Exporting to camcorder

Sorry but I look in all the menu and help file and I dont find what I was able to do with my Imovie6.
Is it possibe to export from iMovie 08 to a mini-dv tape using a camcorder the way I was able to in iMovie 06?
Is Imovie 08 not suppose to be an improvement ?
cordially
Bruno

iMovie version 7 does not support export back to "tape".
Use an older version to do that work.

Similar Messages

Frequent interruptions when exporting to camcorder

When I export an edited movie back to the camcorder (Sony DCR TRV 240E; DV IN/OUT) I get small interruptions (freezing or vertical shaking) in the picture frequently (once every 60 seconds (approx.)). These interruptions are not there in the editing mode they occur on the iMovie screen when exporting and gets on the tape. I have tried with another tape with the same result.
Later on tape the interruptions also influences the sound.
Has anyone encountered this?
I would be very grateful for help.
/Torgny
iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) I use iMovie 4.0.1.

a) in your system prefs, there's a tool "File
vault".. that has to be OFF, editing video
b) is your project on internal drive, or on an
external..? is the ext. hd usb(2) connected? should
be firewire...
c) your internal drive should be "crowded" ~80% of
max. single-click on hd's icon, hit apple-i, have a
look....
Hi Karsten,
Vault is off and the project is on the internal drive. The internal drive was crowded; 93% used. But even after moving 30% and get 63% free space on the internal drive the symptom is still there.
The frequence is every 60 seconds. The magnitude of the interruption is varying.
Should I do something more after emptying the trash after copying/moving?
/Torgny
iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

IMovie HD, Quicktime 7, Leopard and Export to Camcorder problem

I'm hoping someone has seen this behavior before. I am working with a pretty old setup but it shouldn't be the problem it is.
I'm working on a 1.25GHz G4 Flat-Panel iMac. I have a Sony DCR-HC96 tape camcorder (firewire 400). I am using iMovie HD (6) and want to export my edited movies back to the the camera for archiving in DV. In Tiger, There is no problem. In Leopard, iMovie begins the export but the video stream never gets out of the computer. The camera goes to record mode but only records a black screen and audio.
I have installed Tiger 10.4.11 on an external drive with a copy of iMovie HD. As I write this I realize I don't know the version of Quicktime I'm using in Tiger. I have to boot to the external drive to do the archiving.
I was wondering if maybe the driver for the camera has changed between OS X versions. Is this something that would be stored in a Quicktime support directory or in an OS X directory? Can I move something from the Tiger install to get this to work in Leopard?
Where do I begin to troubleshoot what is obviously a software problem.

"Square" pixels versus "rectangular" issue.
When viewing DV files in QuickTime the size used to be reported as 640X480 (NTSC here) instead of 720X480.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302955
This document describes the issue although it relates to iPod exports

Dual 1.8 PowerPC G5 won't export to miniDV camcorder

iMovie 6.0.4 completed movie I am trying to export to a camcorder only exports audio. I have done this numerous times on other Macs with these same camcorders with no trouble. This time, after some false starts where firewire cut out, iMovie begins export and camcorder starts recording but cam screen remains black as recording continues. I stop the process at the computer and rewind tape to play back. Tape video is black but audio is present. Any suggestions on what is wrong and how it may be remedied?

