Camcorder w/ My PowerBook

I want to buy a camcorder and have been looking at the Sony DCR-DVD616 Handycam. All the info on the box indicates that the software works w/ Windows, and nothing about Mac. Obviously, it records to a DVD, will my PowerBook be able to play my recorded DVD's? Do I just use iDVD or iMovie? If so, where do I find info on how to do this? Also, can I just plug the camcorder into my PowerBook via USM and watch the videos that way and/or make dupllicate DVD's to send to family? Does anyone have this camcorder???

From what you say, a prosumer camera is not what you want. The many choices, otherwise, can be confusing. I went through and tried to find a selection of cameras that have a firewire connection. This may not be all that each mfgr has with firewire, but it seemed representative. Note, they all use tape, I didn't see any from these companies that use other storage mediums (DVD, hard drive) and also have a firewire connection:
Canon standard definition: ZR850, ZR950
Canon high definition: HV20, HV30
Sony DCR-HC52, DCR-HC62
Panasonic PVGS80, PVGS83, PVGS85, PVGS320
Interesting that reading the Panasonic PVGS320 manual, it includes directions referencing iMovie for use on macs (didn't look at the other Panasonic manuals). Canon is also mac-friendly, not clear that Sony is, although those listed have firewire connections (Sony calls it iLink, Canon calls it IEEE-1394, and Panasonic is mini-DV IEEE-1394).
I haven't used any of the cameras listed, just wanted to find some that have a firewire connection, if you want to be able to hook it up to your Powerbook and use iMovie and iDVD.

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IMovie 5.0.2 and VCR- Camcorder Pass Through not working

Anyone have any idea why I can't plug my VCR into my Sony-TRV27 via A/V cables, then plug my camcorder into my Powerbook via firewire and capture the VHS footage. According to all documentation I have read, I should be able to use my camcorder as an Analog to Digital converter and capture in iMovie.
I can see the VHS video on the camcorder but as soon as I plug into the CPU and open iMovie the screen turns blue.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks.
CB
Powerbook G4 1.67 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Had the same symptom at first.
iMovie wouldnt record if the camera was feeded by the signal of a VHS machine.
I went along and solved it.
The used SONY Camera would allow to actually REC a signal in VCR mode (used to be and still soemtimes is called PLAYBACK mode). You have to find a Record button (or a pair of, as in our case) and actually record the VHS signal onto the camera - then iMovie would gladly show the image as well.
Unfortunately this solution has the drawback of wearing the camera mechanics off because you actually record soemthing you dont really use.

Choosing a camcorder to interface well with ilife

I have many Hi 8 tapes and I am looking for a camcorder that will play these tapes AND connect to my mac via fire wire. Any suggestions

Hi guys, I append to this question also Canon HV10 camcorder.
Up to me, using iMovie is very important feature in order to choose right camcorder.
thanks
firo
PowerBook G4 17 1.67GHz - 1GB RAM - 7200rpm/100GB HD Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Transfering MiniDV to PowerBook G4: Firewire Cable

What should I look for in a firewire cable when transfering MiniDV from a camcorder to my PowerBook using FCS? Any recommendations would be very helpful. Thanks!
Powerbook G4 1.67GHz Mac OS X (10.4.4) Final Cut Studio/2GB DDR SDRAM
Powerbook G4 1.67GHz Mac OS X (10.4.4) Final Cut Studio/2GB DDR SDRAM

The transfer from your camera to the computer is a digital transfer - not analog. So even with a bad cable, there is no 'degradation' of image. If the cable is bad, the transfer simply doesn't work.
For short runs, as long as there is a solid fit in the camera and computer receptacles, most cables from reputable manufacturers will be fine. If you are running 16' or even 32' cables - then the manufacturer is pretty important.
Having said all this, Granite Digital sells a line of cables that are well made, well shielded and very reliable. I know there are others.
good luck.
x

