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importing video from a Panasonic SDR-H40.

I recently purchased a Panasonic SDR-H40 hard drive camcorder. I quickly found out that it requires (by iMovie) a Firewire connection to import. I haven't been able to find a Firewire to mini-B cable. Panasonic said that their camcorder doesn't support iMovie. I have a G5 Mac with OS 10.4.11. I have the old iMovie 6.0.3. Any solutions? Will iMovie 7 allow me to import video via USB? Will iMovie 8? If so, do I need OS 10.5, and will my non-Intel Mac operate without conflicts with OS 10.5? I'm very frustrated. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

g5, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Apr 2, 2008 6:01 AM

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13 replies

Apr 2, 2008 7:01 AM in response to annekaev6330

I have the same camera, and after spending frustrating time w/ Panasonic, Apple, Crutchfield.com support and clerks in Best Buy, etc...the fact is that the camera is currently not supported by iMovie for automatic import. Having said that, there is a workaround, which has been posted in numerous other forum topics, which is the following:

You will need to convert that format into a DV format that imovie can use.

MPEG Streamclip ( http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html) is free and Apple's QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
is about $20.00. They are the tools that you need to download to convert these files.
Once you have done that, export to DV Stream (.dv) and import it into iMovie.

So you download both programs from the websites above. When you connect the camera by its USB2 cable to the Mac, it will come up on the desktop as a hard drive. Open the folder where the video files are kept, and you will see files with both .mod and .moi extensions. Open Streamclip and drag the .mod files into the main window and it will open the video clip. Next, choose Export to DV in the file menu, and export it to whatever folder and with whatever name you want. Finally you can import this .dv file into iMovie.

It's a bit of a pain, but I hope Apple will at some point update iMovie to deal w/ these kinds of camcorders, as they get more popular. Lastly, there are many technical aspects of converting these files, as you'll see in Streamclip. I don't know the ins and outs, but found the 'remove interlacing' gave me a better final video file. You can play w/ the conversion settings and see...
Good luck!

Apr 2, 2008 7:04 AM in response to annekaev6330

Your camcorder does not have a Firewire port, so a firewire cable will not help you. Your camera records in MPEG2, which is not compatible with iMovie. The solution is to convert the MPEG2 files into something the iMovie can edit, like DV or h.264.

I would recommend that you attach your camcorder via USB. Now go into the finder and see if your camcorder is recognized as a hard drive. If so, create a folder on your desktop and drag the contents of your hard drive into the folder.

Now you will need an application that can convert from MPEG2 to DV (or whatever). You have several choices, such as MPEG Streamclip (free) along with Quicktime MPEG2 Playback Component (about $20), iSquint (free), Visual Hub ($)

Once you have converted it , you can edit in iMovie. Once it in DV format, you can edit it in either iMovie 8 or your current iMovie 6.

Jun 16, 2008 11:25 AM in response to annekaev6330

Here we go again...

Have you checked out the *iMovie 08 Camcorder Support* page, I did not see the Panasonic SDR-H40 listed.

Link to the *Camcorder Support*: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1014

Perhaps, sticking with a compatible device which is listed, may not be a bad idea after all.

*IN ANY CASE, HERE'S HOW TO CONNECT A _COMPATIBLE TAPELESS CAMCORDER_ TO YOUR MAC.*
*THERE IS NO NEED TO USE 3RD PARTY UTILITIES, SIMPLY USE IMOVIE 08 & YOUR CAMCORDER*

Here is how I do it:

If your Mac meets the minimum requirements for your camcorder type, follow these steps:

01- Run the latest SOFTWARE UPDATES: iMovie, QuickTime & OS (10.5.3).

. . . . . . Restart your system after the updates.

02- Remove any 3rd Party plugins that may be interfering with QuickTime.

. . . . . . Here are the only 2 files in MY QUICKTIME FOLDER:

. . . . . . / Library / QuickTime / AppleIntermediateCodec.component
. . . . . . / Library / QuickTime / AppleMPEG2Codec.component

. . . . . . If you do have more than the 2 files listed above, then temporarily
. . . . . . move the "NON APPLE" components outside of the QuickTime folder.

03- Using your camcorder, record at least 30 seconds of video.

