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HF10 / HF100 AVCHD & Mac Advice

Why create disk image? Why not just burn directly to DVD?

Hello bennyboi and muski,

Thank you very much for posting this thread. I am both a Mac noob and an HF10 noob so this question is probably an obvious one...

I have just been experimenting with burning the AVCHD folder from the camera directly to a DVD-R and it seems to have worked fine. I was able to fire up iMovie 08 and import the clips on the DVD-R into iMovie without any problems.

So, my question is this... why do both of you suggest using the Disk Utility to create a Mac Disk Image before archiving/burning the data? What advantage does a Disk Image provide over a straight burn to DVD-R?

I believe that many of the newer Blu-Ray players should be able to read the AVCHD DVD-R directly and play the content in full HD. But I would doubt if the Blu-Ray players would be able to read the Disk Image DVD-Rs.

Or am I missing something?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Cheers from Australia,

jollyred
 
Hi,

I'm not one of those two guys, but the reason I want to do a disk image is that when I'm camping (during R/C aircraft fun-fly's where I also use deep cycle batteries to charge the batteries for the large electric motors that propel the aircraft), shooting, and operating/charging computer equipment off of deep cycle batteries, I want to save the images to work with later on at home to conserve batteries, time and trouble at the time, instead of buying more than a few memory cards. I'm much more confident in disk images versus risking burning coasters that I can't check until later on, when it's too late to do another one.

Cheers!

Glen
 
I got the same question

saulatz said:
very nice write-up.. i just have a quick question. why use .dmg image file to hold the folders & files? why cant just backup directly the folder without any image file holder? My FCE can directly see the copied AVCHD folder....
Click to expand...

Exactly why would we need to make a .dmg file? Any benefits for doing this? Please elaborate.

Does anyone know of a good way to export the final edited movie from FCP and keep the quality as clear as possible? It seems like I tried a few ways of exporting using quicktime settings which I beefed up but still I notice alot of degradation in the quality..

Anyone would like to share their export settings?

thanks in advance!!
 
Thanks so much for the info.

Is there any way to merge the contents of two SDC cards?

Thanks,
Paul
 
max122 said:
Exactly why would we need to make a .dmg file? Any benefits for doing this? Please elaborate.
Click to expand...

Because a disk image is seen as a removable device? Maybe that's why iMovie 08 "sees" it as a camera.

Glen
 
FCE 4 and Sony Camera

I have Sony Camera HDR-TG1 and FCE4: you can dump the whole content of the Camera memory into a folder... then later on, you can deal with this folder as if it is the camera from FCE, by going to FILE ==> Log and Transfer, choose the directory where you dumped the content of that memory and you can easily deal with it as if you just connect the camera!

this saves me a lot of time and space when I am out for vacation...etc.
 
Exporting High Def

Hi,

None answered my previous question about the best way to export a movie after its been edited sayin in FCP. Say I shot 40 min of high def and I want to burn it on a regular DVD.. WHat are the best export setting to do so?

I feel like if I export them as 720 -1080I then use IDVD, then IDVD would scale it back down to fit on a DVD-R..

Am I wasting time and space exporting it as a 1080I from FCP then? since either way its getting scaled down again?

Please Help!
 
max122 said:
Hi,

None answered my previous question about the best way to export a movie after its been edited sayin in FCP. Say I shot 40 min of high def and I want to burn it on a regular DVD.. WHat are the best export setting to do so?

I feel like if I export them as 720 -1080I then use IDVD, then IDVD would scale it back down to fit on a DVD-R..

Am I wasting time and space exporting it as a 1080I from FCP then? since either way its getting scaled down again?

Please Help!
Click to expand...

ops! sorry due, I missed the original post. I don't know the answer to your question. But I am exporting to my Apple TV which can play Full HDTV and yes you are right. It eats a lot of space.

From my readings, we won't be able to burn HD movies to regular DVD, but to BluRay (when they are available at reasonable price).
 
FWIW, the saved disk image can be mounted direct from the dual layer DVD. I just tried this and imported the raw footage as if still in the camera. If I run into a shortage of storage space I might feel free to discard less important stuff deemed OK to risk on a single DVD with no backup. Regardless, I might deem most raw files to be OK to leave off any backup schemes except for the DVD. Storage space, no problem - saving size of backup files, priceless :)

Cheers!

Glen
 
swatchsa said:
From my readings, we won't be able to burn HD movies to regular DVD, but to BluRay (when they are available at reasonable price).
Click to expand...
goodday!
you may want to check out toast 9 which will, with an additional bluray-plug-in, let you burn about 1/2 hour of HD video onto a standard DVD-R, playable on the PS3 (probably other BD-players, could not check on this).
 
If picture quality is your highest priority, HDV still holds the gold medal, (but for how long??) as far as AVCHD camcorders go, the new Canon HF10 is said to be the best yet. - the closest in picture quality to the Canon HV20 & HV30 which record in HDV. I owned the Panasonic HDC-SD9 which records in AVCHD, and found the picture, although good, not as good as the Canon.
If I were going hard disc on a camcorder budget, I'd stick with Canon.
 
oh yeah sorry yes it uses those HD SD cards. AVCHD format being my point.
Thanks for that
 
What is wrong?