Hi
*Read this General collection of ideas.*
Test another FW-Cable.
Test Your Camera on another Mac so that DV-in still works OK
Toogle in iMovie pref: Play-back via Camera (on<->off some times)
Other ways to import Your miniDV tape:
Use another Camera. There where tape play-back stations from SONY
but they costed about 2-4 times a normal miniDV Camera.
If Your Camera works on another Mac. Make an iMovie movie project here and move it
over to Your Mac via an external hard disk.
(HAS TO BE Mac OS Exchange formatted - USB/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange WILL NOT DO)
(Should be a FireWire one - USB/USB2 performs badly)
FireWire - Sure not using the accompany USB-Cable but bought a 4-pin to 6-pin FW one ?
Using WHAT ? :
• Mac OS - X.5.4 ?
• QuickTime version ? (This is the heart in both iMovie and FinalCut)
• iMovie 8 (7.1.?) ?
• iMovie HD 6 (6.0.4/3) ?
Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk ? (Others don't count)
Does Your Camera work on another Mac ?
Sorry to say it is to easy to turn the 6-pin end of the FW-cable 180 deg wrong.
This is lethal to the A/D-chip in the Camera = needs an expensive repair.
(Hard to find out - else than import/export to another Mac ceased to work
everything else is OK eg recording and playback to TV)
Delete iMovie pref file may help sometimes. I rather start a new account, log into
this and have a re-try.
from LKN 1935:
Hi Bengt W, I tried it all, but nothing worked. Your answer has been helpfull insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos) to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before. Thank you. LKN 1935
from Karsten:
in addition to Bengt's excellent '9 yards of advice' ..
camera set to 'Play' , not rec/computer/etc.?
camera not on battery, but power-line?
did your Mac 'recognize' this camera before...?
a technical check:
connect camera, on, playback, fw-connected...
click on the Blue Apple, upper left of your screen ..
choose 'About../More..
under Firewire.. what do you read..?
Yours Bengt W

Help exporting media

Hi guys, hope u can help
I'm using Adobe CS6 with a Matrox mini MAX. I need to export the media for a blu-ray & a DVD. The problem I have is that I captured the event with a canon 5d mkii (full HD) and a sony camcorder (1440 x 1080).
When I export the media then author it in encore the final piece seems to skip ever so slightly. As I'm charging this customer I need this to be perfect.
When selecting Mpeg2 Adobe asks me to select a preset, I don't know which one is the best to select so both will work fine.
Please help!!!!

Hi John
Thank you for the prompt reply,
When exporting the camcorder footage (1440x1080) for dvd its all fine but when I export the DSLR footage (Full HD) the movie skips ever so slightly but I'm afraid the customer may notice this.
Also something to take in to consideration is that the FPS are different on the dslr and the camcorder.

HDV export with minimum transcoding

Hi,
I wonder what format would use minimum effort on PPCS3 and minimum quality degradation of course. I would assume mpeg2, but to my knowledge mpeg2 encoding is different from hdv (mpeg2 transport stream)so transcoding takes place anyway?
I assume, also that export to camcorder tape would be the best way, but I couldn't get it to work. Nor I could find an option to export to disc in hdv format which is suppose to be an option too.
thanks

Thanks for the quick response! I will try that as well. It would normally not be an issue, I just had a client wanting to look at my work and had no time to make it into a DVD (or mpeg2)I threw the .mov onto a CF card and loaded it onto my PC Laptop(only laptop I have) to show the client. NO GO. it would not play! I was sweating bullets at this point.
Also, If I wanted to scale down the video for web, and have it look nice and keep the aspect ratio. What is the best Compressor settings? I could not find a web version that would keep the 16x9 aspect ratio. The original file is just over 1GB and 250 MB or so would suffice for output.
Thanks for all the help.
Ryan

Do I need to upgrade from APE 2.0

I have Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0. My camera is a Sanyo Xacti
VPC-HD2000. The file type it uses is MPEG-4 Media File. On the box of
APE 2.0 it says these files are compatible however when I add media to
APE 2.0 it just shows a geen background to the added media.
When I then try and ad it to the timeline or play the added media the
programme freezes up.
The camera can take stills too (J-PEG) and these I can import to APE 2.0.
Principally, is APE 2.0 compatible with the files generated by my camera?
If so why am I having problems?

kitew86
Ditto. Premiere Elements 2 does not support AVCHD. But, how do you intend to export your camcorder footages when it does get imported into the appropriate version of Premiere Elements? You will note that Premiere Elements 2 does not export HDV, let along AVCHD. If I recall, Premiere Elements 3 was the first to support HDV and Premiere Elements 7 the first to support AVCHD as well as HDV. I have seen reports of Premiere Elements 4 users getting support for AVCHD if they had Sony Vaio and a Sony Vaio add in. In addition, Premiere Elements 7 does not support 1080p for export, rather 1080i. What are you recording at?
I have Premiere Elements 2, 4, and 7. I have found that I can import successfully into Premiere Elements 2 a HDV download with the following description:
1080p, 20 seconds duration
1440 x 1080 with HD anamorphic
frame rate 23.97 frames per second
with a file extension of .wmv
(also has 6 channel sound).
The best that I can do for export is DVD-VIDEO Widescreen which has a frame size of 720 x 480 and the 16:9 flag to stretch the video on play back after encoding.
Keep in mind that file extensions typically reflect the wrapper format. And, within that wrapper can be a variety of different compression possibilities.
I do not think that you want to downgrade your video footage to accomodate Premiere Elements 2. The prices for the current version of Premiere Elements (v7) should be getting lower with a newer version expected to be released around Oct/Nov 2009.
ATR

