Unibrain's "Fire-i" FW video cam for Macs without built-in iSight

I now have a MacBook and an Intel Core Duo iMac with built-in iSight, but my wife has a G5 iMac, and has no video for using either iChat or Skype to visit with far-flung relatives.
I just received delivery of a Unibrain "Fire-i" Firewire Digital Camera from L.A. Computer Company (http://www.lacomputercompany.com/cgi-bin/rpcart/index.cgi?command=dispitem&type= sku&sku=25036). US$99 + US$8.70 S&H. (OOPS! One more thing: the regular price is USD$119. I forgot that I got a $20 discount through the DealMac website which I visit almost daily -- the DealMac site gives the discount code "firedc" that might still work).
It was a snap to install (literally: just snap in the included FW cable to the camera and to a handy FW receptacle, in my case, an open one on an external drive enclosure). That's all! It was instantly recognized (and iChat was automatically opened) by both iChat and Skype. The lens ring has a focusing capability that is not mentioned in the packaging, and the image was initially fuzzy and out of focus, but a little "nudging" counterclockwise on the ring immediately cured that. The video, at least what one sees on Skype and iChat, is just about as good as iSight, except that, unlike iSight, there is no microphone, so you need to add your own (my wife uses a USB headset with earphones and microphone, anyway).
These sites do not support images, but if you look at the above web site, you can visualize that if you collapse the legs of the included miniature tripod so that they all lie in a plane, and adjust the camera's position, you can stick it on the top of the monitor with Velcro fastener tape, adhering to the black support on the tripod and to the top of the monitor. Then, there is a little lever that allows you to unlock the mount in order to tweak the aiming of the camera and then re-lock it. All-in-all, this took about five minutes.
Highly recommended.
--Steve

Hi, Rod. No, I did not notice any effect on other FW externals. But, I had it pluffed into an external HD that was powered by an external power brick, so, presumably, it was adding its own juice to the FW connection, including the camera. But, the iSight external was also a FW plug-in, so I don't think that this would be any worse. The camera is featherweight, so I cannot imagine any heavy current draw.

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Hi, not sure if I am in the right place or not but here goes ... I am looking for a video camera to take mostly home movies, my son's lacrosse games, kids' Christmas concerts etc. I was looking at some models today and the salesperson told me that the Sony's are not compatible with Mac's. Is this true? I am looking to spend up to $700. I liked the ones that had 40x zoom (good to see the net from the back of the arena). I also don't know if its better to get a video camera with a hard drive or a memory card. I don't anticipate that I would do a lot of editing but I think I would like to edit games and concerts, etc, to the shorter movies to send to the grandparents. Any suggestions, thanks for the advice.
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Oh, whether you should get one with a hard drive is a matter of opinion. I've heard pros and cons about hard drive versus tape. Some people say that if you're recording a long, action packed event like a sports event, a hard drive would be better because you don't have to worry about switching out tapes. On the other hand, if you're on a trip, the hard drive can fill and you have no way to download it, unless you have your computer with you. You also take a chance of the hard drive failing before you can get your footage off of it. But one of the technicians at the Sony service center near where I live, said that this isn't an issue for him because he downloads her footage within a day or two.

Best HD video camera for Mac

Ola,
Which consumer HD camera would you recommend to use with a Macbook pro? I've heard certain cameras don't work with Macs...
Thanks for your help.
Arturo
www.arturodegrandmont.com

Hi there,
Pretty much all DV, HDV, and AVCHD camcorders are compatible with the basic iMovie and the more advanced Final Cut. If you intend to start with basic editing software and perhaps upgrade in the future I'd recommend getting one that records in one of these formats.
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Which cable do I need to connect my Mac Book Pro to my Panasonic PV-GS150 video camera for transferring video to iMovie?

which cable do I need to connect my Mac Book Pro to my Panasonic PV-GS150 video camera for transferring video to iMovie?

I totally understand.
Check some things from here, I have 2 and they have been great so far.
Check here, lots of storage and reasonable prices. Also great support, you get to speak to a person
Clean off your on the G5 drive and off you go.
I suggest buying a second drive and setting it up for a back up, Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner, or SuperDuper (both "bootable" back up) All searchable on the web.
http://eshop.macsales.com/search/elite+pro
You can talk to a person for REAL advice, Phone: 800.275.4576 Ask about exporting to your G5 and and exporting to your existing OSX, you may only need a small inexpensive drive for this.
Quick delivery and willing to help.
Hope this makes you back up and running :-)
Do get a back up drive, as it is not ""whether my drive will fail, as much as "when my drive fails"
All the best

HT2986 I got a Samsung video camera for Christmass. I get error message when trying to down load video. Pictures down load fine. I have a Imac with system 10.5.8 and Imovie 8 (7.1.4). Is it camera problem or something on my end. Any help is appreciat

Got a new video camera for Christmas, Samsung HMX-F80, it down loads pictures just fine, but videos I just can't get it to down load. I was able to down load to my PC part no problem.
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Any help is appreciated.

