Hitachi Camcorder

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Level 1

10 points

Hitachi Camcorder

I've got a Hitachi Camcorder.
I'm new to iMovie. I just loaded it on my G3. I hooked up my hitachi Camcorder to the USB port and iMovie did not "find the camera." What gives?
I specifically bought i-Life for the iMovies and now it is unable to find my cameara? I'll tell you what version of iMovies I have as soon as I get back home.

iMac G4, 80 gb iPod, iBook G3- dual USB

Posted on Jun 14, 2008 1:52 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 14, 2008 2:52 PM in response to Commonman

You must connect the camera using a Firewire port.
USB is not supported in your version of iMovie.

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Answer 2

Commonman Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 14, 2008 10:50 PM in response to QuickTimeKirk

Are you serious? So, I have to go out and buy another cable? Well, if that will allow me to download movies from my Hitachi Camcorder and use iMovies, so be it.
Thank you.

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Answer 3

Commonman Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 14, 2008 10:55 PM in response to Commonman

The version of iMovies I have is 5.0.(v94) iMovie HD. So, a firewire cable will solve my problem?

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Answer 4

Klaus1

Level 9

52,879 points

Jun 15, 2008 1:15 AM in response to Commonman

So, a firewire cable will solve my problem?

Only if your Hitachi has a Firewire output!

If it does you need a 4 pin to 6 pin firewire cable.

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Answer 5

Commonman Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 15, 2008 6:18 PM in response to Klaus1

I just went out and bought a 6 pin to 4 pin Firewire. The large end fits into the firewire port of my iBook but the small end does not fit into my camcorder. Now what? Maybe I should go on to a Hitachi camcorder forum. If there is not cable that will connect the camcorder to the firewire port of my iBook, does that mean I cannot use iMovies to import the data from my camcorder?

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Answer 6

Commonman Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 15, 2008 6:39 PM in response to Commonman

I loaded the software that came with the camcorder to this iBook. I then transferred a movie from the Hitachi to ibook. The movie showed up as an .mpg file. When I tried to import the movie into iMovie, I got this message.

The file could not be imported: The file “Macintosh HD/Users/ibookuser/Movies/Program_1.mpg” can’t be imported; QuickTime couldn’t parse it: -2048

I wish this was easier.

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Answer 7

Jun 15, 2008 10:59 PM in response to Commonman

Commonman wrote:
.. The movie showed up as an .mpg file. ..

you haven't told us the model/type of your device..
obviously, it is NOT a miniDV camcorder - which is the only type, iMHD5 supports.
= your device is of no use with iMHD5.

three options:
back to shop, ask for swapping device to a miniDV one..
if your Mac supports iLife08 - purchase it.
get/purchase Mpeg Streamclip + the mp2 playback component (apple.com/quicktime) and go the stoney way of converting your files manually BEFORE usage in iMHD5 (convert to 'dv-stream').

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Answer 8

Jun 15, 2008 11:01 PM in response to Commonman

iMovie uses .dv format and cannot 'see' .mpg files correctlly.

You need to convert that footage to .dv using some program to accomplish this. You can use Streamclip
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

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Answer 9

DBatty

Level 1

0 points

Aug 26, 2008 6:20 PM in response to Commonman

Commonman-
I'm having the same issue with my Hitachi DZ-MV350A. I also have a USB instead of a 4 or 6 pin. I have video that was imported to PC using the "myDVD" software that came with the camcorder. I'm getting the same error when I try to open those files on my Mac. I've tried converting the files to .dv using the streamclip converter & mp2 playback as suggested, but must have done it wrong. I've researched other discussion forums that say this can be difficult & that you might not always get the audio portion converted correctly.
I also have video footage still on my camcorder which I would like to import to iMovie. iMovie help says I can do that even though I have a USB rather than a firewire port:

"Some camcorders may not have a FireWire port. For example, some cameras that produce MPEG-4 video use USB ports as video connections. Although you cannot import the video directly into iMovie HD, you can use the USB port to transfer your footage onto your hard disk, and then drag and drop your video clips into your iMovie HD projects."

But, when I try to transfer the footage to my hard disk I can only open the picture files... not the video. I don't know if there's a way to get around using the camcorder software that turns it to unusable mpeg format.

Have you found any solutions yet?

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