IMovie HD6: HDV to AIC to HDV... quality loss?

Hi All,
I'm curious, when I use my normal workflow (HDV to AIC (imovie 6) to HDV), does it lose quality?
If so:
* Is there a way to avoid this?
* How much quality is lost? Is there a visual comparison available?
Thanks for any input!

Dear catspaw,
Here are my thoughts, based on my experiences, and what I think I understand of all this..
1. Standard-definition DV (those little tapes, or the larger 'broadcast' tapes) is pretty much compression-free ..we-ell, strictly speaking there's some, but relatively little, compression used in DV. It looks perfect, although it is slightly compressed. The material recorded onto tape - and imported into iMovie - contains every frame which the camcorder optics see. So editing it is simple: all the frames get copied into iMovie, and you can chop out, or insert, anything you want. Using iMovie HD 6, or earlier, you can then copy the edited material back to a DV camcorder ..all the frames get shuffled out of the computer and back onto tape again. (You can't do that with iMovie '08, as it has no option to Export to Camcorder.) What you see in iMovie - after importing from a DV camcorder - isn't exactly the same as what you've imported, because iMovie runs on a computer, and uses a computer display, and that generally shows complete "progressive" frames of video, whereas a TV ..or TVs with cathode ray tubes; precursors to the latest LCD or DLP or plasma TVs.. will generally show interlaced 'half-frames' one after the other, each comprising half the TV picture, but shown in such rapid succession that they blur into each other, and our brains see a succession of complete frames.
(..Here's a good visual representation from one of Adam Wilt's pages:
..There are two 'fields' of video, each made of half the entire number of lines down the screen, superimposed on each other, and blending into a full frame of video comprised of all the lines. That's what happens on a TV screen when the interlaced 'fields' of video blend together..)
So standard-def DV is really plain and simple, and there should be no quality loss after shooting, importing, editing, exporting.
2. Hi-def. A can of worms. There are several different varieties of "hi-def". What we're working with in our 'amateur' movie program, iMovie, is generally the HDV version of hi-def, or the AVCHD version. (And a few people may be working with JVC's version of 'progressive' frames, but with a lower total number of lines down the screen: 720p, instead of 1080i. 720p has 720 pixels down the screen, and records and presents an entire 'progressive' ..one-line-after-the-other.. frame of video at a time, whereas 1080i shows 1080 pixels down the screen, consisting of half that number, 540; all the 'odd-numbered' lines.. at a time, immediately followed by the other half ..the even-numbered lines.. slotting in-between the previous lot. That repeating pair of 540 'interleaved' lines gives a total of 1080 interlaced lines in every frame. Movement appears smoother using 1080i (..after all, the picture is refreshed twice as often as with single-complete-frame 'progessive' video..) but may not look as super-sharp as progressive video, because at any moment there's only half the total information of a frame onscreen. 'Interlaced' video is smoother, and any action flows more "creamily", whereas 'progressive' may be considered 'sharper' (..it is if you freeze a frame..) but more jerky.)
So our 'amateur' hi-def movies may be recorded as HDV, AVCHD or some other similar format. 'Professional', or broadcast-intended, hi-def may consist of several other non-amateur formats, some of which are completely uncompressed and require extremely fast links between the cameras and recording equipment, and massive-capacity hard discs to capture and edit the huge quantity of data which such cameras..
..deliver ..for $150,000. Or here's a remote-control broadcast hi-def camera for (only) $7,995..
(..Tell me if I'm boring you..)
The hi-def cameras which we're more likely to be using..
..record compressed video in MPEG-2 format, or H.264, or some similar codec. The idea behind HDV was that the companies which make 'consumer-grade' (amateur) camcorders wanted a method to record hi-def - with about 4x the data of standard-def - onto the little miniDV tapes which we were all familiar with. So a method was found to squeeze 4x the data onto a tape which normally records standard-def DV data at 25 megabits per second. The method decided upon was MPEG-2 ..the same codec which is used to squeeze a two-hour Hollywood film onto a little 4.7GB capacity DVD. (Bollywood movies, as distinct from Hollywood movies, tend to be three hours long!)
