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Space Ran Out !

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PreetinderBajwa

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 30, 2009
130
0
HK
Hi!

I have a Sony 40GB HDD, HD video camera, its a consumer grade video camera.:eek:

I have about max 2 hours of HD video on it, when I try to get it onto my MBP (like iphoto for my still photo camera) to free up the space on it for more shooting, I find that its already consuming 120GB plus in storage !! But the Hard Disk on the Video Camera is only 40GB ! :eek:

Also, When I connect the camera it asks me you want full HD or 920*### size. Why would I get a HD Camera and have only an option to see a downgraded image ? :(

How can I keep the high quality when I download it to laptop so that I can free up space on the video camera ? :confused:

At home I have both PC and a Mac.

Thanks a lot if you can help me with :

1. Whether i should use PC or Mac for this ?
2. How can I download 40GB from Camera and use 40GB on my laptop only ?
3. How can I get to keep HD video and not the 920*### version ?

cheers

Preetinder
 
matteusclement

matteusclement

macrumors 65816
Jan 26, 2008
1,144
0
victoria
imovie or FCP?

That 40 gig HDD uses compression and when you export it using imovie, it uses something called "apple intermediate codec" which ballons it to 3x the size. you can avoid this if you get to use final cut.
I am not sure if you can change the settings in imovie. I haven't used it in years.
 
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PreetinderBajwa

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 30, 2009
130
0
HK
No joy yet..

Thanks mattuseclement,

Don't have FCP.... its so expensive :( if i want to watch the videos without going the connect the camera to TV route, then I have to bring the videos from the camera HDD to computer HDD or target HDD. Even to do a bit of editing etc have to get it to computer...

It seems to be quite a waste to have a HD camera and a computer that doesn't seem to be optimised for working with HD settings etc and bloat the storage so much.....

Any other suggestions, how about using a PC will I be better off on PC and then get the file from PC like a mov, wmv or some other format back to my Mac ?

cheers

Preet
 
spinnerlys

spinnerlys

Guest
Sep 7, 2008
14,328
7
forlod bygningen
.mov is a container and not a codec like .h264/MPEG-4, the one your camera most likely uses.
As MPEG-4 is not meant for editing, as it doesn't store every frame just groups of pictures, iMovie has to convert it to something, which can be edited and has every frame in it, therefore the bigger file size.
I think even (or especially) FCP/FCE will do that.
You're not getting around a bigger external Firewire drive for storing your videos for editing and whatever you do with them.
 
CaptainChunk

CaptainChunk

macrumors 68020
Apr 16, 2008
2,142
6
Phoenix, AZ
That 40 gig HDD uses compression and when you export it using imovie, it uses something called "apple intermediate codec" which ballons it to 3x the size. you can avoid this if you get to use final cut.
I am not sure if you can change the settings in imovie. I haven't used it in years.
Click to expand...

Actually, you can't avoid the file size increases in any Apple NLE. Most Sony HDD HD cameras use AVCHD, which isn't a format handled natively by iMovie, FCE or FCP.


OP: If you're going to edit video, you NEED an external hard drive. You can get decent external FW800 drives for under $100 now. Not only will you be able to free up hard drive space on your internal drive, but you'll also get better performance while editing.

iMovie asks you whether you want to import "Large" (960x540) or "Full" (1920x1080) because Full HD consumes a lot more hard drive space. Plus, a lot of consumer-level HD cameras lack full-raster sensors and Full HD imports won't necessarily yield better image quality because of that.
 
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