I am part of a college business team and we have to make a short presentation in a couple of weeks. I have a Macbook Pro. Now the problem is that the team member who took the video uses a Song DVD-/+R camcorder. Is it possible to break up the file after it was shot because the 8mm DVD-/+ R's can't load in the slot loading drive and I don't have the money to buy an external dvd drive.
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Help! (Transferring Footage From DVD Camera)
- Thread starter dkirlew
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I don't know. IF it does have USB out then I'd be happy because I have the cables for it. Firewire cables I don't have. I can find out on Monday when we meet again and he'll have the camera so I can take a look and see. I'll probably do some checking on Sony's DVD camcorders too.
I'm not an expert, but I know it's really hard to get usable, editable footage off a DVD camera.
I have a MiniDV one that transfers footage just fine, but I helped my parents pick out their first camera this past Christmas, and that issue is one of the biggest knocks against DVD cameras. But my parents had no need to transfer footage, so they bought the DVD model so that they can play the discs right in their DVD player.
I have a MiniDV one that transfers footage just fine, but I helped my parents pick out their first camera this past Christmas, and that issue is one of the biggest knocks against DVD cameras. But my parents had no need to transfer footage, so they bought the DVD model so that they can play the discs right in their DVD player.
it should have firewire, most do, thats the best way, often dvd cams will mound like an external HD rather than work direct through imovie etc
i don't know if this will help you, but it's another suggestion if the camcorder doesn't have FW.
getting footage off a dvd camcorder is dead easy...BUT you need a converter like a canopus 110 and the camcorder must have rca jacks (which they normally do - red, white and yellow). connect the camcorder to the converter....converter to macbook via fw...play the camcorder....footage runs through converter to macbook....Bada boom...bada bing..
footage capture.
getting footage off a dvd camcorder is dead easy...BUT you need a converter like a canopus 110 and the camcorder must have rca jacks (which they normally do - red, white and yellow). connect the camcorder to the converter....converter to macbook via fw...play the camcorder....footage runs through converter to macbook....Bada boom...bada bing..
footage capture.
I just checked out the sony DVD camcorders similar to my teammate's. I don't know the model camcorder he has. I noticed that they all have USB 2.0 connectivity which is great but Sony says its for MPEG 1 movies. I guess I'll have too wait until Monday to figure out exactly what I will since my teammate still has the 8mm DVD-R and wants me to edit it. My roommate does has a HP Media Center with DVD burner so I may copy the file to a regular dvd-r and edit that way.
DVD Camcorders are tough
I work in post production and thoses things are the bane of my existance. A lot of the early DVD camcorders have proprietary codecs and capturing software, mostly for the PC too. Song might have software to download the footage but I bet the formate on the DVD is not MPEG, and the DVD is probably a RAM not a ROM so it probably wont mount like a camera on your mac.
Capturing from rca into a capture card is the easiest method, but not as nice looking. Any ways, good luck.
Also ReadDVD is a program that helps me read weird RAM/ROM formats.
^_^
I work in post production and thoses things are the bane of my existance. A lot of the early DVD camcorders have proprietary codecs and capturing software, mostly for the PC too. Song might have software to download the footage but I bet the formate on the DVD is not MPEG, and the DVD is probably a RAM not a ROM so it probably wont mount like a camera on your mac.
Capturing from rca into a capture card is the easiest method, but not as nice looking. Any ways, good luck.
Also ReadDVD is a program that helps me read weird RAM/ROM formats.
^_^
Thought I'd give you guys an update on the DVD camcorder situation. My classmate happened to hand me a regular dvd oof the unedited footage. He didn't give the 8mm DVD from the camcorder so apparently I will not have to get the footage off of the camcorder's dvd. I want to thank all of you for youor advice and I'll use iit if I run into this problem again although I hope no such thing occurs.
Another Problem
Okay my teammate gave me the DVD with the video files (.mpg) and in Quicktime there is no sound. I used VLC and there is sound, however when I bring it into iMovie HD to edit the footage there is no sound. Do I have to convert the video files to another format or is there soomething I could do? I would use FCP but I am holding out to see what they offer since I won't be doing major video work until at least summer. Plus I want to see how Premere Pro holds up to FCP on the Mac.
Okay my teammate gave me the DVD with the video files (.mpg) and in Quicktime there is no sound. I used VLC and there is sound, however when I bring it into iMovie HD to edit the footage there is no sound. Do I have to convert the video files to another format or is there soomething I could do? I would use FCP but I am holding out to see what they offer since I won't be doing major video work until at least summer. Plus I want to see how Premere Pro holds up to FCP on the Mac.
Hop over to the iMovie Discussions at Apple. This comes up all the time. The short answer is:
- Buy the Quicktime MPEG-2 Plug-in from Apple ($20)
- Download MPEG Streamclip (free)
- Open the copied files in MPEG Streamclip, then export as DV.
- Load the DV files into iMovie.