importing video from camera hard drive

Your camera isn't compatible with iMovie. That kind of camera is intended for just shooting and play on TV, no editing.

I would return it if I were you. Get a miniDV camera that records on tape.

There are ways to import from your camera, but since the video is highly compressed on the hard drive, it will never look as good as a minDV recording.
Download MPEG Streamclip and buy Apple's MPEG-2 playback plug-in.

Movie 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 screen 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

Hi Sue.

Interesting. My post is time-stamped before yours, but listed after!

I was struggling with this same issue myself after having bought a Sony DCR-SR40 yesterday. It seems that Sony's solution is for Mac users to buy another $100+ worth of software (which isn't even Mac Intel Compatible)...or just get the MPEG2 component and supplimental software from Apple (and either pay up for QT Pro or some other video export tool).

So I did the latter...and found that even with the MPEG2 component, you likely will not be able to get iMovie to properly import the video without the additional step of exporting the video from MPEG2 to something like DV as mentioned in a previous post.

What with all the new vid cameras going to a HD solution (though the other solutions stay around for years and years) coupled with MPEG2, I can't imagine that Apple wouldn't want to make importing the files a bit easier to import into iMovie.

So many steps...this feels more like being a MacUser in 1997 rather than one in 2007...

MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hi Lennart:

Looks like it was a glitch because it is fixed now!

Strange...

Sue

Well, you did buy a camera that is designed to exclude editing in a computer...

No, your first reply is still hh:37, while my first reply (below) is still hh:36.

Oh, never mind. It's just one of the many bugs in the discussion software.

Lennart:

It isn't like that on my screen. Yours is above mine...go figure.

:)Sue

What with all the new vid cameras going to a HD
solution (though the other solutions stay around for
years and years) coupled with MPEG2, I can't imagine
that Apple wouldn't want to make importing the files
a bit easier to import into iMovie.

Thats because the good HD cameras are equipped with Firewire for reasons of economics .....

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 iPod 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 format camea is very cost effective for a set quality

I should ad that Sony also are known for producing technology thats brilliant but incompatible with many other suppliers in an attempt to lock in purchasers.



MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.8)