If MPEG-2 was good enough for the latest cinema releases, in nice, sharp, sharper-than Super-VHS form, then it was thought to be good enough for 'domestic' hi-def recordings. The only awkward thing about that - from an editing point of view.. (..but which of the camcorder manufacturers are seriously interested in editing..? ..they primarily want to sell 'product' which - according to their advertising - is terrific at simply recording and playing-back video. Like car advertising shows you how wonderful cars are to sit in and for travelling to places, but the adverts don't tell you about how tricky it may be to get into the rear sidelights and replace a blown bulb..) ..is that in HDV there's only one 'real' frame for every 15 frames recorded on the tape. The other 14 are just indications of what's different between the various frames. Therefore, for editing, the 'missing' frames must be rebuilt during import into iMovie.
Steve Jobs heralded 2005 - at MacWorld, you may remember - as the "Year of HD!" ..It became possible to import and edit hi-def in iMovie ..that is, the HDV version of hi-def, not the uncompressed 'professional' broadcast version of hi-def, of course.. but ONLY with a fast enough computer ..and many weren't fast enough to import and convert HDV to editable-format in real-time (..no mention of it being the year you would import at half, or a quarter, or an eighth, real-time ..ugh-ugh).
So HDV gets converted to AIC to make it editable ..and then what d'you do with it? ..Few (none of them?) HDV camcorders let you import HDV back to tape from iMovie. No Macs had/have Blu-Ray burners ..although you can burn about 20 mins of hi-def onto normal DVDs with a Mac's normal inbuilt SuperDrive DVD burner with the appropriate software ..DVD Studio Pro, or Toast, etc.
(..Once again, there was some omission from the hoopla ..yes; you can import HDV! ..yes; you can edit HDV! ..er, no, sorry; no mention that you can't burn a 1 hour hi-def home video onto a hi-def DVD with a Mac ..iDVD would/will only burn in standard-def, and there are no Blu-Ray burners built into Macs..)
Then came AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec; High Definition). This compresses video even more than HDV (whose compression is pretty much invisible, and is in regular use for broadcast material) by using a different method. And along came progressive hi-def recording, trying to supersede HDV's generally 'interlaced' 1080i hi-def.
But the problem with progressive, non-interlaced AVCHD is that if there's rapid movement in a scene - if you move the camera, or something rapidly crosses the picture - instead of the "creamy flow" of interlaced video, there's a jerky lurch from one frame to the next. And with the added extra compression of AVCHD this jerkiness can be (..to my mind..) even more horribly evident.
Anyway, unscrambling ..and then re-assembling.. hi-def interlaced MPEG-2 HDV is pretty much invisible - to me, anyway. The video looks sharp, moves smoothly, looks 'true-to-life' and doesn't have terrible artifacts and jerks.
Unscrambling ..and then re-assembling.. hi-def interlaced or progressive AVCHD (..which is sometimes described as MPEG-4 or H.264..) - I know that you know this, but I'm also writing for others here - isn't quite as simple as doing the same for tape-based MPEG-2 hi-def HDV. Here's all the gobbledegook about what AVCHD can consist of.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4_AVC
..Oh, and here's a bit about the "usability" of AVCHD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD
There are many more 'varieties' of encoding in AVCHD than in 'simpler' hi-def, such as HDV. There's less data sent in an AVCHD data stream than HDV (..AVCHD has jumped from 17MBits/sec to 24MBits/sec ..just below HDV's 25MBits/sec..) so the video is more compressed than HDV. And there are all sorts of video formats (interlaced, progressive, HD, 'Full' HD) which are recorded by different cameras under the all-embracing 'AVCHD' label. iMovie - or a Mac - has to work much harder to unscramble and convert the more-compressed AVCHD format(s) than uncompressing HDV. And has to work harder to compress the output of iMovie to H.264 (an AVCHD codec) than when re-compressing to MPEG-2 (the codec for standard-def DVDs and hi-def HDV).
To - finally! - come back to your question "..is there therefore no advantage in using DV tape-based vidcams for editing purposes.." I'd say that there ARE advantages in using tape-based vidcams for editing purposes ..using your two categories:
