Recording to iMovie from Canon HV20

Hi,
I have IMovie 10.0.2 and Canon HV20 connected through the Firewire. I can control the camera in "Play" mode (Start|Stop|Revind) but I cannot control it in "Camera" mode. The Record button is absent and a message "Camera Not Controllable" appears. I want to Start|Stop recording. Is it possible?

Just did some testing with my HV20.
Doesn't seem to be possible to actually record directly into iMovie 10. I tried to use the "import" button. The camera starts running but nothing is really imported.
The only way I managed is to use Quictime 10 to record from the camera (that will work). It will give you a h264 .mov video, that you can import into iMovie.
Ben

Similar Messages

Captuiring HDV straight into iMovie from Canon HV20?

Is it possible to do a long capture straight into iMovie on a G5 iMac?
I know we can do DV easily, but was wondering about the AIC/HDV issue.
Thanks for any insight I can pass on to students before they try it,
Rosco in California

"..Does video shot on an HV20 have to be imported through an HV20? Or can I import by some other means?.."
You can import via some other camera which can play the same system you recorded with. In other words, you could import an HDV (hi-def) 30fps recording made with your Canon by putting that tape into a Sony HDV camcorder and importing it from the Sony.
However, if the Sony can't make sense of your 24fps recording (..and Sonys have their own way of "manufacturing" 24fps, by taking various fields from different video frames..) then it might import badly ..or may replay at twice the normal speed.
If you connect the camera, click on the apple logo at top-left of your screen and choose 'About This Mac' and then click on 'More Info...' and choose 'FireWire' in the left-hand column of 'System Profiler' ..does your camera show up there? If not, it may be that the FireWire port on your Canon isn't working properly ..or maybe you've a bad FireWire cable. I don't have an HV20, so I can't suggest any other ideas, sorry ..but use Search Discussions at top-right of this page to find out if others have had - and solved - this problem.

What are the settings for capturing video from Canon HV20

Hi All,
I want to capture video from Canon HV20 with Premiere Elements 11. What kind of settings should I use to capture the video with full information?
Here is what I did:
1) According the manual, I went to Capture settings panel (Edit > Project Settings > Capture) and selected HDV as capture format, because my video is at high definition.
2) In addition, I checked "Capture to Timeline" and "Split Scenes by cotent".
Are these settings enough?
Thanks.

HV20user
Sounds reasonable, using Add Media/HDV Camcorder, but....
Have you reviewed the Adobe write up on Premiere Elements 11 DV and HDV capture firewire into it.
http://help.adobe.com/fr_FR/premiereelements/using/WS5CDA0F91-60F1-4b79-ABF6-E9E75F498DB2. html#WS2AF26FB5-4C63-4c46-9DB3-7249558F6528
The mention of Get Media instead of Add Media makes me wonder if the video's instructor was demo'ing from Premiere Elements 10, but...
Major factors have always included having Premiere Elements project preset set correctly to correspond to your camera settings...For HDV data capture firewire...
NTSC HDV HDV 1080p30 or PAL HDV HDV 1080p25 depending on if you are targeting a NTSC or PAL area where frame rates are typically a consideration.
I had not done any DV or HDV data capture firewire into Premiere Elements. But, Premiere Elements 11's take over of the project preset setting would encourage me to encourage you to verify your project settings before the capture.
There are probably many more, but the following is online discussion of one Canon HV20 issue
http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/316970-video-capture-problems-HV20-camcorder-is-control led-but-no-video-capture
If you experience difficulty with the HDV capture fireware into Premiere Elements 11, you might consider what some others have done in this regard, that is, use HDVSplit for the capture firewire and then import the split (.m2t) clips "Add Media" into Premiere Elements 11 with the appropriate HDV HDV 1080p (1440 x 1080 HD anamorphic 16:9) project preset.
Please update us on your progress when you get a chance.
Thanks.
ATR

How to import to iMovie '08 from Canon HV20 HD Video Camcorder

Pretty simple problem statement: I've got a Canon HV20, a USB cable, and a new iMac with Leopard and iMovie '08. I plug in the camera, and iMovie does not seem to recognize it -- the only camera it wants to import from is the built-in iSight.
Help? And thanks a bunch.

