Best format to import into iMovie 11

SimonFTB said:

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I have a fairly old Sony camcorder which records onto miniDV tapes. As I can't download these directly onto my computer, I have a stack of miniDV tapes to send off from my local photographic shop to another company to convert to a digital file format to use in iMovie 11 (which I'm yet to actually use, as I haven't yet got any converted files to work with, hence the post).

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miniDV digital video is imported via FireWire into iMovie and other video editors. Why can't you do that?

miniDV to Firewire

The in/out iLink on the Sony camera is a 4 pin firewire connection. You will need to get a cable that is 4 pin on one end and 9 pin on the end that connects to you Mac.

Also know, that one hour of DV encoded footage takes up 12 GB of storage capacity.

You'll want to do what I've been doing (seemingly for ages!) -- import the MiniDV tapes yourself into iMovie. iMovie will save the data as .dv files, in the best possible quality (from what I understand), but large file sizes. As someone said above, each 1-hour tape takes about 12 GB, so you might need to get some more drive space. No, a one hour tape will not fit on a DVD, so I think you're best off doing the import yourself instead of using the service. Be aware that it is time-consuming, though -- the import happens in real-time, so it takes a full hour to import each full tape...

After one or more tapes are imported, you can make projects in iMovie and then export the movie in a variety of compression formats, sacrificing image quality for smaller size if desired. If you keep the imported .dv files, as I do, you can make more movies with the same clips or re-make a movie for higher quality, if desired. Of course, the storage and backup of those large .dv files becomes a challenge.

Look at simsaladimbamba's excellent graphic. You need a firewire cable with two "plugs" from the picture: one end with the FW400 (4-pin) plug to go into the camera, and the other end either a FW400 (6-pin) plug or a FW800 (9-pin) plug to go into your computer, depending upon which firewire port(s) your computer has. If your Mac is old enough, it might have just FW400 ports. (Mine has both.)

Turn your camera off, probably plug it into its charger, and connect your new cable to the "DV in/out" port and the FW port on your computer. Then turn the camera on in "VCR" or "Play" mode (not "Record"), and (I believe) iMovie will start up and open the camera import window for you. From that window you can start/stop/f-fwd/rewind the tape and position it to where you want to start importing (probably just at the beginning).

I've not had good luck with the "automatic" import -- it seemed to think the end of the tape had come too early -- so I always do the "manual" import and just let it run to the end of the tape.

Good luck!

Just be aware that there can be problems getting a Sony camcorder to be recognised by iMovie. There have been quite a few topics where people have been having trouble.

No, a one hour tape will not fit on a DVD,

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Just to clarify that statement, a one hour tape will easily fit on a dvd if you are producing a dvd for playing in a dvd player.

it worked with earlier versions but not iMovie 11

Like SimonFTB I am trying to import footage from a miniDV camcorder (Sony DCR-TRV900E) into iMovie. This worked fine on older macs with earlier versions of iMovie, but with my current setup (Macbook Pro running Lion 10.7.4) what happens is strange: iMovie recognizes the camcorder is connected, controls it (I can fast forward/play/stop/rewind from my screen), and when I say "import" the timer moves forward in real time and the camcorder plays. But no image is visualized on my computer screen, and after it's all "done" and I click on my supposed new event, iMovie says "No video clips match the current selection." This is confirmed by the event's folder being empty in the Finder. I've tried various combinations of restarting, orders of connections, etc. Any suggestions? It seems to me if the program can recognize and control the camera it ought to be allow to import the video...

whoops, wrong version of iMovie

I don't have iMovie 11, I have iMovie 9.0.4. Sorry.

emmdee said:

Like SimonFTB I am trying to import footage from a miniDV camcorder (Sony DCR-TRV900E) into iMovie. This worked fine on older macs with earlier versions of iMovie, but with my current setup (Macbook Pro running Lion 10.7.4) what happens is strange: iMovie recognizes the camcorder is connected, controls it (I can fast forward/play/stop/rewind from my screen), and when I say "import" the timer moves forward in real time and the camcorder plays. But no image is visualized on my computer screen, and after it's all "done" and I click on my supposed new event, iMovie says "No video clips match the current selection." This is confirmed by the event's folder being empty in the Finder. I've tried various combinations of restarting, orders of connections, etc. Any suggestions? It seems to me if the program can recognize and control the camera it ought to be allow to import the video...

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emmdee said:

I don't have iMovie 11, I have iMovie 9.0.4. Sorry.

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iMovie 9.0.4 is the same thing as iMovie'11. Just two ways to refer to the same product.

Anyways, your problem sounds wierd. I've not had this issue nor have I read about it. I have a few suggestions that may work, or at least shed some light on the situation.

1. Confirm that the Import function works by importing video using the built-in iSight camera.

2. Try another miniDV camcorder if you have access to it.

3. Try another FW cable.

4. If you're connecting to a FW port on a daisy-chain, try connecting it directly to the MBP.

5. I'm not sure if iMovie'06 is still available or if it's compatible with Lion, but maybe you could successfully import it that way.

6. Do you have another computer available to use?

7. Not sure if Lion is compatible with the Firewire SDK, but one of the apps in the SDK is DV capture (or something like that). Maybe that would work.

not sure what else you could try. Maybe you could bring your miniDV camcorder, FW cable (and adapter if needed) to an Apple Store to see if your gear works with their Macs.