1. Non-hi-def tape-based DV is ..to all intents and purposes.. lossless. And the material can be imported in real-time, and be output - with no loss - in real-time, too, using any Mac from an old G3 onwards. Importing non-tape material into iMovie ..e.g; miniDVDs, or chip-based, more compressed video.. is more long-winded, and generally has to go through various external bits of software (..e.g; MPEG Streamclip or somesuch..) to put it into a format that's editable in iMovie. AVCHD can, theoretically - as 'AVC', without the 'HD' - be used for recording in standard-def, but there are currently few AVCHD camcorders which are built to record standard-def video as well ..there is the Sony HDR-SR12. But only iMovie running on an Intel-powered Mac will decode AVCHD, apart from separate standalone Mac software such as 'Voltaic'.
2. Hi-def tape-based recording IS an advantage on anything that's less than the fastest, or highest-powered, of Macs, because it needs less "horsepower" to "unpack" the compressed data and to get it into an editable format through recovering, or rebuilding, the necessary individual frames. I think it's an advantage in every case, as not only can tape-based hi-def be edited on older, slower Macs (including pre-Intel Macs) but also:
(a) HDV data's less compressed, and so motion is generally expressed - currently - more "fluidly" than with the more compressed hard-disc or chip-stored AVCHD,
(b) HDV original material is "self-archived" onto its tapes ..you don't have to "empty" a camcorder's hard disc or memory chips onto something else - such as a separate hard drive - in order to re-use, or continue using, the camcorder: you just drop in another cheap 1-hour tape,
(c) Tape-containing camcorders tend to be heavier, less lightweight, than fewer-moving-parts chip-based AVCHD camcorders. They're therefore inherently less "wobbly" and don't tremble so much in your hand ..that gives smoother, less "jiggled-about" recordings ..even taking into account the stabilisation built into most camcorders,
(d) Tape-based camcorders are less likely to lose an entire 'shoot' by being dropped or mis-treated. Material already recorded onto a tape will not be damaged if you drop the camera and its tape-heads thereby become misaligned. The data can be recovered by simply ejecting the tape and popping it into another camcorder. If a hard-disc camcorder is dropped, subsequent head misalignment may mean that all data already on the hard disc is irrecoverable. If a memory chip becomes corrupted, all data may similarly become irrecoverable. If a tape becomes damaged, it's usually only a few seconds' worth which be lost. (..I dropped a tape-based camcorder in the sea when I was trying to get shots of waves coming in onto the beach from an offshore viewpoint, and a wave washed right over me and knocked me down. The camcorder was a write-off, but I managed to prise the tape out, and recover the 30 minutes of movie I'd already recorded. I don't really want to test it, but I have doubts about whether I'd have been able to recover my video from a similarly-drowned hard-disc based camcorder ..maybe, in the interests of factual objectivity I'll try it some day with an old, no-longer-used 2.5" hard disc..)
(e) AVCHD camcorders - unless you're looking at 'semi-pro' or professional 'cost-a-plenty' record-to-chip camcorders, or that Sony HD12..
..are generally built for "point-and-shoot" amateurs. This means that AVCHD camcorders generally do not have the assortment of manual controls which you find on most tape-based HDV camcorders (..because the camcorder makers also aim, or aimed, HDV at low-cost broadcast users, too). There's usually far greater flexibility and more shooting options (shutter speeds, exposure, audio handling) on tape-based HDV camcorders than can be found on AVCHD camcorders. If you're just pointing and shooting, that doesn't matter ..but if you want to shoot good-looking video, there are generally - and it is a generalisation - more adjustment options to be found on a tape-based camcorder than on a chip-based or hard-disc AVCHD camcorder. In my experience - yours may be different - people tempted by AVCHD camcorders tend to buy (..and manufacturers tend to publicise..) high pixel counts (like "Full HD 1920x1080") and that magic word "progressive" (perhaps because it has the flavour, in English, of "futuristic" or "more advanced") rather than their being concerned with choices of apertures or shutter speeds and the clearest representation of what the camcorder's pointing at.
In summary ..at last!.. "..is there therefore no advantage in using DV tape-based vidcams for editing purposes.." Yes; the advantages, I believe, are that HDV converts fast into AIC for editing; my perception is that HDV delivers smoother action (onscreen movement) than AVCHD; and with a suitable deck..
..HDV can be returned back to tape, whereas it's more long-winded and needs more subterfuge to export AVCHD back to a chip, or a camcorder's hard disc, for in-camera replay ..and thence out to an HDTV.
As always, these are simply my opinions ..others may disagree.