You need a Firewire cable for video. The USB is only good for the still camera mode; to transfer still images from a card, if you have one.
Rick

Dropped frames importing HDV from Canon HV20

Hi all,
I have a strange problem. When I capture a HDV tape with my Canon HV20 camera it runs ok for some time but starts dropping frames after a random time. It shows a yellow triangle in the capture screen. Sometimes it stops the capture half way by it self before the end of the tape is reached.
I can see that the memory is then full and the swap is +-1.2 Gig.
I disconnected all other firewire / USB stuff from the mac.
320G of free Disks pace.
Capture in FCE works ok but when importing it in to imovie the timestamp is not there.
Any idea's?
Cheers,
Jeroen

I tried reinstalling Quicktime, trashing my preferences, and repairing permissions, but the problem still persists. I think this problem may be different in nature from the communications problems that article is designed to address. When I try to import HD video it fails, but I can capture standard definition video recorded on the same tape without even having to disconnect my camera. I just close the capture window, find a section of tape with standard def video on it, and it captures without a hitch. I may be completely wrong about this, but it seems like Final Cut is just not able to recognize the HD video that has been captured on the tape. If anyone has experienced a similar problem or knows of a solution, help would be greatly appreciated.

Problems importing Std Def videos from Canon HV20

I recently tried to import some standard def footage from my Canon HV20 and ended up with a garbled mess. All the HD video I have imported looks great, but I have a few clips that are SD that I would like to import. I have tried every setting I can and nothing seems to help the picture quality. It looks the same when previewed on iMovie 08, but it looks fine on my TV and camera. Any idea what's going wrong? I would really like to use this footage.
Thanks for the help.
Matthew

I think you have to try and SAVE the movie clip onto Movies and then put import them onto iMovie HD.. I dunno the rest I need help on stuff too xD
Shang

Removing Pulldown from Canon HV20 shot at 24P

Hello,
I have been trying to understand this whole situation particularly with the Canon HV20 and the 1080p24 mode that the camera offers. It is my understanding that when this video is stored to HDV it is shot onto a 1080i60 timeline, thus when capturing the video capture the video at 1080i60.
Okay, that I can do without a problem. However now I want to remove the pulldown using Cinema Tools to get the video into the proper 1080p24 mode so that it can be edited on a 1080p24 timeline.
I have read two main posts regarding this:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4287943&#4287943
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=89642&highlight=fcp
The user was kind enough to provide the following information:
p-p-i-i-p - aa
p-i-i-p-p - bb
i-p-p-p-i - bc
p-p-p-i-i - cd
However, I understand that this implies the sequencing of the Interlaced and Progressive frames.
With that said, I have no clue how this applies to the options available in Cinema tools. I have zero experience with Cinema Tools other than, "Hey, that looks interesting." just to fiddle around with it for a minute get bored and move on.
Thanks any help would be greatly appreciated and I am sure that there will be other HV20 owners soon popping up with the same question....
PowerMac G5 Quad / MacBook Pro 2.0GHz / PowerMac G4 Cube 1.8GHz Mac OS X (10.4.9) Final Cut Studio - Shake 4.1 - Adobe CS2

