Yeah, sometimes I feel like a tech-tard. Forgot to login...

-John
http://www.jesusgeek.info

Hey John....
This is an issue that isn't talked about much but is frustrating ALOT of users who don't read and educate themseles before they buy a camera.....

Right now, the video camera folks are trying to make life 'easy' for consumers that are buying video cams. And, in theory, they are. The problem is, they assume that people don't actually want to EDIT video...they just want to shoot it and watch it. Basically, they're able to allow cheap cams shoot "higher quality" video, by putting that video into a format that can't be edited very easily...

I got this exact question the other day from someone who bought one of those Sony DVD video cams, and then said "My Mac sucks..it won't edit the video from my camera!". Come to find out, he had the DVD based cam, which NO editing systems can accept video from natively.

The problem with this, and the model you suggest, is the MPEG2 format. It's not a format that can be edited natively very easily. It's kinda hard to explain, but basically, these type of video files can't just be cut wherever you want them to be....they don't actually record full frames of video (they record one frame, then record changes to that frame over the next few seconds)...therefore, you don' thave full frames to cut on when editing. This is also a problem with folks who are editing HDV...the computer has to do a TON of work to figure out how to edit the files, because it's not a straightforward process....so unless your program is built to edit MPEG2 (like how iMovie and Final Cut is built to edit the HDV flavor) you're outta luck.

Basically, the answer is "don't buy a camera that records MPEG2 files if you want to edit". Unfortunately, that's not a great answer...but that's the way it is.

Now, you can import your files, convert them to another format and then edit them, but who wants to go thru all that. The simple and expensive answer is to buy a cam that shoots a format that can be edited.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! Thanks for the question....

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.bobchristenson.com

Rob,

Thanks for the awesome response. I will pass it along. I knew I'd get an answer here. I searched "teh internets" and found that, yeah, it had to be converted first but thought there might be a trick that someone might know. Thanks for the detailed explanation.

-John

To my knowledge, the best conversion tool, once the mpeg-2 files are on the mac is MPEG Streamclip. This is the swiss army knife of converters, and will do the job.

It's only available on Mac, though...so windoze folks are outta luck.

Yes, the conversion and importing for editing can be a royal pain depending on what camera you use. A note on the conversion process. If you are converting to a superior format, the quality will be just as good as the source if you have your settings correct on your converter. Some people think they can get a better file by converting to a superior format, but that's silly if you think about it. I use Sony's Vegas (same guys who make Sound Forge and Acid), and it has great converters, just like you would find in Premier, Avid's Liquid, or Final Cut Pro (also great programs, I just prefer Vegas). If you are using a good editing program (at least a 3 digit cost), then use those converters, and not another tool. I'm not totally up on Premier or Liquid anymore, but Vegas will import off of the mini DVD discs from a camcorder (it better since Sony is pushing those cameras on us).

Chordinator

www.calvarycolorado.org

I've been coming up against the same issue as my church just purchased a Sony HDR SR1 Hard drive camcorder. I've only shot in Standard Def (MPEG 2) and not in HD yet, and I tried to convert the clips using MPEG StreamClip to bring them into iMovie, but was told I needed to purchase this from Apple:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime...

It is $19.95, but MPEGStreamClip won't convert the files without it.

If you have Final Cut Pro, not Express, according to Apple's website, you have this component already.

Also MPEGStreamClip is available for the PC. The website is here: www.squared5.com

Yes, indeed...
MPEG-2 is an add-on for Quicktime because most people don't need it. It comes free and installs itself when you have Final Cut Pro, otherwise you have to buy it separately in order to work with Quicktime and any MPEG-2 files. (MPEGStreamclip is actually just a front end for Quicktime)

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.bobchristenson.com

Hi,

I am using a dcr-sr40 for making some small web movies. I have shot them and can edit them but the mpg files won't import into final cut pro with audio... is there any way to fix this?

I just picked up a Handycam on the advice of the salesman who said that I should be able to import the MPEG-2 files using Pixela to my Mac. I'm wondering if there is an alternative. I'm looking for a cheaper alternative. I have final cut but just got it so I don't know much about it. How do I get the Handycam sr-300 files onto my mac? Please forgive my ignorance but I really need to know.
Thanks

Hello!
Which camera did you get? Again, as mentioned in the comments of this post, if it's a cam that's recording MPEG-2 to anything other than a MiniDV tape, you're gonna be out of luck.

