how to edit mpeg2 from JVC Everio GZ-MC500

Question

how to edit mpeg2 from JVC Everio GZ-MC500

OK guy's. I did it. On ebay there was this nice Everio on sale and I got it.
Now it is sitting on my left, loaded with tons of nice video (incredible good quality by the way) and my mac in front of me. They don't talk. Both are expensive gadgets so assumed that there is some friendship from the beginning between both devices, but there isn't.
I do not believe that I'm the only one in the world, who is happy with iMovie and owns a JVC Everio. How do I get my movies into iMovie to cut them?
Do I need to purchase the Quicktime Mpeg2 plug in or is there a way to import Mpeg2 directly into iMovie? The files do have the extension .mod ...

Help, please. Give the friendship of Mac and Everio a chance!

Posted on Oct 13, 2005 9:45 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 13, 2005 9:49 AM in response to Torsten Stoll

Yeah you did it. And you didn't check to see that iMovie only uses digital video coming from a firewire port. You should have checked the requirements of iMovie and you would have seen that it only edits dv video, not mpeg2.

Sorry,

Your friend in Mac OS X,

Jose

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Answer 2

Oct 13, 2005 9:56 AM in response to Torsten Stoll

It records directly to hard drive in MPEG-2 format.
You'll need the MPEG-2 Playback Component ($20 from Apple) and some third party software to help convert the file to DV Stream format for use with iMovie or other digital video editors.
I use this:
http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html

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Answer 3

Oct 13, 2005 9:58 AM in response to José Cuervo

Hey Jose,

while looking around I finally found a way to close the friendship between JVC and iMovie. Some love does not start a the first minute.
Here is how it works:

1. Download MPEG Streamclip (free) to convert the .mod files into QT-movies
2. Download The QT MPEG2 plugin (and pay the "you do not follow Steve Job's recommendations how to live, how to buy and how to be" fine of $19.90)
3. Import the files into your DV or DV-Wide screen project

OR to prevent the "i do not use a standard iMovie cam" fee use SimpleMovieX to convert to QT.

Oh boy, sometimes Apple does not a good job to be a technology leader.

Torsten

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Answer 4

SDIllini

Level 6

16,675 points

Oct 13, 2005 10:54 AM in response to Torsten Stoll

Hi Torsten:

Read this:

http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6018.shtml

Sue

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Answer 5

Ricktoronto

Level 6

11,560 points

Oct 15, 2005 9:00 PM in response to Torsten Stoll

I have the Everio hard disk (30GB hard drive) model. Open the MOD files in MPEG Streamclip, do your basic cuts there, correct timecode errors when done that and export to DV. Use the DV in iMovie.

The MPEG-2 is in exact MPEG-2 DVD spec so if you can live with minor edits and no titles and transitions, the edited clips can be used in Toast without having to reecode the video (in Toast 7 you can turn this off) thus a quite multiplexing and write to an image you can make DVD's in a jiffy.

It is not DV nor DV quality at all, but the end DVD look very good - I stick to the "U" quality , eg. 10.5mb/sec MPEG-2.

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Answer 6

Oct 17, 2005 12:58 AM in response to Ricktoronto

Hi all,

thank you for your help on that.
I havea more simple question now. My files are converted via MPEG Streamclip. Now I can import them to iMovie without any problems.
What do you think, is the best working project format in iMovie to work with.
Since I use a iBook G4 with a 60GB Hdd, space is always limited.
I thought, opening a new project in MPEG4 mode and importing the clips there will save a lot of space. While using a DV project will use much more space on the HDD. And - to be honest - for me it makes no sense to transfer from MPEG2 to DV and burn it back to DVD afterwards ...

BTW, the video quality of this camera is great, much better than my Canon MV300.

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Answer 7

Oct 17, 2005 1:19 AM in response to Torsten Stoll

makes no sense to transfer from MPEG2 to DV and burn it back to DVD afterwards ...

I agree. The "best" option is to edit MPEG in MPEG Streamclip, choose "Convert to MPEG" (to save just the edited material), and author and burn with Toast, Sizzle, DVDSP etc.

MPEG Streamclip isn't nearly as good editor as iMovie but going this route will preserve all quality. Notice that MPEG Streamclip can edit only to the GOP (not to the frame)so the editing accuracy can be up to 0.6 seconds. But MPEG isn't meant to be edited anyway...

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Answer 8

Oct 17, 2005 2:41 AM in response to Torsten Stoll

Hi Torsten,

may I focus your attention to that background info concerning mpeg2 as "editable" codec....?

...Oh boy, sometimes Apple does not a good job to be a technology leader. ...

you know our German phrase " A lot of opinion, but no friggin' idea..." ;-))

so much about "technology leadership of Apple".... as long as the camera manufacturers don't respect the standards of compression codecs, a simple, basic edit app as iM has some "limitations"...

and you've seen the actual TV commercial over here, shoot something with Sony and jump into someone living-room... as said before, even the hardest Danish Dogma Filmmaker wouldn't dare such a workflow...

harddisk recording is nice, but should be done with the correct codec/settings...

my five cents.......... 😉

<HR SIZE=4 WIDTH="75%">
iMovie is an edit app meant to work with firewire-connected mini-dv-camcorders. 😉

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Answer 9

Oct 17, 2005 2:59 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Karsten,

of course mpeg is not a editable standard, but there should be user friendly way to deal with that kind of established video standard. If I'm the end user, knowing that my DVD's are using MPEG2 - I do not care about all this things that work in the hidden of my computer.
And ... finally ... our japanese friends do think in the same way, since they have a solution for the "MPEG needs to be converted thousand times befor I can build my home made video" issue

http://www.pixela.co.jp/oem/jvc/e/captympeg_editex/

This is the way I want my iMovie to work. 🙂

BTW, nice phrases 🙂

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Answer 10

Oct 17, 2005 3:21 AM in response to Torsten Stoll

Hi Torsten,

the highely recommended Streamclip is able to do edits of mpeg1/2 codec video files - using the GOPs... and even the app you've linked to has to "re-create" the content within the GOPs...

any mpeg codec is lossy; so, to do an edit inbetween two GOPs makes it neccessary to "interpolate" some content, which isn't there anymore after compression into mpeg!... from my simple point of view as a user, that makes no sense...

I do not care about all this things that work in the hidden of my computer. ok, put Diesel in your Porsche, connect your MagLite to the household's powerline, add any "white powder" to bake a cake....

sorry, I cannot catch your point; any app has its concept and its limits ( ok, PC users paint with Excel, transfer video in word.doc and expect an Aldi-PC to compete wih a Mac 😉 )....

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