Imovie download to camera

I completed editing some footage in Imovie and wanted to download to my camera. the download commenced for about 30 seconds then stopped. I had a message panel come up stating that my connection had been disconnected. the connection was not disconnected.
How do I rectify this difficulty.
Thanks.
Jim
EMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

The workaround:
Share your movie to QuickTime Full Stream. Open up a new iMovie and import the newly made QT movie into it. Export to camcorder without problem.
:)Sue

Can I Export from my Mac/iMovie to a Flashdrive Camcorder to TV?

Hi. I've never used a HD camcorder before or edited with HD (only MiniDV camcorders and SD editing).I'm considering purchasing a HD camcorder with internal flashdrive and SD slot to use with iMovie.If I do so I'm wondering …………after I've completed editing my iMovie project………..is it possible to export the finished movie back to the camcorder (as I have done with my MiniDV camcorder)…then connect the camcorder to a TV set (Standard or HD) in order to watch the finished movie on TV?And if so……how would I go about this? Yes…I know I could burn a DVD…….but since iDVD doesn't support Blueray burning…..I would be losing the HD quality………..so wondering how to watch the finished HD movie on TV other than by DVD? Thanks for any help.

Bruce Thompson wrote:
... is it possible to export the finished movie back to the camcorder (as I have done with my MiniDV camcorder)…
short answer: No.
long answer: perhaps ..
prob here is: AVCHD, which is in use on any (most...) flash-mem devices isn't just a file, but a complex structure. iM isn't able to create such a structure.
3rd party developer shedworx.com offers on its site a solution to 'play out' in AVCHD - no hands-on here.. try on your own.
but ...
AVCHD and SDcards are not meant as 'cassette replacement'.
your options are:
• invest in Toast10pluginext. BR-burner - create 'HDef disks'.
• purchase AppleTV (Apple's idea of homebrewn-video-delivery, not cheap but veeeery convenient)
• usage of a 3rd party MediaPlayer, recommended Western Digital HD Live, which is actually the only one which supports hfs+ (=Mac) formatted drives. you have to 'backup'/playout the projects anyhow.. so, why not suing the drive as a .. drive.
or buy a Playstation3 .. excellent Mediaplayer PLUS it's a .. play station .. says my son

Export ready project to camcorder

In iMovie '09 I can't find out how I export a ready projekt (video-film) to my camcorder to save a copy on a mini DVCassette. With iMovie '06 it has been easy - You just used the button "export" in the menue. Who can help?

Hi Sheril, many thanks to Canada. I am sorry beeing too old to know very much of the new devellopments. May I ask what is FCE? Tomorrow is my 74th birthday and I will cook a delicous Thai-Chicken for my guests. But the day after I will try option two with quicktime and imovie6 which I still have. I will tell you if I succeeded.

How do I export a finished movie created in iLife 08 to a HD camcorder?

Does anyone know how to export a movie I finished in iLife 08 to my Canon HD camcorder? The last version of iMovie HD 06 had this option. I was able export a finished movie back to my HD camcorder and play it in real HD on my home theatre. I checked with Apple support and they could not help. I don't know why they took this feature away? I have tried exporting an 08 movie with the 06 version but it does not allow it? Why?