There's alot of salesmen, apparently, who just want to sell cameras, and don't care that you can't edit the footage you shoot on them....

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.bobchristenson.com

This is one of those HardDrive based camcorders. These cameras are really not made to have their footage edited easily (they're made for consumers that are just going to point and shoot, and not really do any editing).

So, since this isn't made to have it's footage imported into final cut, there could be any number of problems going on...it's most likely one of incompatibility, unfortunately.

If this is a camera that FCP actually supports (which, maybe it does, i donno) I'd tell you to double check your import settings. make sure you have it set to import audio as well as video.

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.bobchristenson.com

I've been using it on Windows with the footage from my Panasonic DVD camera. It seems to work just fine. So Windows users are in luck. The only annoyance is having to install a "QuickTime alternative".

-Mike Goodwin
Elston Family Church
http://www.elstonfamily.org

I guess that I should have kept reading Chordinator's reply. Sorry.

-Mike Goodwin
Elston Family Church
http://www.elstonfamily.org

1. Make a MPEG-2 file of your film and demux to M2V with aiff using MPEG Streamclip (free from http://www.squared5.com).

2. Now you should be able to watch the clips and hear the sound.

3. Create an iMovie HD project and export the film to web

4. Now your film is compressed with picture and sound for use on the web

Peter

What do I need to do to import my movie into final cut express?
It is currently on digital Hi 8 film. my camera is a sony DCR-RV260.
My computer is a Mac G5.
Please Help!!

Kevin
kevincarla1@comcast.net

Hey Kevin...
I searched google for that model number and it came up totally blank. Do you have a link to a place with the specs? I would imagine if it's a digital cam, it should have a firewire interface on it...does it not?

If it's not directly compatible with Final Cut Ex. you may have to capture using thirdpary software and import. I don't know how FCE works with Digital Hi-8 since not many people use it. Is it not compatible?

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.bobchristenson.com

Hey Rob,

The camera is USB not Firewire... I do have a cable that conects the
two together, however it still will not read it. What type of 3rd party
software would you suggest? I imported the movie on to my dell lap
top just fine, however i don't have a good editing progam on it.
Ant help is much appreciated.
Kevin

here is a link for info
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/c...

Hey Rob,
Sorry for the piecemail... here is a link to the cable i am using.

http://cgi.ebay.com/DV-iLINK-C...

Kevin

Hey Rob,

I hope you saw the other info i sent.
I really need your help with this.

Be Blessed
>O>

Hey Kevin,
since I've never used a usb cam to capture video to a mac, I'm totally guessing on this one. I guess I assumed that hte camera would come with some capture software and you could use that to capture to the computer, then transfer it to FCE...

You may also want to try using quicktime pro (or do some research to see if this would work). Beyond that, I really don't have many ideas for this....

sorry!

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.bobchristenson.com

you can use mpeg steamclip on a pc www.squared5.com

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the forum, it helps a lot.
Im facing the same problem with a MPG file. It was filmed in a JVC digital camera and it seemed to work well using Adobe Premiere in my interniship but I decided to have a go with Final Cut Pro but the footage, which i brought home on CD, do not appear with the sound track and even can be opened with Quicktime. Ive opened it with VLC and the sound is there... so I will go for this converter...
The funny thing is my Final Cut is Pro... but is 4.5 version.

you can get an interface made by Canapus for around 300usd's that will take any video signal and convert it to a firewire output that the macs read. all hardware, no software. you can even capture your old vhs tapes and dvds. the comments about the DVD video cameras not being editing friendly are also mostly solved with this little gadget, but only for SD resolution.

Yeah, this will work...but it may no be the best idea. As far as I know, you're talking about the analog/digital conversion boxes that plug in firewire. If so, the problem is you're converting your digital recordings to analog and the having the box re-encode them digitally. This means a pretty big loss in signal quality that would be best to avoid.

Or, are you talking about another box that will convert USB or incompatible firewire to a compatible firewire signal? If so, that would truly be magic.

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.bobchristenson.com

Like people have said, your best bet is to get a camera that definitely exports via Firewire in a format that your editing suite is compatible with (for FCE/FCP this is DV or HDV).

If you have some other footage I can recommend a piece of conversion software called ffmpegX (ffmpegX website).

It will take just about any video/audio format and convert it to jst about any other video format. The format that Final Cut and iMovie play nicely with is ".dv", which ffmpegx converts to well.

