DropDV

OK, I'm going to try this again. Lots of help out there, but no resolution yet.
I have been using DropDV for a couple of years with no problem.
I connect my Sony Handycam DVD camera to my G5 and it puts a DVD icon on my desktop.
I drag this icon over the DropDV icon and it starts converting the files to DV.
Same process everytime, always worked fine...into imovie and I was off and running.
Now, I do the exact same steps and when DropDV is finished converting the files, they show up as an imovie project in the PAL format.
I have done every conceivable thing to correct this to no avail.
I also cleaned my hard drive and reinstalled the operating system, just in case something was conflicting with the program. SAME RESULT.
Now, if I open the DVD icon folder and drop the .VOB files one at a time on the DropDV icon, it converts them to NTSC projects, but some functions, ie editing, don't work anymore in imovie.
I've emailed DropDV Support five times in the last 10 days and there has been absolutely no response.
Oh, by the way, if you're deducing that it must be my DVD...I downleaded a trial version of Virtual Hub and it converted the DVD fine and to NTSC format.
Anyone had this problem also with DropDV???
Help please.
Thanks for all the help so far. I looking for that one person that has had this same problem and got it solved.
Thanks,
Bruce in L.A.

MPEG Streamclip has worked OK for me but YMMV of course.
Visual Hub and DVDxDV are other good alternatives.
iMovie HD freezes/locks up when I try to import my 19 minute long clip that I converted to DV format
Importing huge .dv clips can take minutes and some users may think iMovie has freezed because it doesn't update the progress bar when importing them:
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovieHD_6_bugs.html#progressbar

Similar Messages

Imported DVD clips using dropDV - problems with freezing

I bought a copy of DropDV so i could make FCP-importable mpeg files from some dvd's i made.
Problem is, when i drag any of these files into my source window in FCP, the clip will play for a few seconds then freeze. if i mark an in and out and move it into my sequence timeline it plays fine - but i can't watch them in the source monitor (the sound continues after it freezes).
I have 2gb RAM and i even went into the system preferences of FCP (4.5) and boosted the numbers there but it's still not working - the g5 we have at work does not have this problem.
not sure how many people here use dropDV with FCP, but if anyone has any suggestions i'd appreciate it!
thanks

it's a 2gb video clip file, if that makes a difference.<<</div>
hmmmmm. 2gb is the size file limit for drives formatted as FAT32 and since I don't believe in coincidences, that makes me suspicious. It might be nothing, but you may want to verify that the drive that the clip is stored on is formatted as "Mac OS Extended."
-DH

How do I use a Panasonic HDD Video Camera with an iBook?

We just bought a Panasonic SDR-H40P without even thinking that there would be any problem using it with a Mac. We recorded some videos, then proceeded to try and download them to the computer only to find that they are written in .mod, which the computer will not recognize. The software that comes with the camera is for PCs only. So, after doing some research, I downloaded the trial version of DropDV. and got the files off the camera via the provided USB. It did convert some of the files (supposedly into an iMovie format). Some of the videos we took work fine. Some are missing. Some seem to be in slow motion.
Is there a different program to use or another way to get these .mod (and .moi) files to work/open on our Mac? We have some videos of a baby that his grandparents would love to be able to see!

From what I've found through reading the topic in several digital movie
forums, you should be able to use iMovie and have it import the file
from the camera for use and editing in the Mac.
This path may be version dependent for best results; and I am not
sure which versions of iLife's iMovie would be best for use with the
digital camera and also may be compatible with the older Mac iBook.
Some Panasonic digital video cameras are also seen by iPhoto and
in some cases, that can find the movie file and import it for iMovie.
And there are other Panasonic video devices which create the same
kinds of files, and there is a free or shareware software out there to
help use them. This may include players by third parties and others
which may be able to edit digital movie files.
In some digital movie forums, there is an awareness of Panasonic
products not necessarily being the best supported for Mac OS X;
while many pro users of Panasonic products have Macs, among
them are newer Intel Mac users with Parallels, BootCamp, etc
and they can run XP or Vista-ready software. If this is (still) true,
then Panasonic may be missing out; since modern products
should have support in their retail box for both major platforms.
Some Panasonic products have shipped with Mac software for
several years now; along with Windows software. Some didn't.
Hopefully iMovie can see the Panasonic digital movie files; if the
iBook can support the feature set of iMovie. Some aspects of
this part of iLife require the ability to record to DVD media and
also may require more system assets & resources than you have.
Good luck & happy computing!

