importing avi files from svp camera

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importing avi files from svp camera

I am so frigging frustrated! We just got a svp hddv2600 digital video camera, specifically so our daughter could get some important school work done. However, the films (that play in the camera fine) will not show up in...

imovie (they play, but just a white screen and with no sound), on a mac laptop using OS X

on the pc in windows moviemaker (using xp) OR windows media player

Whether they have been dragged into a folder from the camera on the mac or the pc, they cannot be played. In Imovie, it does not recognize the camera when it is hooked up to download directly from the camera. It recognizes jpegs fine...just not avi files.

Does ANYONE know of this problem and a solution? The camera comes with a usb cord, not a firewire cord, but I thought they served the same purpose? If anyone could email me at kenmeyerjr@comcast.net, I would surely appreciate it.

mac, Mac OS X (10.5), laptop

Posted on Dec 31, 2007 7:15 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 1, 2008 3:59 AM in response to kenmeyerjr

you've posted in the iM vers. ≤4 section of this board.. is this the version of iM which is in use...?

iM 'til vers. ≤6 is for miniDV only, 'no all purpose, all formats'-editor .. your device is a flash-mem/solid state-mem device which is probably useful in combo with iM08 ..

in theory, you should be able to 'mount' the device in Finder (if device offer that feature...), drag the mp4 files onto your local harddrive, use tools a Mpeg Streamclip to convert to dv-stream for usage in iM≤4 and..

.. consider to buy a 'real' camera.. any miniDV ..

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Answer 2

kenmeyerjr Author

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Jan 1, 2008 7:57 AM in response to kenmeyerjr

Karsten, thanks.

Yes, it is the old 4.01 version that probably came with the laptop.

When you mention that mpeg (converter, I assume), is that an add on I can get somewhere? I have a converter on the pc, but when I try to convert from avi to mpeg, I get a pop up box that says something like 'file must have audio and video' which led me to believe the file was damaged or did not download correctly.

As for the camera, yeah, you are probably right. My wife bought it online and tried to save us some money.

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Answer 3

Jan 5, 2008 7:05 AM in response to kenmeyerjr

Hi kenmeyerjr,

I too bought HDDV digital camera, and it is asking for .AVI file. Can you provide me any software which converts other files in to .avi files.

Thanks,
Vamsi

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Answer 4

kenmeyerjr Author

Level 1

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Jan 5, 2008 8:43 AM in response to vamsi krishna

Well, what I have found out is that avi is just a shell of sorts can can contain various types of files. However, that being said, there are many free or cheap softwares/applications you can find on the net just by doing a search along the lines of 'avi to mpeg' or avi to whatever you might want to convert the avi to or the opposite (mov to avi, mpeg to avi, etc). Usually, if you can't find a free software, you can download a trial version that works for a certain amount of time for no cost.

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Answer 5

J Keller

Level 4

2,750 points

Jan 19, 2008 9:07 AM in response to kenmeyerjr

Karsten was suggesting a specific piece of software called MPEG Streamclip, which can convert a number of file types. Visual Hub is also highly regarded software. In either case, you'll want to convert your video files into a format that iMovie4 most easily understands - DV Stream (.dv), or sometimes called just "DV." You should then be able to import that file into iMovie4, share the output with iDVD, etc. The file size is likely to grow (depending how much the video was compressed on the camcorder) and this process of compressing and decompressing video can degrade the visual quality.
John

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