Crushed black levels in iMovie HD

I'm having trouble with black levels being crushed (i.e.: darkening, unwanted excessive contrast, loss of detail) when importing video from a newer pro level JVC broadcast 1/2-inch chip camera into iMovie HD. I am importing via firewire into iMovie, making a few edits and sending the video back to the camera via firewire. When I use the pro camera, the black levels are crushed. However, when I use a consumer grade Canon GL-2 camera and do the same, the black levels are perfect and unaffected. Has anyone else had this problem and figured out a solution? Thank you.
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I am able to set the black level of what is recorded to tape; however, the camera always outputs at 7.5. iMovie wants to see black setup at 0.0 but my camera outputs at 7.5 NTSC regardless of the black level setting that goes to tape. I'll check the manual again and try some experiments. I'll post the results soon. Thank you.
that is beyond my hands-on experiences, but afaik,
broadcast camcorders allow setting the blacklevel
manually, as a keyword "superblack", which is "under"
0%...-
check camera's settings/manual
iMovie is a consumer product, ... my guess
is, your dv-stream is outside the "normal" standards
of a 200$camcorder..
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Video File Conversions for use in IMOVIE

I have a Sony DCR-DVD100 Camcorder and a Powerbook G4. Video files on the camera cannot be imported into IMOVIE for use and editing. The computer can play the files via a USB connection. The video files include VIDEO_TS.BUP VIDEO_TS.IFO and VIDEO_TS.VOB
Can anybody offer advice or recommendations? Apparently there are downloads which will convert the files for use in IMOVIE but I need some guidance. Thanks.

Hi aphill - welcome to the forum!
Have a look here:
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/%7Eshmhav/SVCDon_a_Macintosh.html#edit_convertMPEG

Movie film to DVD

Is there any way to transfer super 8 movie film to DVD. I have literally thousands of feet of movie film that I want to transfer so even at $.15 a foot I can not afford to have it done "commercially". I am willing to sacrifice quality if need be.
Any help/advice would be much appreciated.
Dave

Well, I have a really labor-intensive way to do it...but the results are pretty good.
I have a GAF model 788 projector, which has a sprocketless drive, an inching knob, and a reflector lamp mounted at a right-angle to the film plane, with a small front-surface mirror right behind the gate. What I did was to remove the mirror and the lamp from the projector. I stuffed a daylight-balanced 40w vanity light into the lamp holder (using a socket and cable I bought at a hardware store) and replaced the mirror with a piece of white styrene plastic. I attached a 3" slide projector lens to the front of my camcorder lens, and lined everything up. I connected the camcorder to my PowerBook and used a frame capture program to capture frames at 720x480. The camcorder is focused (via the three lenses) directly on the film in the projector gate. I captured frames on the PowerBook and assembled them as a QuickTime movie at 18 FPS. I'm not sure if iDVD can handle a QuickTime movie with an oddball frame rate or not, but I also have Avid Xpress Pro, so I can use that to change the frame rate to 29.97 FPS for conversion to DVD.
I'd put together a web page detailing the process, but it's kind of hard to take pictures when my camera is the subject of the photo.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Importing video from Sony Hard Drive Camcorder to Powerbook G4 17"

After some work, I have found that I must use both QuickTime and MPegStreamclip to import both video and sound. However, once the transfer is complete I notice in playback that when the suject moves quickly the edges appear jagged and unclear around the body movement. How can I correct this?
The camcorder does not use firewire only USB transfer or AV. The video is beautiful except for this.
Camcorder: Sony DCR-SR100 30gb Hard drive
Powerbook: G4 17" 1.5GHz, 1gb ddr sddram
Someone please help.
Powerbook G4 17" Mac OS X (10.4.7)

The only thing that I can think of is purchasing a video capture box such as a Formac Studio DV and plugging the camcorder into the Formac using AV output cables and then importing through the Formac's firewire port. Does that make sense?
Stu