Welcome to discussions.
I do not have imovie 08, but here goes a guess.
Are you able to export it as a full quality Dv (QuickTime) movie?
If so, do that and then open that new QT movie in imovie 6.
Export to camera from there.
Sue

Exporting back to camcorder

I have seen this issue referred to indirectly, but did not see a definite response: In iMovie 08, is exporting the movie back to DV camcorder possible? And, if so, is it lossless as it has been in iMovie since its inception?

Hi
Got it Yes. Managed to export back to iMovie HD 6 - other then bypassing
QuickTime Full Quality .mov: NO
I just keep iM08 as quriosa and an example of warning What happens when
people without history and feeling for users, gets fiddling with a great program.
Haven't been able to put togheter anything - that I would call desent.
Fought with sound that I needed from a few clips in several other places.
Gray hair producing task. Don't try it - it is a speed agening process.
Yours Bengt W
Message was edited by: Bengt Wärleby

What is the best miniDV camcorder to buy to export miniDV tapes to Macbook pro?

Hey there,
I have miniDV tapes with home videos that I want to export to iMovie or FCP 5.0 so I can turn the footage into digital video clips to burn to DVD's. They were shot on a Sony handicam that no longer works. I bought a Panasonic PV-gs15 in order to do the job but it doesn't export video, only pictures from SD card. Now I just want to get the best camcorder or device (within financial reason) for the job. Can anyone tell me the best way/Camcorder to get this video off these miniDV tapes and onto my computer please?