. . . . . . Just to make sure that the camera has some video content.

04- Turn your camcorder OFF.

05- Make sure to Quit all running applications on your Mac.

06- Launch iMovie 08.

07- Connect a USB cable from the camcorder to your Mac.

08- Open the LCD viewer on your camcorder

09- Turn your camcorder ON.

. . . . . . . Some camcorders require you to select a mode - Video, PC or Computer mode.

10- Wait about 20 seconds for the camcorder to mount to desktop & be detected by iMovie 08.

11- The Imovie 08 "IMPORT WINDOW" will open.

12- From the Import Window, choose "MANUAL" or "AUTOMATIC"

13- Begin to import your video by clicking the Import button.

---------------------------------------------

CREDITS GO TO:
The various posts that I've read & the Apple Video Tutorial:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie-oneplace-15

Aug 21, 2008 12:01 AM in response to annekaev6330

For those without iMovie 08, use the free and excellent MPEG Streamclip from Squared 5 to import and convert .mod files on the SDR-H40 hard disk or SD card. Then drag the resulting .dv files to iMovie and hey presto! Alternatively, copy the .mod file(s) from the camcorder's HDD to your Mac's hard disk, change the extension of the file(s) to .m2v and view them in Quicktime or iMovie. All this anger about Panasonic not supporting Mac! It's in the TOC in my SDR-H40 manual, and refers to page 90. Why no Mac editing suite from Panasonic? Because iMovie is the killer app they all want to imitate.

Oct 26, 2008 11:09 PM in response to annekaev6330

Same camera, same USB cable included with camera, like you I read the same help file on the MacBook that suggests that "...I can only move photos using the USB cable and that I need a firewire cable to move video..."

And yet, from what others have said the format of the Desktop/HDD CAMERA/SDVIDEO/PRG001/MOV001.MOD video isn't compatible with iMovie HD 6.0.3 that comes with OS X 10.4. so it would be a moot point. By the way, you can copy this file using the USB cable that comes with the camera. Forget the firewire suggestion for now.

For what it's worth I attempted to install the MPEG Streamclip program mentioned earlier (without buying the $20 MPEG encoder piece also mentioned) and even though the program suggests that it can still export to useful formats... it's really doesn't. It went through the motions but never created a file that didn't seem like it was corrupt/broken. Presumably you MUST have the $20 piece if you expect this to work.

And since nobody mentioned this, the VideoCam Suite 1.0 software that was included with the camera isn't Mac-compatible at all.

I purchased this at Best Buy and the guy assured me that this Panasonic camera was the only one compatible with a Mac out of all the ones they offered. I originally wanted the Sony that was youtube-compatible but the salesperson said it wouldn't work on a Mac. It's pretty frustrating to find out that I have to shell out another $120 for the Leopard upgrade to just get this to work simply. (I could add extra steps like using the MPEG Streamclip software but honestly I shouldn't have to, having purchased a laptop for over a thousand dollars and all this new video equipment as well. Is it too much to ask that Panasonic provide a disc with Mac-compatible software at least?)

Oct 28, 2008 6:36 PM in response to Severus Snape

What a pointless exercise in cost and futility...

OKAY, DON'T UPGRADE TO LEOPARD IN AN ATTEMPT TO GET THIS TO WORK, IT WON'T.

So I just wasted not only the $140 for the OS upgrade with tax, but I also wasted the four hours I spent trying to get my other programs working again (don't get me started). The OS X 10.5 software doesn't include an update of iMovie. I'm stuck with the exact same non-working platform after all that effort.

I then paid for the $21.74 MPEG-2 playback component for QuickTime 6 (they don't have a separate product for QuickTime 7) and installed it. It then crashed my computer hard on the restart. It took me about ten minutes to get it to boot up again. It finally came back to life as if nothing was wrong and I was able to then successfully use the third-party software (MPEG Streamclip) to convert the MOV file to a DV file and drag it into iMovie HD.

In short, OS X 10.5 does not include a "better" version of iMovie HD. It does not include iLife with the iMovie 8 that is more compatible with this camera. Nothing apparaently happens to include the necessary MPEG-2 support other than iLife or buying the MPEG-2 playback component.

importing video from a Panasonic SDR-H40.

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