Panasonic SDR-S150 camcorder & iDVD compression

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Level 1

95 points

Panasonic SDR-S150 camcorder & iDVD compression

I Am a bit tired of miniDV tapes, I have been looking around at HD cameras and SD cameras. the panasonic SDR-S150 uses SD cards and records in Mpeg-2 right to the card.

the camera has USB connection only, so iMovie wont recognize it as a video camera as it is only looking for firewire sources(a bit short sighted on Apple's part if you ask me)
So, I would need to import the files into iMovie to get them edited to where I want them. not that big of a deal i suppose.

I have played with importing mpeg video captured by some still cameras and importing them into iMovie and then building a DVD from iDVD everything seemed to work well, but when I played the DVD back, the quality of the video was horrid.
What I am chaulking it up to is that the video is captured by the camera and compressed to Mpeg-2 already. then when iDVD burns the DVD, it compresses the video once again. thus causing the horrid jaggies in the final version.

Is there anyway to have iDVD burn the DVD WITHOUT compressing the video once again?
Or what could one do?
Or am I stuck with miniDV tapes?

thanks
Kevin

PB 1.67 17, PM 933, pismo G3 500, newton 2000u, Mac OS X (10.4)

Posted on Feb 9, 2007 9:20 AM

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Answer 1

Klaus1

Level 9

52,879 points

Feb 9, 2007 10:08 AM in response to Kevin Ondre1

Hi Kevin and welcome!

If you want to attain the quality that iMovie and iDVD can give you, then you have to use a firewire connected miniDV tape video camera.

the camera has USB connection only, so iMovie wont recognize it as a video camera as it is only looking for firewire sources(a bit short sighted on Apple's part if you ask me)
So, I would need to import the files into iMovie

How?

I have played with importing mpeg video captured by some still cameras and importing them into iMovie and then building a DVD from iDVD everything seemed to work well, but when I played the DVD back, the quality of the video was horrid.

Exactly.

Is there anyway to have iDVD burn the DVD WITHOUT compressing the video once again?

The result would be unwatchable, and the process for doing so lengthy and painful.

am I stuck with miniDV tapes?

For the moment.

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Answer 2

Kevin Ondre1 Author

Level 1

95 points

Feb 9, 2007 11:22 AM in response to Klaus1

I wish iMovie would accept video sources from USB2 devices just as it does from firewire.

I wouldnt mind having iMovie capture the video playback from the camera just as I have to now with a mini-DV camera.

All I want to do is get away from miniDV tapes, I seem to have bad luck with them, either the tape get jumbled, wrinkled, or as i have right now, my canon 200mc tells me to eject the tape for no apparent reason. I put the tape in, the quews it up and most of the time before it gets that far,it tells me to eject the tape with big red text. so now the camera is off for repairs.

I just wish i could capture on to a HD or SD card so I could use that media over and over, not worry about having to quew up the tape, or possibly recording over previously captured clips.

Kevin

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Answer 3

Kevin Ondre1 Author

Level 1

95 points

Feb 9, 2007 11:28 AM in response to Klaus1

the camera has USB connection only, so iMovie wont
recognize it as a video camera as it is only looking
for firewire sources(a bit short sighted on Apple's
part if you ask me)
So, I would need to import the files into iMovie

How?

I imported my mpeg video test files by just click 'n drag into the clip section of iMovie. they were small files, so it imported fast, I imagine that click 'n drag of 8gb would be taxing and long, but I imagine it would eventually work. thats why I wouldnt mind going through the same re-capture process that I currently go through to get the video from the tape to iMovie. but from a camera that has the video on a HDD or SD card. but alas iMovie wont recognize anything other than firewire sources.

I did that test getting video from digital camera reviews off the web, I took his raw file which was already in compressed format, avi i believe it was. imported to iMovie, did what i wanted with them, sent the project to iDVD and previewd it, it looked great, but after burning, the second compression process killed the quality.

Kevin

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Answer 4

Klaus1

Level 9

52,879 points

Feb 9, 2007 11:32 AM in response to Kevin Ondre1

I took his raw file which was already in compressed format, avi i believe it was. imported to iMovie, did what i wanted with them, sent the project to iDVD and previewd it, it looked great, but after burning, the second compression process killed the quality.

Exactly. You need to convert the avi file to DV first if, that is, you can figure out what codec is inside that particular avi file, which is only a 'package'.

There are workarounds for nearly everything, but they don't always give the perfect result!

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Answer 5

Kevin Ondre1 Author

Level 1

95 points

Feb 9, 2007 11:43 AM in response to Klaus1

So I will stick with miniDV tapes then.

thanks for your help

Kevin

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Answer 6

Feb 9, 2007 12:15 PM in response to Kevin Ondre1

I think thats a good move.

Neither HD cameras or straight to DVD machines will give you the quality you get with miniDV tapes. The reason is storage capacity - the cheaper camera's these days sacrifice quality for ease of watching. They don't have to be seen on a large screens and you can't edit them.

Stick to miniDV or even move up to HD video.

Think of the size of an Pod Nano - thats 8Gb storage MAX and so has only half the capacity of a DV tape. Double it to 16Gb and thats just over an hour of DV storage - equivalent to one miniDV tape. And it would cost $600-ish vs $5 for a tape.

Economically, a miniDV camea is very cost effective for a set quality

MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 7

Klaus1

Level 9

52,879 points

Feb 9, 2007 2:41 PM in response to Kevin Ondre1

Yes, good move Kevin!

No doubt, as it always does, technology will change over the next few years. Then we can all have what we really want!

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