Is it listed here?
iMovie 8 Camcorders supported:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1014

Video camera for greenscreen work +

Hi. I'm going to be setting up an in-home studio for a weekly, 1 hour show (to be viewed on the internet, not sure if could ever get it onto public access stations but might like the option).
The studio will be 20' long by 16' wide (probably minus a carveout for a bathroom) - but will retain a 20' length for filming.
For noise control, planning to hang heavy black curtains on the sides and camera end, add some carpeting, and possibly some simple / inexpensive treatment on ceiling as well. Will either paint back wall green or get some chromakey material to shoot against. WIll have a desk with 1-4 people for the show, positioned 6-8 feet from the greenscreen, and the camera on the other end (roughly 12 feet away)
I'm trying to keep the cost as low as possible, but would like it to be a step up from my $200ish consumer camcorders (a JVC Everio and a Canon HV20), so I've been looking at some used Prosumer or Professional Video Cameras that would allow me to capture the 4:2:2 colorspace I want to do for improved Chroma Keys. (I have Adobe Master Suite CS6 and will be doing my work in After Effects and Premiere)
We have a Sony DSLR A200 which came with a couple of lenses, but don't have any additional lenses beyond that (or much camera experience - so all sugestions welcome).
Cameras I've considered include
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Canon XF100 is newer, seems to be a superior camera. Records onto generic Compact Flash cards (which could help limit expense and make for easy editing); and meets 'broadcast standards' of 50Mbps at full HD, and might not need external HDMI capture - saw these at B&H for between $2000 used, $2500 new; Currently listed for $2100 at 42nd Street Photo.com - which looks legitimate as best I can tell.
Heard BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera mentioned as well - much cheaper, roughly $1000 for new - but seemed like those might need a variety ofa dd o (dont know if compatible with my Sony lenses) - and require fast (expensive) SD cards
Would welcome any advice about good video camera for greenscreen work - along with any experience on the Atomos Ninja 2 or Blackmagic products retailed above (and any tidbits on setting up audio/video studio; will be recording some music in there as well)
Thanks

It's a trade-off ... which is to say, it's like Life in general, right?
That many people that close-in is gonna be awful tight. Two people, ok ... three pushing it ... four is gonna work you some. Getting talent any farther away from the background given the limited distance the camera can move is not likely, without getting too wide a view from the cam exposing off-screen areas.
As to the screen blending into the floor ... you can affix the front edge out from the wall such as to get a curved shape that can visually blend wall into floor, you need a good two-feet radius to pull it off though. And if someone steps back, um ... yea, screens and photog's background paper can easily get a fresh new hole in them.
The "cove" backdrop support is a common commercial photographers tool ... needs to have at least a two-foot radius to be able to blend it visually from floor into wall. Often made by cutting 1/4" ply into 4-foot squares, then drawing a circle on them with a 2-foot radius, cutting out with a jig saw ... resulting in four corner sections that will be used for building the cove itself. Each with that radius of a circle cut out of it. Screw some small wood blocks onto the straight sides, using these blocks to fasten the cove-form sections to the wall and floor, then maybe three blocks flush with the edges of the cove one in the middle of the arc, then equidistant each side from there. Measure from an inch or two off the cove form onto the floor up flush with the bend of the cove and an inch or two past the cove-form up the wall. Cut a strip of 1/4" ply or masonry board or whatnot (some short of thin bendable but tough sheet good) that fits this dimension, push them tight to the form and screw through the sheets into the woodblocks on the cove forms.
Then your screen material can just drap over it and you won't step through it. We built one for our studio, it's 12 foot wide, works great ... and put two layers of 1/4" ply over it, the first stopping just at the edge of the cove form, the other going past that another inche and a half or so.

Best Affordable Reliable Video Camera for imovie

Does anyone have suggestions for the most affordable and reliable video camera for imovie? I have tried to use an older model Samsung (w/mini-dvd), but, at best the uploads are 'quirky'!

Hi Sheila,
You still need to buy a miniDV camcorder if you want to capture your video into iMovie, without going through some conversion software, which will cause loss of quality of your image. Then just burn it to DVD, although the editing process can be a whole lot of fun, plus you can add music to your movie, if wanted.
Check out the Panasonic line of miniDV cams and for lots of helpful info on all Panny cams, go to the following website. I don't work for Panasonic, by the way, just the proud owner of a superb GS-500 (discontinued- sorry).
Forest
http://www.pana3ccduser.com/forumdisplay.php?s=8b722d3c98c5012437a68ecef324cdfb& daysprune=&f=6
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Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac

