Problems with Sony DCR-SR100

iMovie does not work with muxed MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 clips (and that's what you're trying to do)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42996

You'll need:
MPEG Streamclip 1.5.1 (free) and the MPEG-2 Playback Component ($20 from Apple).
http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/

Once you do that...these are the steps I once copied from a DCR-SR100 user...(I have not done this myself)


To transfer the data to the IMAC:
1- Plug the USB cable, once detected (5s), press HDD on the touch creen panel
2- Go to Finder (on the Mac) then open the videos folder /MP_ROOT/100PNV01/M2U0001.MPG for example
3- Drag the .MPG file to the mac
4- Start Streamclip (see message further up the discussion)
Export using for example .DV format, readable by I-Movie.
5-Import the new file in I-movie

Sue


iMac ppcG5 1.8 GHz 20FP & (2)iMac G4 800MHz 17FP Mac OS X (10.3.9) OS X 10.4.6 / iLife 4,5,6 Superdrives & 1 G RAM / QT6 pro

The problem here is not the DCR-SR 100 camera - It's the best in it's class - The problem is that Apple has seemingly been left standing at the corner with regards to HD video cameras.

After trying a few of the work-arounds - my solution was to purchase a Compaq Presario that runs Windows XP and use the camera solely with that machine. (By the way - the camera and it's bundled software work just fine with Windows XP.) I know that the Compaq will be workthless in a year or so, and I hated to go back to driving a Windows machine; but, by the time I finally get around to throwing my newest Windows computer away, Apple will hopefully have figured out how to make I-Movie work with the formats used in these cameras.

I wonder if you can help my issue which is similar - I have managed to download my files from my sony dvd camcorder onto my mac via a sony vaio - but my mac cannot read the files. The file names are all mpg and neither quick time nor imovie can read these files. Any hope?

Power Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.3.8)

Hi oyaragh:

You will need to convert the DVD files into something that iMovie can use.

Using Mpeg (DVD) footage
http://danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6010.shtml

some helpful tools:

MPEG StreamClip:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/mpegstreamclip.html
Apple MPEG2 PlayBack Component:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
DVDxDV
http://www.dvdxdv.com/

Sue

do you lose any picture quality when you convert to mac-usable files?

Hi cow_belle:

Welcome to discussions!

IMPO- little to none.

Sue

Hi There,
We've just bought Sony's DCR-SR30E (European version of your SR40). I chose the camera primarily for it's recording capacity and ease of use. I was disappointed to find that:
a) Sony don't supply a Mac version of their ImageMixer editing software with the camera.
b) Neither iMovie or Final Cut Pro would import the mpeg2 video from the camera.

No to be discouraged I found a link to ImageMixer1.5 for Mac in small-print, in the camera's handbook, here's what the Wikipedia has to say about the application: "ImageMixer also has an editing software, but most users claim that it is incredibly hard to use, and is almost obsolete when compared to other movie editing programs such as Windows Movie Maker and iMovie." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageMixer
http://www.imagemixer.com/e/sony/index.htm

So that leaves me with no option but to forget about editing and burn the mpeg files straight to DVD/VCD or, as suggested above, convert the camera files into a format recognised by iMovie or FCP.

Step up FfmpegX http://homepage.mac.com/major4/
A clever little shareware app that acts as an OSX front-end GUI to some powerful Unix video encoders that where inherited from OSX's Linux predecessors or are available to install as open source codecs. With this baby converting from Sony's mpeg2 files to DV files that open in FCP, is a relatively simple drag-and-drop process.

But wait their's another challenge! The mpeg2 files generated by the camera are 'muxed', the audio and video are multiplexed into a single track. Muxed DV video can be imported into FCP but once you render your edited project you loose the sound. In iMovie even the converted muxed DV files can't be imported.

Now FfmpegX has in its tools tab a de-muxing utility that will split apart the 2 audio and 1 video track from the original file into 3 separate mpeg2 files. Thats as far as I've got 🙂 I'm open to recommendations on how to proceed.

As this conversion process is getting more complex all the time I'm looking for a shell script that will automate the demuxing and conversion to DV of the video track.

Also, would you use an audio conversion utility to get the stereo mpeg2 audio files into PCM format them add them as separate tracks to the DV movie? Or import all 3 files into FCP and recombine them on the timeline?

Any help you can give will be welcomed as I'm getting in over my head here 🙂

Hello, further to your earlier posts. I have encountered a similar problem with a DCR-SR80.
I am new to the "Mac World" and a bit (lot) disappointed with this situation of non compatibility between Sony's HDD camcorders and Mac's. I have tried the patch of QT MPEG 2, and the "square 5" converter.
I now see the footage (with "low" quality I believe) but no sound. I have see a thread with "Muxed" concept of the MPEG2. I am a bit frustrated... which is specifically what I wanted to avoid buying a Mac.
What is eventually the right procedure to get a video of decent quality. (what to do first)
I would hate to have to go back to my "Windows" machine...
Thanks for any cue.
Vincent