I have an iMac and a Sony camcorder with the little discs. What is the best way to burn, store, and edit my little discs to the Mac?
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Advice for burning camcorder DVD to Mac
- Thread starter Hitman1717
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simsaladimbamba
Guest
When connecting your camcorder (which exact model) to the Mac via USB and opening iMovie and choosing "Import from Camera", does your camcorder show up?
Btw, the term "burn" is only used when writing data onto an optical disk, when the term "burn" is used in relation to computers.
You just want to copy the data off the mini DVD.
Btw, the term "burn" is only used when writing data onto an optical disk, when the term "burn" is used in relation to computers.
You just want to copy the data off the mini DVD.
I haven't tried yet with the USB because I wasn't sure how to proceed. The camera is a Sony DCR-DVD108.
simsaladimbamba
Guest
Is there still the incompatibility between the DVD based Sony camcorders and Macs? I recall that a few years back they would'nt "talk" to each other. That swayed me over to Sony DV tape instead of DVD.
Thanks, Sim. That did work. The USB was connected and the imovie prompt came up. After turning on the camera, I had to tell the camera it was connecting to a computer with the USB.
It's a little temperamental and my Mac freezed after trying to copy another disk, but this should work. It does take a long time to copy onto the drive though. And iMovie is not as good as I thought it would be.
It's a little temperamental and my Mac freezed after trying to copy another disk, but this should work. It does take a long time to copy onto the drive though. And iMovie is not as good as I thought it would be.
simsaladimbamba
Guest
That is because the MPEG-2 encoded footage needs to be transcoded (converted) to an editable format.
You could try it another way, like shown in the below guides and videos, but as iMovie is the simple way, there is no need for the way shown below.
Get footage from a video DVD into an editing application
Video: Ripping a video DVD (.mp4, 28s, 2.8MB)
Video: Transcoding ripped video to format iMovie understands (.mp4, 75s, 7MB)
Video: Ripping a video DVD (.mp4, 28s, 2.8MB)
Video: Transcoding ripped video to format iMovie understands (.mp4, 75s, 7MB)
It isn't, yeah. You could try (not really, as there is no trial) Final Cut Express, but I don't know what editing environment you are used to or could accomplish with more.
I don't need anything crazy. It's just home movies really. Uploading them and saving them to keep forever is the prime concern.
Don't forget you'll need some form of backup strategy, if "keeping forever" is your prime concern. Hard drives can fail, and it can be difficult and costly to recover data from them if that happens.
Have you already started backing up your iMac?