importing digital video is very slow

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importing digital video is very slow

Hi, I just bought a new Canon HF R40 camcorder and I am finding a few problems. I've tried editing in iMovie 09 (iLife09) not sure if that's and the program doesn't recognize the camera at all. With the old iMovie program, I would just turn on the video camera and vio la...it recognzied it no problem. This has left me with transferring movie clips directly from the SD card which seems painfully slow. Now I was able to put together a short video with iMovie 09 but was unable to use any titles because the program would crash once I pressed the icon for Titles. BTW I was taping in MP4 formate for the purpose of getting it on youtube.

So my questions are:

1. Is editing from digital video vs DV tape slower in general? At this rate I ask why anyone would find any pleasure in editing with digital video.

2. Is this because I'm transferring from an SD card vs directly from the camera?

3. Is iMovie 11 better at handling digital video?

4. Does anyone know why the program is crashing when using trying to use titles?

I really appreciate any advice with this problem. I figured it was time to upgrade into a new camcorder but it sure seems that DV Tapes are much easier to work with and I'm on the verge of just returning the camera.

Thanks,

Orlando

iMovie '08, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 26, 2013 10:06 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Karsten Schlüter

Level 7

34,086 points

May 26, 2013 11:19 PM in response to oguiang64

#1) no; import from SDcard is usually blazing fast, tape is 'real time' only

but import in iMovie-b is a two step process: shuffling data into Mac, auto-convert into edit-codec = this could be the time-consuming process, but usually is faster-than-realtime either

#2) no, should be no difference

#3) iM08 is 5y old; it was - imho! - a public beta, lacking major features for 'serious' editing; not useful; but importing, simple tasks as cut/dissolve shouldn't be no problem; actual iM11 is much 'better', in terms of convenience & features (slow-mo, pic-in-pic, pic-adjustments, green-screen, themes, L-cuts, ...)

#4) no 😉 I remember iM08, as any iMovie version, past or future, rock-solid.

could have many causes, usually by 'mixed upped' system ....

you could add the crash report here, maybe it indicates the culprit (such as historic divx-extension etc)

for DV, SDef, NTSC/PAL, there's no better edit-app than antique iMovieHD6, 'cause it handles the data 'natively'. The new app iM-b (vers08/09/11) does not. It has the endless-discussed drop-field issue (=auto-deinterlacing), which drops quality for SDef/interlaced bottomless. But iMHD6 is of no use for AVCHD …-

old camera = old software, new camera = new software 😁

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Answer 2

oguiang64 Author

Level 1

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May 27, 2013 6:54 PM in response to Karsten Schlüter

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. Seems that the bottom line here is that my computer is just too old. It also only has 2GB of RAM and when I called BH photo, they told me I should have at least 4GB. Frankly I really liked iMovieHD6 but I realize times are changing and I need to move on.

Thank you again.

Orlando

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Answer 3

oguiang64 Author

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May 27, 2013 7:09 PM in response to Karsten Schlüter

I tried a few other things and my computer won't even recognize the camera. I even checked the USB ports and when I attach the printer, it's easily recognized but place the camera into those ports and it's a definite no go. So it looks like the camera needs to go back and I'll have to wait until I get a new computer and I do more research to find the best compatible camera for the mac.

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