I've read a few post about sony camera not working well with macs. I vae a Handycam DCR-DVD108. I can play my footage frome the camcorder on my 24" Imac but that's about it. I've downloaded handbrake which from what I understand I'll need to convert my cameras files into mpeg4 files so my mac can read them. In order to get the files from my camcorders dvd I'm gonna need an external dvd drive correct? I have to buy one and have no clue what to get or what works with my mac. Will any firewire or usb external dvd drive work with my mac? Can you point me in the right direction as to which dvd drive I should get? Once I have an external dvd drive hooked up to my Imac what do I do from there? I take it that I stick my camcorders DVD-R into the external drive since it wont work in the slot drive of my mac and just drag the files to a folder then convert them somehow with Handbrake? Is that all there is to it? Sorry for the questions. I'm really new to macs and have no clue as to what I'm doing. Thanks.
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Help with another Sony Camera. (Questions/Advise)
- Thread starter rockworthy
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Sony cameras work fine with Macs ... but ANY brand of consumer DVD or HDD camcorder records footage in formats that weren't really intended to be edited. DVD-Video is a made up of specially formatted and muxed MPEG-2 files (VOB) and there are several different codecs/formats used by HDD cameras. All of these formats were originally designed/written with final delivery in mind - not editing.
But that doesn't mean you can't edit footage from these cameras, it just means its more trouble and will take more time to do so ... and you'll lose quality in the process since the original video is so highly compressed.
With a DVD, first make sure it's been finalized in the camera. Connect a tray loading DVD drive (USB or Firewire) to your Mac and insert the finalized disc. Use MPEG Streamclip (freeware) to demux and convert the DVD's VOB files into an editable format that works with your chosen NLE application. For example, if you're using FCP and editing in an NTSC SD Sequence, you'd need to convert to QuickTime, Apple NTSC DV, 48khz, 16 bit.
-DH
But that doesn't mean you can't edit footage from these cameras, it just means its more trouble and will take more time to do so ... and you'll lose quality in the process since the original video is so highly compressed.
With a DVD, first make sure it's been finalized in the camera. Connect a tray loading DVD drive (USB or Firewire) to your Mac and insert the finalized disc. Use MPEG Streamclip (freeware) to demux and convert the DVD's VOB files into an editable format that works with your chosen NLE application. For example, if you're using FCP and editing in an NTSC SD Sequence, you'd need to convert to QuickTime, Apple NTSC DV, 48khz, 16 bit.
-DH
It should be noted that doing the things -DH suggests, you're working with lossy formats. So take care as you compress your footage, because you have the potential to lose a lot of quality during the conversions.
Thanks guys.Just wondering about something. If I can find a USB to FireWire cable and connect it to my IMac will that solve my problems of getting the footage from my camcorder to my macs HD?
I'd be surprised to learn that there even was such a thing as a 'USB to Firewire' cable. But who knows ... you learn something new every day.
-DH
Well, I fixed the problem... I sold the camera on ebay. I think I'm gonna go with the Panasonic gs80 based on the reviews and the price.