Just wondering if the macs can except those 8cm 3in. that are for my camcorder. trying to ruleout any hope. 
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mini dvds & macs
- Thread starter stealthster
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I wouldn't be putting mini-DVDs into your slot loading drive. It's been talked about in other threads: gettin' 'em out is a pain, and the Mac won't read 'em.
Don't try it.
The only slot-load Macs that support the mini CDs or DVDs (8 cm) are the now positively ancient CD-ROM or DVD-ROM equipped slot-load iMac G3s and DVD-ROM equipped Titanium PowerBook G4s. None of the CD-RW, Combo Drive, or SuperDrive models of those, or ANY of the later slot-load (iMac G5, Intel iMac, iBook G4, Aluminum PowerBook G4, Mac mini, MacBook, or MacBook Pro,) computers support them.
So unless you happen to have one of the two models I mentioned above, you'll either need an external tray-load drive (or, obviously, a native tray-load Mac like the iMac G4, eMac, or any Power Mac or Mac Pro,) or you'll need to plug the cable between your Camcorder and the computer. The camcorder *SHOULD* appear as an external DVD-ROM drive with no extra drivers needed. (Although I know one manufacturer doesn't make it that easy, but I can't remember which manufacturer it is.)
Then, if you want to EDIT the video, you'll need something to transcode it from whatever format your camcorder stores it in (generally MPEG-2 for standard definition models, and AVC/H.264 for high definition models,) to something easier to edit. For MPEG-2, your best bet is probably ffmpegx, for H.264, you're presently out of luck. Hopefully the next rev of iMovie will support native AVC/H.264 editing, since AVCHD camcorders seem to be on the way to becoming the 'standard' for consumer HD camcorders.
And, yes, if you put the 8 cm disc into a slot-load drive that doesn't support 8 cm discs, your only realistic hope to get it out is to dismantle the drive.
The only slot-load Macs that support the mini CDs or DVDs (8 cm) are the now positively ancient CD-ROM or DVD-ROM equipped slot-load iMac G3s and DVD-ROM equipped Titanium PowerBook G4s. None of the CD-RW, Combo Drive, or SuperDrive models of those, or ANY of the later slot-load (iMac G5, Intel iMac, iBook G4, Aluminum PowerBook G4, Mac mini, MacBook, or MacBook Pro,) computers support them.
So unless you happen to have one of the two models I mentioned above, you'll either need an external tray-load drive (or, obviously, a native tray-load Mac like the iMac G4, eMac, or any Power Mac or Mac Pro,) or you'll need to plug the cable between your Camcorder and the computer. The camcorder *SHOULD* appear as an external DVD-ROM drive with no extra drivers needed. (Although I know one manufacturer doesn't make it that easy, but I can't remember which manufacturer it is.)
Then, if you want to EDIT the video, you'll need something to transcode it from whatever format your camcorder stores it in (generally MPEG-2 for standard definition models, and AVC/H.264 for high definition models,) to something easier to edit. For MPEG-2, your best bet is probably ffmpegx, for H.264, you're presently out of luck. Hopefully the next rev of iMovie will support native AVC/H.264 editing, since AVCHD camcorders seem to be on the way to becoming the 'standard' for consumer HD camcorders.
And, yes, if you put the 8 cm disc into a slot-load drive that doesn't support 8 cm discs, your only realistic hope to get it out is to dismantle the drive.