A 16:9 to 4:3 problem

Someone provided me with (2) DVD's which have video on them that plays
in a 4:3 player window when I pop it into DVD Player on the Mac. However, the video is obviously squeezed. When I play the DVD's on my HDTV 16 x 9 TV (and my external DVD player), and change the screens shape to EXPAND the DVD video to fill the tv's 16 x 9 shape, the video looks perfect and normal. I suspect the person who shot the original footage, shot it in 16 x 9 but somehow encoded it to 4:3 shape when pressing to the DVDs provided to me.
I am going to use DROPDV to strip the mpeg 2 video off the DVD's and convert it to DV/Quicktime for editing in FCP5. However, this will obviously still leave me with "squeezed footage.
I'm looking for suggestions on the best process (filters, rendering, system settings), to get the footage to 4:3 but without being squeezed. I know this
will involve changing the video to 16:9 and then changing that to 4:3, chopping off the left and right, but I've never had to do exactly this before,
and I don't want to have to blow up the video and loose resolution, yada yada.
I can't get ahold of the original mini-dv tape that the DVD's were made from
so I have to work with what I have.
Any suggestions on the easiest, quickest workflow would be appreciated. Either way, I suspect I have alot of rendering ahead of me, but I want to try to
only have to do it once.
Thanks in advance for any input you can provide.

I'm also not sure what you mean by "flag it as anamorphic in the browser",
but I do know what you mean by scaling up to 133.
Here's how to do it for a whole batch...
Make sure your Browser is in List View
Select all your newly imported files in the Browser
Scroll to the right in your Browser, there will be a column for Anamorphic (it's usually the column between Pixel Aspect and Field Dominance)
Control-click (or right-click) within the Anamorphic Column and select Yes from the contextual menu. Do not simply click (or left-click), you'll only adjust a single file that way and not all your selected files.
You must do this before you drop any files into your sequence. Making sure your clips are interpreted as anamorphic is key to maintaining quality.

Mac book pro Dec 2009 - program to edit jvc mpeg into dvd

im new to mac... here is my question. I hve a jvc mpeg hard drive video camera. What sort of program do i need so my mac can edit and burn these mpeg's into a dvd with chapters.. menus.. etc Thank you

iMove can Import some types of mpeg file directly - File/Import menu
If that doesn't work check out Mpeg StreamClip or DropDV
You can then use iMovie or iDVD to create discs.

Sequence-RenderOnly-Mixdown crashes - Out Of Memory

Out of Memory trying to use FCE Sequence->RenderOnly->Mixdown.
The video that crashes is 19:30 min in length (and others as well). Plenty of memory (actual=3GB: recognized as 2GB: SysSettings->Memory&Cache shows 1649Mb = 90%); Plenty of disk set as FCE Scratch - external FW400 drive with 228Gb available.
Deleted the Scratch Audio cache folders before trying the mixdown.
Suggestions?

Thanks for your suggestions.
I am running FCE 3.0.1 and QT 7.1.2.
Yesterday I tried importing the raw files in two ways: (1)through MackTheRipper and (2)through the linux box/copying across the net. DropDV seems to be the only way to convert the raw files to .dv, so I used it. At that point QT can play the individual .dv files with no problem. FCE can open both sets of .dv files, and the waveform shows sound is present (which dragging the pointer along the timeline confirms.) FCE can play the individual .dv files through the Viewer with no problem.
I added everything to the Timeline and started an audio mixdown. When FCE gave the OutOfMemory error, I ran vmmap through Terminal, and the process showed 3Gb from malloc (YIKES!), so I guess that it really is Out Of Memory!
At your suggestion, I downloaded a copy of Cocktail and restarted. FCE again crashes with the same OOM error after ten minutes or so.
This whole problem started because of audio dropouts in completed QT files. Unfortunately, I have pitched the .dv file sets for the projects that have completed successfully without the Mixdown - it would be informative to know whether Mixdown would work on them.
I guess the next step seems to be to deepsix FCE and reinstall. (This is beginning to remind me of microsoft products...)

