Panasonic SDR H40 to MacBookPro - Got streamline and MPEG2, still no iMovie

Hi. This is my first time in the chat room. I bought a Macbook a little less than a year ago. I am not even sure if I do have Mac OS X 10.5 like I stated. (Where can I find out?) I just got a Panasonic SDR-H40P Camcorder and have been breaking my head trying to figure out how to get the videos on the laptop. You mentioned something about the videos being MOV when I see them but they are not. They show up as MOD. Do I still just have to download http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html and purchase the Apple's MPG 2 playback component you mentioned? Also, I do not seem to have an imovie version. I just see iDVD so I guess i would also have to purchase that?

Thanks for any help or guidance in the right direction.

I looked and I do not have it. I will look for the disks but when i do have it do I still need to download anything or buy anything else or do I just connect the camcorder. It does not have a firewire which is what I have been reading about for Macs, only a USB connection.

Hello, Jeff the musician,
Welcome to the discussions!

I think you are on the right track. Your Panasonic is a hard-drive camcorder that uses the MPEG-2 format. Once you get your movies off your camcorder and onto your computer they will be in the .mov format.
iMovie HD6 accepts footage in .dv format ONLY, so converting those .mov files to .DV is imperative.

I assume you mean Streamclip? http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html free download here.
You are correct....you also need Apple's MPG 2 playback component (about $20). Once you have both of them, open Streamclip and drag one of your .mov files onto it. Then select 'Export to DV' and specify the location for the new clip.
Once the .dv clips are created, you can drag them into iMovie HD 6.

Not exactly 🙂... it depends on what format the existing file is in. You have to let Streamclip convert it in order to get it into iMovie. Yes, then once the .dv clip is created....I usually just have it created on my desktop so I can see which one it is....then drag it over to iMovie's timeline or use the File->Import commands.

Streamclip is a very versatile app. If you have any footage recorded vertically, you can select to rotate it to get it corrected for iMovie. I use Streamclip a lot for those short videos I take with my digital still camera, so I can add those to my movies.

You don't have to learn a lot about it right away. Good luck!

Forgot to say that apparently you can do batch conversions of your clips, but I have not been able to do that.( I have not yet done anything complicated). Since I have only a few clips at a time anyway, I just export them as DV clips individually. When I tried to do several at a time, only the first one was done. I have a learning curve, too!

Hi Minnie,

To find out about your Mac and its software go up in the Menu bar to the Apple logo and click and then click on About This Mac.

To find if you have iMovie (and what version) click on your MacIntosh HD icon and then open the Applications folder. Scroll through and look for iMovie. If you find it, drag it out to the toolbar where you can easily access it. If you can't find it, hopefully you still have the software discs that came with your Mac. You can reload iMovie from the disk.

You can also use Spotlight, that spyglass icon in the top right corner of your screen. Clic on it and then type in the little window what you are looking for. If it is something your computer recognizes and it is on your Mac, it will give you the direct link to the app or files

Message was edited by: Forest Mccready