Capture on Mac - read DV under Parallels?

[maveni]

Hello folks, I have a friend who has a Mac, but also has an expensive video app that only runs on PCs. He purchased Parallels specifically for this program, thinking he could capture from his mini-dv camcorder via Firewire under Parellels. But of course, Parallels doesn't recognize the Firewire port.

My understanding of the camcorder DV format was that it's platform independent and capture apps simply copy the DV file to the computer without actually converting or encoding the video. I was hoping he could capture the DV file with iMovie, then read the DV file under Parallels/Windows. I'm hoping that if I changed Apple's .MOV container name to a Windows .AVI container(manually or with a utility), the underlying video would still be the platform independent DV and be read by either system.

I'm obviously trying to avoid having to re-encode the file. Does anyone think this may work or know of a way to make this work? Any and all help is really appreciated

 

[r.j.s]

It should work, but the only way to know for sure is to try it.

 

[maveni]

It should work, but the only way to know for sure is to try it.

I'd really like to play around and test it -- but don't have any Mac DV files.

Do you happen to have a tiny about 10 MB DV file captured w/iMovie that use could email me? maveni@yahoo.com

or maybe there's one already posted on a file sharing site, that I could download?

I'd really appreciate it.

 

[r.j.s]

If you are talking about just the file being compatible, then it does work - I did it a few months ago.

I captured some footage on my mac, and moved the dv files to my work machine for editing with Avid. No issues at all.

 

[notjustjay]

Don't rename the MOV to AVI. They're not interchangeable -- AVI files still have AVI wrappers, and QuickTime files have their own wrappers. The content is DV, which is identical, but are wrapped differently.

But if you download and install QuickTime on the (virtual) PC, then you should be able to open the Quicktime DV clips without a problem from the PC software.

If you use iMovie to capture, you can even tell it to separate scenes by timecode breaks, and iMovie will capture the footage into many smaller, individual clip files. A feature I paid money for on the PC when I first started capturing (using a program called ScenalyzerLive).

 

[maveni]

If you are talking about just the file being compatible, then it does work - I did it a few months ago.

I captured some footage on my mac, and moved the dv files to my work machine for editing with Avid. No issues at all.

I'd guess the Avid s/w can import any .mov videos? I wonder if you could read the same dv files with an app like MS MovieMaker? I'd think MM would immediately reject the file becuase the file extension is .mov Now if you changed the extension to .avi MM may be able to read it. Hope I'm making sense

Similar to MM, his Windows app can only read type I or II DV-AVI files. So I'm looking for a way to change the .MOV wrapper/container to a Windows .AVI wrapper/container without re-encoding. I had him change the file name extension but he said it didn't work -- although he's not very technical, so I'm not sure I can trust what he did.

 

[maveni]

Don't rename the MOV to AVI. They're not interchangeable -- AVI files still have AVI wrappers, and QuickTime files have their own wrappers. The content is DV, which is identical, but are wrapped differently.

But if you download and install QuickTime on the (virtual) PC, then you should be able to open the Quicktime DV clips without a problem from the PC software.

If you use iMovie to capture, you can even tell it to separate scenes by timecode breaks, and iMovie will capture the footage into many smaller, individual clip files. A feature I paid money for on the PC when I first started capturing (using a program called ScenalyzerLive).

Good info. I need to read the DV file with another app that MUST have a DV-AVI type I or II video. I would think there must be a utility or simple way to change the wrapper/container without having to go through the time consuming re-encode.

Kind of the way many DVD authoring apps will recognize a compliant mpeg2 stream and just pass the file along without re-encoding.

If I had a native Mac DV file I'd like to try the GSpot utility. Anyone know where I could get a small Mac DV file to test?

 

[spinnerlys]

What software wants your friend to use to edit the footage? Doesn't it come in a Mac OS version?

If he just wants to use Movie Maker, than he also could just use iMovie.

And if you want to make an .avi out of a .mov, you have to convert it, there is no way around it, as they are different wrappers for codecs they use.
Look at MPEG Streamclip for converting. It's availabe for Mac OS and Windows.

The friend with the Mac could also use Boot Camp, if he's so desperate editing in Windows. That way the firewire port will be usable for sure and he can capture the DV material.

 

[maveni]

What software wants your friend to use to edit the footage? Doesn't it come in a Mac OS version?

If he just wants to use Movie Maker, than he also could just use iMovie.

And if you want to make an .avi out of a .mov, you have to convert it, there is no way around it, as they are different wrappers for codecs they use.
Look at MPEG Streamclip for converting. It's availabe for Mac OS and Windows.

The friend with the Mac could also use Boot Camp, if he's so desperate editing in Windows. That way the firewire port will be usable for sure and he can capture the DV material.

Thanks. I just came across MPEG Streamclip and it seems like it may work. From what I've read it may chnage the Mac .mov wrapper to a Windows .avi container WITHOUT re-encoding the DV file.

Bootcamp really is a good back up plan if I can't find a 'wrapper converter' for him.

 

[maveni]

QT DV test file?

I'd really like to test out MPEG Streamclip. I'm told it'll change over the wrapper without re-encoding the video file. I'd really like to test it, but don't have a Mac QT DV file to test. Could anyone point me to a test file? It's really appreciated.

 

[spinnerlys]

Does your friend or you have a Mac with a build in iSight?

If so, just record something with QT and save it. After that you can use MPEG streamclip to encode it to a .mov with the DV codec (PAL or NTSC) and then use that file as a sample. It has the proper NTSC resolution, but not the PAL one.

If you have QT Pro, you could also just record via iSight, and then export the video as a DV mov.

 

[maveni]

thanks, I'll be getting a test file from him. I'll report back to let everyone know if I'm able to quickly change the wrapper without re-encoding w/MPEG Streamclip.

 

[maveni]

It's confirmed -- MPEG Streamclip does change the Mac wrapper to a Windows Avi container within a couple of seconds -- no re-encoding/compressing needed.

This is very useful for Mac users who run Windows virtualization software and need to capture from a camcorder under Windows. VMWare, Parallels, etc., do not support Firewire.

Thanks for all you help.