Field order / interlacing problem

I convert my mpeg video source files using dropDV, then cut the clips in iMovie.
If I create a dvd using iDVD and watch it on my tv, there is a nasty shaking effect which is more visible when either the subject or the camera is moving.
Someone recently told me this problem might be caused by the field order being inverted.
Can anyone confirm this, or has anyone experienced similar problems?
Any suggestions how to overcome this problem?
(So far the only attempt that has not failed was when I exported to iPod .m4v from iMovie and used this file in iDVD... the problem was solved, but of course the resolution is much lower)
Thanks for your comments!
Peter
Mac OS X (10.4.7)

welcome Peter to the  board …
yepp, your discription sounds like a odd/uneven problem...
I'm not familiar with any prefs/settings in dropDV, but I onced solved simliar problems with the free tool JES Deinterlacer

Importing DivX 4.1.2 encoded video into iMovie HD 6

I had a PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz machine. With that, I could import DivX encoded video into iMovie HD 6. I had installed DivX for Mac 6.5 to allow this import.
I just switched to a new machine, MacBook Pro, Intel Core Duo 2.16 GHz.
I migrated over to this new machine using the Migration Assistant.
I just updated the system to 10.4.8 this morning.
When I import the same DivX encoded video into iMovie HD 6 now, the application crashes immediately.
Something did not get migrated properly...it seems.
Interestingly, there are a few video files that I had saved on my old machine using QT 7 Pro (still DivX encoded), and they import just fine on the new machine. I tried resaving the DivX video on the new machine in QT 7 Pro, but this does not rectify the problem. Very odd. I also now can not get QT Pro 7 to export these files as another encoded file. I could do that on the old machine.
I hope someone can provide me with the insight into the plug-in or reloading of something that will fix this problem. Is it compatibility of the DivX codec with the new Intel processor?
Thanks everyone.
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7) Intel Core Duo 2.16 GHz

I'm working on a video at the moment and the way I'm dealing with it is with MPEG Streamclip. Hard drive cameras use a different format and you cannot import directly to iMovie. (Looking to go back to Mini DV Tape the way things are going)... Had to pay for MPEG Streamclip but it transcodes back to DV on the fly and then you spend hours importing to iMovie. I use a JVC Emperio hard drive Video camera. There is quite a deal of quality loss during all the various transitions unfortunately. You can also try... *Download and install DVDrop. This converts the .MOD MPEG-2 formatted video into standard Digital Video (DV) for iMovie. (see www.dropdv.com).* (cannot vouch for that one though. I'm going to try this evening. Thanks to Zac.

My Workflow is Non-Existent

I've been using fcp and compressor for almost a year. Recently upgraded to fcp5.0. Its been a nightmare trying to encode to mpeg2. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't.
My work has come to a grinding halt. Everytime I try to encode to mpeg2, it produces a demented .m2v file with a mind of its own. When I click on the encoded file, it opens up into a droplet for a .mov encode. What a nightmare, and what a mistake it was to upgrade.
Also, compressor and fcp use to recognize .dv files that i encoded in a program called DropDV. All of a sudden it doesn't recognize them anymore. This just started a day ago.
I give up.

You're not alone - running FCP 5.0.3 and Compressor to produce
MPEG-2 TS for playback on a VOD environment is currently a dark art eluding me - still working on it - any progress will post to your thread
Cheers
Mark