If someone can explain how this works or point to
someplace I can learn some more I would appreciate
it.
My apologies in advance for the long winded post.
I’ve seen this question several times but I haven’t yet seen a good answer for this. So I did a little digging and here’s what I can tell you. Any of you experts out there can correct me if need be.
First off, let’s look at how the HV20 actually stores the 24p frames in a 60i format. And let’s ignore the 23.98/29.97fps thing for a while. Remember that for 60i there are 60 interlaced fields every second, each containing half the video lines necessary to make up a complete frame of data. So in order to get a complete frame, it requires 2 fields. This means that 60i really only has 30 frames worth of video every second. Fairly basic stuff… I hope nothing new.
Now let’s break this down a little further, the most basic repeating pattern for this format is 4 progressive frames being fit into 10 interlaced fields (divide both 24 and 60 by 6, don’t ask me why, it’s just the way they did it because it fits.). These 4 progressive frames are referred to as A – B – C – D. What the HV20 (and other cameras) do is convert this to interlaced fields so that it fits inside the 60i data fields. This gives us something like Au – Al – Bu – Bl – Cu – Cl – Du – Dl. Where the “u” and “l” refer to the upper or lower field of video. To make a complete frame you have to reassemble an upper field with a lower field. Now it you’re keeping track, you’ll notice that this only adds up to 8 fields and 10 would be what is needed. So they duplicate 2 fields to get 10 in this fashion: Au – Al – Bu – Bl – Bl – Cu – Cl – Du - Du – Dl. Since it takes 2 sequential fields to make a frame, this sequence normally gets referred to as AA – BB – BC – CD – DD. It shouldn’t be that big of a leap now to see that this can also be referred to as p-p-i-i-p when looked at from a frame (two consecutive fields) perspective, ie: AA is considered progressive, BB is considered progressive, BC is considered interleaved, etc.
FCP uses the AA – BB – BC – CD – DD nomenclature to designate how the cadence of a clip starts.
p-p-i-i-p -> AA – BB – BC – CD – DD -> referred to as AA
p-i-i-p-p -> BB – BC – CD – DD – AA -> referred to as BB
i-i-p-p-p -> BC – CD – DD - AA – BB -> referred to as BC
i-p-p-p-i -> CD – DD - AA – BB – BC -> referred to as CD
p-p-p-i-i -> DD - AA – BB – BC – CD -> referred to as DD
As mentioned before, the easiest way to do this in Cinema Tools is to place the first of 3 p frames in the viewer and the set the cadence to DD.
Hope this helps.
Mark

How to import video from Canon HV20

to iMovie 10.0.4 using HDMI to Thunderbold converter to iMac desktop

You need a Firewire cable for video. The USB is only good for the still camera mode; to transfer still images from a card, if you have one.
Rick

Canon HV20 Importing

Trying to import from Canon HV20, not getting the sound as I import and importing at 1/4 to 3/4 speed. What the heck is that? Is there something wrong or what am I'm doing wrong.
G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Yes--It is as simple as you ou might thinkt---take 4pin Firewire--connect to camera---take 6pin end and plug in MAC. very straight-forward---or one would think--and iMovie does control the camera. you just dont get sound and I had the failure and iMovie hang after 30 min of importing. I have yet to try a new Firewire cable as suggest in the one link. I have used a Pinnnacle Systems Movie DV box in the past to take my old 8mm tapes to the MAC w/o exception (even snagged a American idol episode for the DVR Box) But no luck with this device yet

IMovie: I uploaded HDV video from a Canon HV20 and then to YouTube. The video and the audio are out of sync. The audio seems to precede the video by a tiny bit which is disconcerting. Any recommendations about how to correct this? Thank you.

I downloaded video via iMovie from my Canon HV20. The video was in HDV. I then published it to YouTube and Vimeo and in both cases, the audio is out of sync: the video precedes the audio by a fraction of a second. The original is fine as viewed in the camera.
Any suggestions as to why and how to correct it?
Thank you,
David

Anything here help?
iMovie: Improving audio and video synchronization
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25603?viewlocale=en_US

TS3850 how to import a video from a tape recorder the brand is Canon XL1 mini DV into Final Cut or iMovie?

how to imort a video from a tape recorder the brand is canon XL1. i use firewire 6ping befort but the new Mac have not 6ping, they have 9ping

This is what you need:
http://rocketfish-prod-live.teletech.com/products/computer-accessories/RF-AP309. html

IMovie 08, the Canon HV20, & 24p?

Although iMovie 08 has been highly disappointing (less functionality, timelines, etc) can it natively capture video from the Canon HV20 that has been recorded in 24p "Cinema mode"? If not, is there a plugin to do the pulldown required for capturing and editing, and are the results equal to native 24p capturing and editing? If not, I'll have to use iMovie HD all the time - too much functionality was taken out it in iMovie 08.

I use HV20 all the time with iMovie 06 and 08. Like many has pointed out the only thing 24p about HV20 is its sensor. It can scan 24fps progressively but records to tape as 60i using pulldown and the result is '24p looking video playback' on 60i system - just like many movie DVDs where the source is 24p but stored as 60i.
If you want true 24p editing you need to use NLE that supports 24p timeline, which no consumer level NLE does, and you should convert 60i clips back to 24p via a process called reverse-telecine. So for most of us Hv20 would work just fine with iMovie 06 or 08 as is.
As for low light performance of HV20, it is a little bit better than other cams in this class when you use 24p mode because the shutter can open for longer time allowing more light in. But any consumer HD cameras suffer from bad low light performance so don't expect HV20 to do any miracles.