I have used it to convert MPEG4 files as well as DVD source files into a FCE-friendly format,

It will allow you to convert from MPEG2, MPEG4, VOB (video files on a DVD) and many others. And it will convert them to .dv, which Final cut should recognise. This solved most of my video-format headaches.

Installation can be a little complicated. It's shareware, so it's free to download and use, but should pay the $15 if you like it.

I just noticed that the brand-new iMovie '08 says it will edit from MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.

Just a little disclaimer... don't do anything illegal with this technology. It is definitely powerful and useful. But, it's also easy to do illegal things and we as Christians and the church need to keep things on the up and up even if it's harder for us.

And yeah, this program is pretty cool and powerful.

Matt Farina
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.mattfarina.com

this worked great. ffmpeg converted my mpeg 2 files from my sony handycam dvd to DV and i was able to open them in FCE and FCP.

That's good to know. Some other solutions involve DVD to MPEG4 then MPEG4 to DV, which loses more quality.

I've also heard further that iMovie 08 will recognise and import Handycam DVDs ridiculously easily.

Totally agree that we as Christian tecnology people certainly should be setting a strong example when it comes to using these programmes apropriately.

Thanks for the info. What Sony do you have? Is it a hard drive storage, like my Handycam DCR-SR100? Does it lose quality in converting? Is there any distortion?
Thanks again.

Most notebooks don't have firewire, as far as I know. I am doing everything through my notebook. (yeah, yeah, I know... it's not a mac, it's a toshiba)

Anyhow. Currently I record on to Hi-8 then run the video through a plextor Convert X to get it into a digital format, then I edit using the software that came with the Convert X... Ulead Video Studio 8.

If I upgrade my camera, to digital 8, do I have to have firewire?

Ps WHY DONT 'THEY IMPROVE WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER TO BURN DVDs?

Hey Steve...
You put up an interesting point that I haven't ever looked into (since I am a Mac guy).

Every digital camera that I've seen only has Firewire output. I've never seen one with USB 2 (granted I don't usually look at consumer level cams, but even my consumer grade HDV doesn't have USB). If I'm not mistaken, Firewire is the output format that camera manufacturers have decided on.

Now that's not to say there's NO cameras that have USB 2 output. I'm sure there are...to me I'd wonder what the quality of them is since they're not following the standard convention.

I guess my point is, the problem is gonna be on the camera connector end. I'm sure there must be a solution to this. Firewire-USB 2.0 converter? I donno. Anyone else?

-Rob Feature
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.mustardseedmedia.com

I started seeing some consumer level cams with this a couple years back. Not sure if it ever caught on....

I think these days most laptops are coming with a mini Firewire port. I know our church bought a economy Lenovo at start of the year, and it came with one.... I've got a four year old midrange Gateway that also came with one. All our economy business PC's (~$550) purchased a year ago also came with firewire. I think it's mainly the pre 2005 stuff that required you to spend extra bucks for Firewire...

I have not tried it yet but Windows Viastas movie editing program is supposed to be able to burn dvds. I've not tried it just herd and read about this. That is where the upgrade is. You just have to upgrade to Vista :-)

Matt Farina
Geeks and God Co-Host
www.innovatingtomorrow.net
www.mattfarina.com

Hi,
I am searching for a solution to a similar problem, but most of this string is not quite there, or my technical skills arent quite up to scratch! I have just been bought as a gift the Sony Handycam DCR-SR35. I have recorded a holiday onto its hard drive, and have used the USB provided to copy them to my pc. They copy as mpeg (movie files). From this point, everything goes wrong. I cant view them with WMP 11. Even attempting to look into their properties sends a bug through windows explorer and it shuts down. I try viewing them through Div X player and still nothing. I really want to edit them into a holiday DVD.
I tried loading them onto my girlfriends mac, and it wont even recognise the files so will not upload them into iPhoto.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have some Hi 8 tapes shot several years ago on a Sony Handycam Video Hi 8
XR. I am now plugged into my intel Mac (firewire) and Final Cut Express
with my Sony DCR-TRV 520 and the old tape loaded. I can play it thru
Final Cut (no audio) but cannot capture the video. It will not let me set
"in" and "out" points or will not let me capture "now". I can capture
video shot originally with the DCR-TRV 520.

I have a sony dcr-sr80 and am attempting to get the footage into final cut express. From reading through the forum I understand the camera and computer may not be compatible and the conversion may be complicated etc etc. However, I already have the footage on the camera and can't go out and buy a new camera and "re-shoot" the footage. Too little too late...eeeek! but needless to say. I need to edit it in FCE on my Mac.