Capturing dv from camcorder on powerbook internal drive then moving to exte

I plan on installing FCE HD in an OS 10.4.6 Sandbox partition on my 667MHz Powerbook G4 Ti DVI w/ a 60 GB 7200 rpm HD w/ a 13GB Scratch partition.
Since the PB has a single Firewire port, can I capture video from my camera through that FW port to the internal drive Scratch partition and then transfer that file (or files: I have a bunch of footage) to an external FW drive for further work, again using the single FW port for the initial transfer and then editing, etc.? Can I use USB 2.0 for the transfers after capture?
Any special considerations in doing this? Things I haven’t thought of? :–)
Powerbook G4 Ti DVI 667 MHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) 60 GB 7200 rpm internal HD, 1 GB ram, Dell 24" monitor

A Sandbox partition is one generated by SuperDuper! to allow an independent, second OS on a drive. Mine has been working fine and allows me to run new software, including OS updates without affecting the Main partition with it's 'master' set of 'original' applications (the Sandbox uses aliases of the apps on Main). If the new OS or app works, then it can be installed on the Main partition with less danger of unexpected problems. By running from the Sandbox, corruption of the Main partition is less likely.
Why is a scratch partition on the internal drive 'not really a good plan'? Is your caveat for real time capture only, as here or with audio capture, where the disk may be given other, higher priority, tasks by the OS, dropping frames? Hadn't thought of that. The Scratch volume appears to work fine for Photoshop, etc. And I would think it would for post-capture editing in FCE.
'You can daisy chain the camera through the FW drive to the computer. This works with most cameras'. Perhaps I am crying before I am bitten. I have seen posts elsewhere (places I can't recover now!) that recommend using 2 separate FW busses (i.e., adding a FW cardbus to my PB) for the camcorder and the capturing disk, saying that chaining the 2 is likely to cause dropped frames. (My camcorder is an original Optura so it may not play anyway. But that is something else again.)
'USB is not supported by Apple for use with video applications'. Does this include USB 2.0? And I have not seen eSATA mentioned anywhere. ???
Powerbook G4 Ti DVI 667 MHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) 60 GB 7200 rpm internal HD, 1 GB ram, Dell 24" monitor
Powerbook G4 Ti DVI 667 MHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) 60 GB 7200 rpm internal HD, 1 GB ram, Dell 24" monitor
Powerbook G4 Ti DVI 667 MHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) 60 GB 7200 rpm internal HD, 1 GB ram, Dell 24" monitor
Powerbook G4 Ti DVI 667 MHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) 60 GB 7200 rpm internal HD, 1 GB ram, Dell 24" monitor
Powerbook G4 Ti DVI 667 MHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) 60 GB 7200 rpm internal HD, 1 GB ram, Dell 24" monitor
Powerbook G4 Ti DVI 667 MHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) 60 GB 7200 rpm internal HD, 1 GB ram, Dell 24" monitor

FCE 4 with Powerbook G4 with Canon HV30 HDV Camcorder

Just enquiring if it will be possible to work together a combination of Powerbook G4 with memory of 1.25GB and 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 Processor, together with FCE 4. Also adding into the mix the new HDV Canon HV30.
Have previously been using an SD camcorder with the G4 and iMovie HD to produce a few movies/DVDs, but now want to upgrade to the Canon HV30. I am concerned that the Canon may not be compatible with using the iMovie HD, so am considering FCE 4, but am also concerned that this may not run well on the G4 and may also not run together well with the Canon.
The G4 is still fine so don't really want to have to buy a new laptop as well as a new camera.
Am a bit new to all this so any help/suggestions much appreciated.

FCE 4 will work well on your computer ........ look at what I'm using.
The only slight problem is that you may not be able to access the new FxPlug filters but as many of them are like the old FxScript ones, it shouldn't be too much to do without.
I can't comment on the camera though I would have thought it to be OK. HDV may be a bit of a strain with your old Mac.
Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

Connecting Sony Camcorder to Powerbook

I connected my Sony Camcorder's USB into my laptop and my laptop doesn't it find it when i try to import it to iMovie.
Should a new hardrive show up when i connect it to the USB like how the iPod's are connected?