Hi
May be You find something of interest in my notes regarding this (and iMovie - but it is General)
NO CAMERA or A/D-box
Cable
• Are You sure that You are using the FireWire Cable - USB-Cable will not work for miniDV tape Cameras
FireWire - Sure not using the accompany USB-Cable but bought a 4-pin to 6-pin (or 9-pin) FW one ?
• Test another FW-Cable very often the problem maker.
Camera
• Test Your Camera on another Mac so that DV-in still works OK
• Toggle in iMovie pref. Play-back via Camera (on <-> off some times)
• Some Cameras has a Menu where You must select DV-out to get it to work
• Camera connected to "charger" (mains adaptor) - not just on battery
• Camera set in Playback mode - NOT Recording mode
Does Your Camera work on another Mac ?
Sorry to say it is to easy to turn the 6-pin end of the FW-cable 180 deg wrong.
This is lethal to the A/D-chip in the Camera = needs an expensive repair.
(Hard to find out - else than import/export to another Mac ceased to work
everything else is OK e.g. recording and playback to TV)
A/D-box
• Is the dip-switches set right ?
• Set to same standard as recorded/editing e.g. NTSC 29.97fps or PAL 25fps
• Try resetting it
Connections
• Daisy Chaining most often doesn’t work (some unique cases - it’s the only way that work (some Canon Cameras ?))
Try to avoid connecting Camera <--> external HD <--> Mac but import directly to the Mac then move
the Movie project to dedicated external hard disk.
• FireWire-port - Can be re-setted by - Turn off Mac and disconnecting Mac from Mains/Power for 20-30 minutes
External device’s (hard disk’s)
• Should be FireWire as USB/USB2 performs badly and so does Airport or Net-work connected ones too.
• MUST BE - Mac OS Extended formatted - UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange - DO NOT WORK for video due to 4Gb barrier.
Mac
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk ? Please specify the amount of free space.
(Other hard disks don't count)
I go for a minimum of 25Gb free space for 4x3 SD Video - and my guess is 5 times more for 16x9 HD ones
after material is imported and edited. No Camera or A/D-box
• GarageBands fix - Close iMovie, Open GarageBand, Play some notes, Close GB and iMove can now be OK
• Does Your Mac have a FireWire Port
• White MacBooks - don't
• MacBook-Air - don't
if not then a few Mac’s has a PCM-CIA slot and there are FW-Cards that makes a FW-port this way
else - NO SOLUTION
Only option as I get it is either
• Use another Mac to Capture material (to an external USB2 - Mac OS Extended formatted hard disk - or -
• Change to another Camera that can be used with Your Mac (no there are no miniDV tape Cameras that can)
• If Your Mac-Book has a PCM-CIA Card place - then there are FW-port-Cards and then
You can import via this - but I've not seen this on more modern Macs. My PowerBook G4
has one and this FW-Card-port works greatly.
SoftWare
• Delete iMovie pref. file may help sometimes. I rather start a new account, log into this and have a re-try.
• Any strange Plug-ins into QuickTime as Perian etc ? Remove and try again.
• FileVault is off ? (hopefully)
• Screen Saver - OFF
• Energy Saver - OFF
Using WHAT versions ? .
• Mac OS - X.5.4 ?
• QuickTime version ? (This is the heart in both iMovie and FinalCut)
• iMovie’08 (7.1.?), 09 or 11 ?
• iMovie HD 6 (6.0.4/3) ?
Other ways to import Your miniDV tape
• Use another Camera. There where tape play-back stations from SONY
but they costed about 2-4 times a normal miniDV Camera.
• If Your Camera works on another Mac. Make an iMovie movie project here and move it
over to Your Mac via an external hard disk.
(HAS TO BE Mac OS Extended formatted - USB/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange WILL NOT DO)
(Should be a FireWire one - USB/USB2 performs badly)
from LKN 1935.
Hi Bengt W, I tried it all, but nothing worked. Your answer has been helpful insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos) to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before. Thank you. LKN 1935
from Karsten.
in addition to Bengt's excellent '9 yards of advice' ..
camera set to 'Play' , not rec/computer/etc.?
camera not on battery, but power-line?
did your Mac 'recognize' this camera before...?
a technical check.
connect camera, on, playback, fw-connected...
click on the Blue Apple, upper left of your screen ..
choose 'About . . / More . .
under Firewire.. what do you read . . ?
More
• FileVault - Secure that it’s turned off
• Network storage - DOESN’T WORK
• Where did You store/capture/import Your project ?
External USB hard disk = Bad Choice / FireWire = Good
If so it has to be Mac OS Extended formatted
----> UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange is NOT Working for VIDEO !
mbolander
Thanks for all your suggestions. What I learned is that I had a software problem. I had something called "Nikon Transfer" on my Mac that was recognizing my Canon camcorder as a still camera and was preventing iMovie from working properly. After un-installing Nikon Transfer and doing a reboot, everything worked great.
I never liked the Nikon Transfer software anyway--I guess I'll get a cheap card reader and use that to transfer photos in the future.
No Camera or bad import
• USB hard disk
• Network storage
• File Vault is on
jiggaman15dg wrote
if you have adobe cs3 or 4 and have the adobe bridge on close that
or no firewire will work
see if that helps
DJ1249 wrote
The problem was the external backup hard drive that is connected, you need to disconnect the external drive before the mac can see the video camera.
MaryBoog wrote
Maybe your problems is solved in the meantime, but for all others this might help as I had the same problem, also have the Sony HDR-HC7, but the 7e (Europe, PAL). I found this link today and it works perfectly
//support.sony-europe.com/tutorials/dime/videotransfer/vtransfer.aspx site=odw_en_GB&sec=DVH&m=HDR-HC7E
What I exactly did.- put camera in play mode - open guide - choose connection guide - choose comp./printer (where to transfer movie to) - select connection.- i-link (on my camera) but equal to firewire - OK - choose HDV - choose NO for conversion of i.link.
Settings are shown then (VCR HDV/DV.- HDV and i.link-conv..- OFF), press OK, OK, END.
Switch camera off. Connect firewire cable to camera & Mac. Switch camera on, in play/edit mode.
Open i-movie, choose import from camera. On screen below the camera connection is shown.- DV (HDV). Now you can import, automatically or manually.
This worked perfectly for me. Took me 2 days to find out. Could not find any clear thread explaining what I had to do on the camera and the manual was not clear either.
Yours Bengt W

FCE4 - Export movie to AVCHD camcorder ?

I can import a movie (full HD 1080) in Intermediate Codec from a AVCHD camcorder but can i export the final edited movie in same camcorder or i must buy an HDV cam to use fireware in digital IN?
TY for help me !!

I am not sure what you mean but if you want to send the edited movie out to a camcorder, that camcorder must have Digital In.
Most people just put their finished videos on DVD.
Ian.

Exporting to camcorder

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