FCE Issues With Rendering

Problems With Final Cut Express or is it Quicktime
6/11/2006
This document describes the problems I had with rendering movies in Final Cut Express. The version of FCE is 2.03 but the problem doesn’t seem to be restricted to this software.
Since I have done a fair amount of testing let me describe the two systems I have been using for testing.
System-1 (Original)
Dual 1 GHz PowerPC G4
2 MB L3 Cache
1.5 MB SDRAM
Panther 10.3.9
QT 6.5.1 (All other system updates applied but not QT)
System-2 (Borrowed)
Dual 2 GHz Powerpc G5
3 GB DDR SDRAM
Tiger 10.4.6
QT 7.0.0 (All other system updates applied but not QT)
What is it that I have been doing? I have a Replay TV box which I occasionally download video’s from and then edit out commercials and put on DVD. The following process is used.
I download the video’s as MPEG2 files from the Replay using DVArchive 3.1. I then run the saved file through either DropDV or Streamclip 1.7 and convert to DV. The resulting files have the video and audio split.
I load these files into FCE and do an immediate render. Unfortunately I never paid much attention to the render time before. I just started them and walked away. More on this in a minute.
When the render is done I edit out the commercials and export the video to a self contained QT file. I then use IDVD to burn a DVD when I have enough video’s completed.
In the cases here I am using 30 minute shows.
System-1 has been running Panther and at some point I found I could no longer render videos without getting a Malloc Error when trying to save the files after they were supposedly rendered. After rendering the render line did not change to gray so my assumption was they never rendered at all. When starting the rendering the program said the render would take approximately 29 minutes. About half way through the process the progress bar would accelerate so the total time to render usually became 4 minutes.
After trying several things I decided to go back and start fresh. I installed Panther on a different drive as a clean install and let software update give me all the updates. That did not fix a thing. After trying numerous things I borrowed another system. It had a clean install of Tiger with all the updates. Same issue.
I went back to System-1 and did another clean install but this time I did Panther. I had been reading responses on Apple’s forums and even though my exact problem was not listed the common thread seemed to be Quicktime.
I let the Panther update install everything except the QT updates. Now a 30 minute render took 4 minutes and worked flawlessly.
Using this knowledge I did a new clean install of Tiger on System-2. I did all the updates except QT. The system as installed ended up with QT 7.0.0.
Using the very same movie I tried the render in FCE. This time it worked but the time to render was 29 minutes. Interesting since System-2 is a G5 with 3 GB of RAM.
I am reluctant to go back to System-1 and let it install only QT 7.0.0 as it will only succeed in making my render times much longer. Letting it go past 7.0.0 just breaks it altogether.
Apple has put up at least two fixes for QT 7, but neither one solves my issue and I expect after reading all the forum complaints doesn’t solve anyone else’s issues either.
I had a tough time trying to resolve this as I was using 3 different programs and felt anyone could be causing the problem. As it stands it appears it’s Apple. DVArchive, Streamclip and DropDV do their thing and it appears they do it right.
As a final test I loaded Streamclip and DVArchive on the G5. I used DVArchive to download a video, this time using a full hour. I put that file through Streamclip and then into FCE. The result was a render time of an hour (56 minutes in reality) so the problem is in QT.
My final test was to let QT update on the G5 and after that happened I’m back to no rendering at all and getting Malloc Errors.
Thanks for listening.

The Malloc error seems to be a ram error but I have checked and checked and checked.
The issue is I cannot render at all if I run any version of QT above 7.0.0 and that includes under Tiger.
The other issue is render times went from 4 minutes after editing to 29 minutes on a 30 minute show.
If I try to render a file in FCE it starts by telling me that it will take 29 minutes. About half way through the render it accelerate and finishes in 1 or two minutes. But it isn't rendered. The red line never goes away. If you look at the original post I have gotten it down to the version of QT that gets installed or updated. With Tiger and the basic install version right off the DVD the render works but takes 29 minutes. Allowing Software Update to go any higher with QT completely breaks the render process.
I had a friend of mine try the same thing and he gets the same results.

Streamline- warning the video may have timecode breaks

The video i am opening with streamline so i can import it into imovie, says there are timecode breaks in the video, if i click fix the problem the entire movie can be played but at some point something goes horribly wrong with the sounds from people and the video.. Help me.. I have only 2 days before my slideshow for a wedding needs to be done.
Thanks

Do you mean MPEG Streamclip?
Does the video including the bad spot play OK with the VLC video player?
You would get better quality if you could get the original photos and do the slideshow from scratch (for the best possible quality I'd suggest using a 3rd party app Photo To Movie).
You might also try to convert the offending MPEG video with apps like DVDxDV, DropDV, Visual Hub, Toast or ffmpegX.

Capture Xbox 360 component output to iMovie?