After talking with a bunch of salesmen (considering getting a DvD writer), I took the advice of someone in the Apple Store and bought a Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac to copy my laserdiscs. It was $100 before tax, and didn't do stuff I don't plan on doing anyway. I did spend another $25 to get an S-video cable.
I installed the software and connected it up to my LD. I started capturing the movie, and selected S-Video (although in the small window they showed, I didn't see any difference between that and video out. I selected a max time from a limited selection, and let it record.
After a while, I went downstairs and saw that the audio and video were not synchronized at all. I let it continue.
After a while I came down again, and the movie was finished, so I stopped it. I found the MP4 - it was in the iTunes movie directory, and played it in iTunes. I fast-forwarded it to near the end, the voice and video were way off-set.
I haven't tried burning this yet.
Quicktime player doesn't think this is a valid movie file. I selected "open with" and "other" and the recommended applications had iMovie greyed out.
Why in the world would the audio and video record at different speeds?
Do I have to buy software to edit the movie down to the correct size?
My Mac has:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version: 1.21f4
I noticed the Pinacle Video Capture program was still running, so I tried to quit it, and got a window asking for my administrator ID and passsword to allow Pinnacle Video Capture to make changes. Why?

The audio drifted out of sync because the Dazzle doesn't support locked audio. For short videos (say, under 10 minutes) this won't be very noticeable but when you capture longer videos it becomes progressively worse over time.
What do you want to do with your Laserdisk copies? Watch them on your iPod? Edit and/or burn to DVD?
A device like the Canopus ADVC-110 will do the video/audio conversion properly, keeping the audio and video in sync regardless of the length of your video. It converts to DV, not to MP4, and you would use it with iMovie or Final Cut (not iTunes). However you can export your video from iMovie or Final Cut to iPod/AppleTV formats.
The Dazzle device will not work directly with iMovie or Final Cut.
ps. If all you really want to do is transfer your Laserdisc videos to DVDs, it will be a whole lot faster & simpler to get a DVD player/recorder that has analog inputs and record directly to DVDs. There are many brands & models to choose from and many good ones are as inexpensive as the $100 you spent on the Pinnacle converter.

Any experience with Aunsoft Video Converter for Mac

I have a Panasonic Lumix FZ100 camera, and I am unable to download my High Definition movies from the camera to my Mac. I have tested out the Aunsoft Video Converter. Is this the best programme?
I can also get this bundled with a DVD ripper. Will this work on my Mac, and can it convert or rip foreign DVDs (actually PAL but formatted for UK)?
Ann-Marie Wasley

I am using some Aunsoft programs. Hope my information helps somehow.
The Aunsoft Video Converter for Mac is a nice program. I usually use it to convert my videos (AVCHD .mts format) that shot with my Panasonic camcorder to the Apple ProRes format for editing in Final Cut Pro X. Sometimes I also convert differnt videos to the MOV or MP4 format to watch on my idevices (iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, Macbook). The converter program worked nicely.
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I'm new to Mac and I have a Mac Mini. Could you please tell me how I could paste an URL to a video downloader like "Coolmuster Video Downloader for Mac"? I can copy the url but I could not paste it on the downloader. I appreciate your help to my problem.

I'm new to Mac and I have a Mac Mini. Could you please tell me how I could paste an URL to a video downloader like "Coolmuster Video Downloader for Mac"? I can copy the url but I could not paste it on the downloader. I appreciate your help to my problem.

Is this happing because the external is formatted to PC and not mac?
Yes that is correct.
Will I need to get a mac external hard drive if I wish to continue to save my documents like this?
If you no longer use a PC you could format this drive for the Mac. However be aware that formatting a drive will erase all the data on it. So you would need someplace to copy the data off this drive to while you did the re-format and then you could copy the data back.
You could get another drive, format it for the Mac and copy the data to it. Then re-format the original drive and use it as a backup drive. Always good to have backups.
Post back with the drive type and size of the current drive, if you are doing backups now and how and if you still need to access this drive from a PC.
regards

What Download Video Program for Mac is as Good as Orbit is for Windows??

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Thank you all and Happy New Year cruising with your Apple Macs. C. Yopst, Chicago

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A cable of about 5 meters (16 ft) can be manufactured to Category 1 specifications easily and inexpensively by using 28 AWG (0.081 mm²) conductors.[114] With better quality construction and materials, including 24 AWG (0.205 mm²) conductors, an HDMI cable can reach lengths of up to 15 meters (49 ft).[114]
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI
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Collection : Popular DVD and Video Tools (For Mac)
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I addition to running less concurrent processes or installing more RAM as Kappy mentioned.
I also see that you have less than 10% of free space left on your HDD.
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The best free video player for mac

Hi guys,
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What are the pros and cons?
Thanx.

Here's 3 that work well
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html
http://www.telestream.net/flip4mac/overview.htm
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Just two to three months ago, Adobe Presenter Video Creator was free for the MAC with a $2 publishing charge. Has this changed?

Hi There,
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Unibrain's "Fire-i" FW video cam for Macs without built-in iSight

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