It should be pretty straight forward. But, somehow, doesn't work with me.

I make a test clip.

Then I connect the camera and start Final Cut. I go to Log and Transfer and I have to click on Add Custom Path (on the middle upper right of the screen).

That is when it gets tricky. I select the Canon disk. Bam!! I get that message: "CANON" contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media.

Then, I try selecting each and every folder. And the same message comes.

I tried formatting the disk. Doesn't change anything.

I changed the camera settings. 60p, XP+... The same keeps happening over and over:

"CANON" contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media.

(...)

"CANON" contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media.

What am I doing wrong?
 
Ok, guys.

I tested and tested and tried.

I git all my stuff and went to an Apple Store. In there, with their computers, it worked.

So there is some plug in, codec, whatever, in my MacBook screwing everything up. I'll have to reinstall everything... :(((
 
alexmaron said:
So there is some plug in, codec, whatever, in my MacBook screwing everything up. I'll have to reinstall everything.
Click to expand...

Could it be perian? I've heard rumblings about perian. Never used it myself, so I'm not sure whether it's the problem here or not.

On the bright side, clean installs are good. Think of it as a colonic cleanse for your system. But without the torrent of poo.
 
swatchsa said:
I have Sony Camera HDR-TG1 and FCE4: you can dump the whole content of the Camera memory into a folder... then later on, you can deal with this folder as if it is the camera from FCE, by going to FILE ==> Log and Transfer, choose the directory where you dumped the content of that memory and you can easily deal with it as if you just connect the camera!

this saves me a lot of time and space when I am out for vacation...etc.
Click to expand...

I have the same camera (TG3 in the UK) and dumped all my footage direct from the memory stick on to my PS3, can view all the clips in full 1080 and a great way to back up!
 
mkjj said:
...dumped all my footage direct from the memory stick on to my PS3, can view all the clips in full 1080 and a great way to back up!
Click to expand...

I tried this with a SD card from my HF100. The files played great on the PS3 from the card, but when copied to the internal PS3 drive they'd only play one at a time. Still, using the PS3 for raw AVCHD playback was very nice.
 
CLean install and... nothing

Ok. Now I am becoming really mad.

I reinstalled Mac OS X, reinstalled imovie, FInal Cut, got every update. And nothing happened. It still doesn't work.

Now, maybe there is some plugin missing then?
Would someone help me with an idea?
 
gpeden said:
Because a disk image is seen as a removable device? Maybe that's why iMovie 08 "sees" it as a camera.

Glen
Click to expand...

Picking up an HF10 this weekend. Does anyone know if FCE will also see a disk image as the camera? I know iMovie 08 will, as I tried it a year ago when I had a Sony AVCHD cam. (Sold it for a Canon HV20, but am now moving BACK to tapeless).

I used to take the RAW AVCHD footage from the cam, make a disk image, and then import to iMovie 08 as has been mentioned here, so I'm HOPING FCE will do the same thing.

Thanks.
 
rotlex said:
Picking up an HF10 this weekend. Does anyone know if FCE will also see a disk image as the camera?
Click to expand...

Yes, I've just started using FCE and tried it with a disk image and it worked like before.

Cheers!

Glen
 
rotlex said:
Picking up an HF10 this weekend. Does anyone know if FCE will also see a disk image as the camera? I know iMovie 08 will, as I tried it a year ago when I had a Sony AVCHD cam. (Sold it for a Canon HV20, but am now moving BACK to tapeless).

I used to take the RAW AVCHD footage from the cam, make a disk image, and then import to iMovie 08 as has been mentioned here, so I'm HOPING FCE will do the same thing.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

With FCE you can download the AVCHD folder to your desktop or your external drive and it will "see" it when you open the Log and Transfer window. You don't have to go thru all the hazzle of making disc images and stuff.
 
edgley said:
I've just tried connecting the camera to my laptop; and it doesnt work there either. Just get the disk icons on the desktop; that too is running iMovie 08.

Its almost like it needs a driver for it, but there isn't one for this camera.

The camera is listed in System Profiler.
Click to expand...

I have this exact problem. It takes six minutes for my files to be populated in the Log and Transfer window in FCE 4.0.1. And it takes six minutes before iMovie 8 "sees" my HF100. I have recently reinstalled Leopard and FCE 4 and it still won't work, it's six minutes every single time. If I close the L&T window and open it again, it's six minutes waiting time! If I have the L&T window open and I've waited six minutes it sees all AVCHD material there is on all discs I have. If I connect the camera or a SD-card to a USB card reader it sees that instantly, as long I've had the L&T window opened for six minutes.

Really wierd and Apple doesn't know much either! Problem unresolved! :´-(

The funny thing is that it won't work on my MacBook either, but strangly enough, when I went down to the local Apple Center it worked both on their MacPro and MacBook Air. :-/
 
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