read these dvd's?Camcorder unable to connect to computer. Will a mini dvd adapter work or do I need to purchase an external dvd rom device? Which device works well with a mac?

I have a Canon DC310 camcorder that uses mini dvd's and doesn't have the ability to connect to a computer. How can I get my new Imac to read these dvd's? Will the mini dvd adapter work or do I need to purchase an external dvd rom device? Which device works well with the Mac? Do I need anything else to get the dvd material onto my mac? Thanks!!

No DV port in camcorder. Just a yellow AV port/hole. I did find a Canopus ADVC110 device in a box that was bought several years ago to convert VHS tapes onto DVD's. Can I use this with a Mac? Could I connect a dvd player to the Canopus and transfer the disks onto my Mac? Or, connect the camcorder via AV port to the Canopus and that to the Mac and transfer that way? Thanks again!

Camcorder purchase

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