It's my understanding that iMovie only imports via Firewire ports, and only DV format - not formats on DVD or hard drive cameras via USB.

Daisy Chain Camcorder- External Hard Drive (firewire)- PowerBook?

Will it really cause problems? I'm going to buy a firewire card to avoid any fw bus problems but for now, would it drop frames and cause trouble?
Thanks
Vito

It does for some, not for others. We always preach that you need the card for the additional bus so that we ensure that it will work.
I myself never had a problem daisy chaining camera/deck/computer. Heck, I have even captured to my internal drive without dropping frames, so...guess I am special.
Nah, others can do this, but most cannot, so we preach the conservative way of doing things.
Shane

Unable to capture movie from camcorder.

I had tried to capture a movie from HDV camcorder for the first time since I updated to 10.5,
and got a green and pink image from iMovie. It looked like signals been mixed or track is off.
Then I tried with Quicktime and it seemed like working in the beginning but at the end of the clip
an error occurs saying unable to save the movie. FCP HD crashes trying to do capture either.
Anyone with similar symptoms? Any troubleshoot check list anyone?

yes, my powerbook is too slow to capture at full resolution, so I've tried with smaller size w/
'better' setting, i believe w/.264 encoding, but still i got an error. I don't know why this happen.
i had no problem before upgrading to 10.5. i checked the mini DV tape for any defect playing
it back and capture but it's not the cause. I was able to capture same tape with same camcorder
on my new iMac D2C .1.5.1 at my office. perhaps something to do with G4 or PPC version of OS...

Questions about using iMovie HD (6.0.4) with a new, as yet undecided, camcorder

Hi,
I want to keep on using iMovie HD (6.0.4) with whatever new camcorder I am getting. iMovie HD accepts mpeg-4 video so any camcorder that uses that format should work, shouldn't it? I will (probably) be bringing the video in via USB, as I don't think any new camcorders have Firewire ports anymore but I'd love to know about any that do. The plan is to find the files on the camcorder and drag and drop or otherwise transfer them into my MacBook Pro. (See my last question for the Thunderbolt/Firewire adapter problem.)
I've read that some?/all? Canon camcorders can record in both AVCHD and mpeg-4 so I'm looking into them. Any other brands I should check out? Using AVCHD looks like it will be too much trouble so I'm ruling those out, unless you have better ideas.
I've heard that Sony uses their own proprietary "wrapper" for mpeg-4 files their camcorders create. I think there is software out there, possibly for free, that will simply "re-wrap" them, not re-ecode them, so that they may be more easily used. Will Sony camcorders be a problem?
Will file sizes be a problem? I've read so much on AVCHD and other formats that maybe this doesn't apply but I've read that one hour of video can be 60 gb? I don't remember what context that was in.
Can I use mpeg-2 files? From what I have read, I don't think I can. If converting them would make them work, would it take a long time to do that and would file sizes be huge?
I have been using a 21 year old Sony DCR-TRV 9 mini DV cam. This past weekend the LCD screen died. I can still use the viewfinder but that's going to be challenging, so I am shopping for an inexpensive new camcorder. Less than $500, somewhere in the $100-$300 range is preferred but no toys.... HD seems to be out of reach with most starting around $500 but if you recommend any under $500, I'd love to know about them. SD should be fine otherwise. I prefer some sort of card for storage storage rather than a DVD or hard drive. The more popular format, the better.
Any advice is welcome. I do want to stay with iMovie HD though. I have tried iMovie 11 and don't like it. HD suits me fine.
One last question: Since my MacBook Pro doesn't have a Firewire port, I have found it simpler to use my old Powerbook that does. I then transfer the files over to the MacBook Pro to edit them. I have tried using a Thunderbolt/Firewire adapter so I could use the MBP but it didn't work well with video. The question is: is there a better way to transfer the video files onto the MBP from whatever new camcorder I get than USB? Are there good Thunderbolt connectors that will work well with camcorders?
Many thanks.
Cheers,
John L