Can anyone give me a step by step instruction on what I need to do. I am pretty savy at editing the footage but not so much when it comes to converting methods....

Please let me know :) step by step would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

I've been working pretty hard on this for the past few days so here are my 2cents.

My school recently switched to all Mac all the time and what used to work great in Adobe Premiere Elements is much more complicated in iMovie and FCE. We have a Sony Camera with a hard drive (Sorry, I don't have the model # handy) It creates .mpg files which Premiere could read without a hitch. However, iMovie and FCE refuse to see them.

So some sort of conversion is necessary. I shelled out the $30 for Quicktime Pro and found that video would convert and be ussable, but audio would be lost in the process. I shelled out another $20 for the mpg-2 quicktime converter that could be used with MPEGStreamClip, and found this worked quite well. MPEGStreamClip will take your file and convert it so FCE could use it, though I see a little dropoff in picture quality. The problem I had next was with the number of clips I had to convert. I had to take each individual clip, open with the program, go to the export settings, press "export", wait for it to convert, repeat.

This problem was solved by a free program called Drop2DV. Simply drop multiple .mpg files onto the app and off it goes creating .dv files that are useable in FCE. (There is another program called DropDV that does the same thing for $40.)

In my travels I also came across ffmegX that seemed to work pretty well also.

I also used VLC to convert the mpgs to mp4 which worked in iMovie but not Final Cut Express.

So there.

for some reason when i edit and export my videos shot by my Sony Hard Disk Cam the end product does not look like a 16 x 9 pic at all. I cannot even comp. to the exported files I got from my tape based camcorder.. any ideas... i have tried MPEG2, M4V and other export options ...

Hi Rob,

You seem to know a lot of about a lot of stuff... Here is my problem. For years I used my MiniDV based Sony Camcorder. Few months ago I picked up a Sony HD Hard Disk based camcorder.

1. I am using iMovie to import the files from Camcorder to my Mac. The files are *.mov s
2. if I play these files without any editing in QT... the pictures looks good as far as a good 16 x 9 letter box size goes.

once i am done editing ... i tried to export from FCE... for some reason I cannot let a good 16 x 9 pic... i tried all i know.. i pick Apple TV export, 720 x 480, HD up Conversion ... the exported file look like some starched 4 x 3 pictures...

Any thoughts?

is that honestly your face, and you chose this particular picture use? its not flattering at all, you look like a bird...

Hi there, just got final cut express for my macbook white 13.3 it look complicatingly great! haha.
however, i use a dvd 203 e sony handy cam and am REALLY NEEDING TO KNOW how to put my recorded files into final cut express. i think i nearly have it working but i have to put all the files into imovie then transfer into final cut....surely final cut the program can import it straight away!? HELP?

thanks

so I need to edit footage like many others. So far I am importing into iMovie 08 (7.1.4) then putting it into iMovie HD (6.0.4) and then across into FCE.

anyone got an easier way ??!!

I have a Sony Handycam Hybrid. I've never really had a problem because most of my video's are simply point and shoot, however, I've recently had a problem, because the program I was using to rip the DVDs from my camera, no longer works with my hardware, and the ripping programs can be expensive seeing as they ahve the capability to break copyright laws.

My cam is one of those new-ish ones that gives me the option to save the files as DVD format, which means I can't rip it or a VR format which I am recieving warnings about every time I go to select it saying that this is only compatable with other VR related products and software.

I want to be able to cut my vids, and edit them preferably in After Effects, or at the very least windows movie maker.

What do I select oh guru of Camcorders?

Hi All,

I've start using FCP 7. I'm importing Mpeg2 files from my Sony HD Camcorder. the Mpeg2 files have 5.1 surround sound. The problem is: FCP does not show the audio tracks. Video is no problem. Do I have to convert the files first or is there some import settng I have to change?

Thanks in advance!

I'm trying to capture from Sony Handycam DCR-DVD108 camera onto a Mac to edit in Final Cut Pro. The camera will only play on the computer through the standard video player but not through FCP or iMovie. I can transfer the files via firewire from camera to computer. The files transfer into a VIDEO_TS folder with seven files; (2).BUP, (2).IFO & (3).VOB files. Can a convert these video files to MPEG and audio to AIFF? If so, which files do I use and how do I go about the conversion? Thank you.