I would like to be able to capture output from component devices such as my Xbox 360 in the best possible quality on my Mac. Is this possible? What sort of hardware would I need (and how much does it cost)?
Anyone know what companies like Gamespot or IGN use for their "direct feeds"? I won't assume they use Macs, but the hardware they use might be Mac-compatible.

Hi, I am currently in the process of doing that exact same thing. However, I have some disappointing news.
It is possible to record gameplay from a 360, however it will be recorded straight into a Muxed MPEG2 file. Also you will be required to purchase two pieces of electronic equipment.
The first is Elgato EyeTv 250, which comes with EyeTV 2 software (200$ with the software included). The second piece you will need is a composite video splitter, I have the CELab AV400, which costs around 60-70 dollars but works great. Make sure that whatever video splitter you use has a true 1:1 ratio with no signal loss.
Now, plug your Xbox 360, or whatever device you are using into your splitter, and then run A/V cables to your TV and to the EyeTV 250 reciever. You can plug your 360 straight into the EyeTV but due to the time it takes to compress the streaming video into MPEG format, their is a noticable delay in the image, making real time play impossible, thus the need for the splitter.
Finally, once you have recorded your gameplay, you have to convert the Muxed MPEG2 into a .dv file. Strictly because iMovie will not recognize Muxed MPEG2 or any MPEG for that matter. Also, downloading the plug-in for Quicktime that allows it to play MPEG files WILL NOT make iMovie recognize these types of files. I personally use DropDV, but the unregistered version will place large watermarks on the video feed, the registered version costs $40.
If you need me to make a more detailed description just let me know.
Hope I provided some help.
Charlie Fry

Re-installing software

Hi,
I have a droplet called DropDV installed for converting my video files to DV.
It keeps importing the files in the PAL format, which it shouldn't.
How do I get rid of this program and all related files, so when I re-install, it doesn't grab some of theleftover old stuff that may contain the problem file or files??
I want to get rid of it like it was never there, so I can download it freshly and see if that resolves the problem.
Thanks,
Bruce

Hi Bruce,
This forum is for Apple's Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) and earlier Usage but that said:
What version of DropDV are you using? Trial version or full paid version? Can you update to a more recent version?
Have you looked for an uninstaller with the program?
I would contact DropDV at their support and ask about uninstalling/reinstalling, if you have not already, if there is no uninstaller included with the program.
http://www.dropdv.com/
good luck,
littleshoulders [:-)
Message was edited by: littleshoulders

Software to convert home movie format to DV format

I want to import home movies on DVD (which I transferred from VHS and Hi8 to DVD) into Imovie. I was told by applecare that I need software to convert the format. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Hello Susan,
in order to be recognized by iMovie you have to convert your footage into DV format.
check out Matti Haveri's website: How can I edit MPEG or convert DVD or MPEG to DV
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/%7Eshmhav/SVCDon_a_Macintosh.html#edit_convertMPEG
Helpful Tools:
MPEG Streamclip (freeware): can convert/demux mpeg2 and VOB files into DV. It can also be used to edit/trim and multiplex/de-multiplex mpeg files
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html
Apple MPEG2 PlayBack ($20):
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
DVDxDV: ($25) can convert DVD-disks, VIDEO_TS folders and .VOB files to DV-encoded .mov files.
http://www.dvdxdv.com/
FFmpegX ($15): can also convert .VOB or .mpg to .dv.
http://homepage.mac.com/major4/
DropDV ($40): can convert MPEG1 and MPEG2 streams to .dv.
http://www.dropdv.com/
DIVA (freeware): is a fast and powerful converter/encoder
http://diva.3ivx.com/
hope this helps
mish

Audio pitch lowered

When playing my videos in imovie I noticed that the pitch for the audio was greatly lowered. The timing seemed fine.
The clips are converted from MPEG to DV using dropdv. I tested the resulting DV files directly and they seemed to be fine. It was only after importing into iMovie that the pitch seems to be messed up.

I found the problem. For some reason using the dropdv created imovie project files imported the video clips as PAL and caused imovie to act real wierd (although stangely most things worked just fine). Transitions didnt work, the audio had the pitch lowered. Importing the dropdv files directly into imovie resolved all the issues.

DropDV

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