I heartily support your decision to continue to use iMovie 6! I use nothing else!
imovie 6 was originally designed to import DV video streams from tape via firewire. However, in practise it can do much more. Useful sources of information:
iMovie 6 Help:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iMovie_HD_6_Getting_Started.pdf
from which this is excerpt:
iMovie HD can transfer, or import,
video in many video formats and from many different
types of camcorders, including DV camcorders (including those that support
widescreen) and high definition (HDV) camcorders. In most cases, iMovie HD can
automatically recognize and import the video you’re using, so you don’t have to pay
attention to video formats.
In this step, you will import your own video into your iMovie project. If you have a
camcorder with a FireWire connection, follow the instructions to connect your
camcorder and import the video using the capture controls in iMovie HD. If you have
another type of digital video device or have footage in a file on your computer, see the
instructions on page 13.
To import video from a camcorder:
1
Set the camcorder to VTR mode (some camcorders call this Play or VCR) and turn it on,
if necessary.
2
Connect your camcorder to your computer using a FireWire cable.
This MaciLife PDF is also good:
http://www.macilife.com/PDF/iMovie_HD_6_Chapter.pdf
There is also a video tutorial here (with links to others):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=654013474999069361#
The excerpt I quoted from the Apple link is less informative than it could be. It also succesfully imports video from my Fuji FinePix S4500 (actually a digital still camera) via USB2, as well from my Sony video camera via firewire!
Can I use mpeg-2 files? From what I have read, I don't think I can. If converting them would make them work, would it take a long time to do that and would file sizes be huge?
No. mpeg2 is the final compressed standard format of a DVD (and will be created by iDVD). To use that in iMovie 6 requires you 'reverse engineer' the file back to a DV stream, with commensurate loss of quality. If you really want to do that, post back for instructions.
I have no experience with Thunderbolt so can't help you there, but hopefully Karsten will see this thread and chime in with his usual excellent advice!

New Macbook a good replacement for 12" Powerbook?

I think, besides the inch in display difference, that the new macbook WOULD HAVE made a GREAT GREAT GREAT replacement for users loving or wanting the portability, yet pro versatility of the old 12" Powerbooks. I think however that Apple has missed the mark in one BIG BIG WAY! Firewire. People who wanted something like the 12" powerbook wanted the power of the Macbook Pro in a smaller package. Apple hit the nail on the head with incorporating the same graphics performance, by using aluminum, by making it lighter, and by putting in the illuminated keyboard (only in the 2.4 model though). But on the last detail, they missed it. Firewire. there is no workaround. period. Why preload the systems with iMovie when you can't import video from MOST modern digital camcorders? WITHOUT EVEN introducing a new port with adapters (like they did with the Display Port). I think I would've sold my old macbook pro and had instantly purchased the new macbook if Apple had just included that one VITAL port. I would even prefer them putting it in the place of one of the two USB ports. But without being able to import video from my NEW minidv, there is just no way i could buy that macbook and call myself a proud mac owner. What kind of digital hub would that be? Isn't your slogan "works right out of the box."...? what do you guys think about the new macbook being a 12" powerbook replacement??

I have the same situation. I wanted to upgrade from my 12" Powerbook and would move up to the 13" screen of the new MacBook (15" is much too big for my needs). Another family member has the 15" Powerbook and has always liked my smaller size. I was ready to order 2 of the 13" MacBooks and was then stunned to see that Firewire was missing. I have a Sony DV camcorder for movies. It appears Apple expects me to use my old Powerbooks to input the video into iMovie and then transfer it over to my new MacBook. This is not the cutting edge Apple Computer Company that I have been a customer of for 25 years.
If Apple wants to add firewire to the new MacBooks, develop a USB / Ethernet to firewire adapter, or add a 13" MacBook Pro (w/ firewire) to the line-up, they will have a customer. Otherwise, I will hold onto my old Powerbooks until this is corrected.

Camcorder w/ My PowerBook

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