FireWire is the only way to import Canon HV20 Camcorder videos into iMovie?

As a followup to my last post a moment ago tonight 1/30/08:
Is it true that I need a FireWire cable to import Canon HV20 Camcorder videos into iMovie?
If so, the Apple salesperson is wrong.
He told me last Monday that purchasing the new iLife 2008 (that contains iMovie 2008) would allow me to use my current USB cable.
Given I see NO FireWire port on my new MacBook Pro (bought in 8/2006), I don't see a solution.
Note the camera, an HD camcorder (the Canon HV20) did NOT come with a FireWire cable; it only came with a USB male plug on one side of the cable and the other is a small square-like male plug that connects to a female port on the Canon HV20.
Solution?
Thanks for any suggestions, Daniel

The USB cable is for importing still photographs. Not video.
The firewire 400 cable you need is one that goes from the 6 pin full size male connector to the small 4 pin form used for DV.
The cable plugs into the camera in a socket behind a plastic flap near the eyepiece. Its marked HDV/DV. The other end plugs into the MBP on the right-hand side. 4th from the back.

Can't import from Canon Optura 10 into iMovie

I just bought a MacBook Pro 15 inch specifically for making/editing movies. I connected a 9pin-4pin DV Firewire Cable to my Canon Optura 10 (set in Play/VCR mode). The other end of the cable was connected to the Firewire port on the MacBook Pro. I opened up iMovie. Nothing pops out. I tried importing but only the MacBook Pro's built-in camera pops out.
The DV Firewire Cable I'm using is one year old. I never used it until now. Since I bought it (1 year ago), it's been stored safely in its package. It has a lifetime warranty.
Can someone please suggest or help me? Thanks. I am very disappointed right now because I bought this MacBook Pro for only one reason --- to edit my movies --- and that doesn't seem to work so far.

Hi
May be You find help in my list.
*NO CAMERA or A/D-box*
Cable
• Sure that You use the FireWire - USB will not work for miniDV tape Cameras
FireWire - Sure not using the accompany USB-Cable but bought a 4-pin to 6-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
• Toogle 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
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)
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.
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 minmum 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.
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)
Using WHAT versions ? .
• 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) ?
*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 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..?
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 Choise / 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 uninstalling 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 halps
DJ1249 wrote
The problem was the external backup hard drive that is connected, you need to disconect the external drive before the mac can see the video camera.
Yours Bengt W

Can't Share (export) iMovie 6 project to Canon HV20

I'm running iMovie 6.0.4 under Mac OS 10.5.1.
I keep encountering the same error when trying to export a completed iMovie project back to HDV tape. I select Share -> Video Camera but keep getting an error message saying "Cannot Export to Camera, Your FireWire camera is not powered on or is not available. This also can happen if you added or removed a device from FireWire. Please try again."
Needless to say I've tried, tried and tried again trying a variety of different connection and powering-up processes. The camcorder is also in the correct mode.
I have connected the camcorder before and been able to export completed iMovie projects. So I don't think it's a hardware issue or an incompatibility issue. The only thing I can possible think of is I might of been using 10.5 when I last successfully completed this process. I'm now using 10.5.1.
So I'm at a loss. Has anyone experienced this before or know of a work around? I guess for now I'm going to "Share to a file, for sending to a camera later" and hopefully be able to export the completed project to tape in the future.

I have the MacBookPro and Canon HV20. I use both iMovie08 and iMovie06HD. The 6HD allows me to (a) Produce a better quality DVD than the 08 does and (b) export the movie back to the MiniDV tape on my Canon HV20 camcorder. I use the DV-Firewire cable to connect the HV20 to MacBookPro. There is no problem when I transfer the movie from HV20 to MacBookPro, but I cannot transfer it from MacBookPro to HV20, no matter how many times I reload the 06HD. My camcorder is connected directly to the MacBookPro. Are you always able to transfer your movies from MacBookPro to your HV20? If yes, I will appreciate a step by step process you use. Thanks.
April 12, 2008

Recording to iMovie from Canon HV20

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