I understand that iMovie and Final Cut Express support importing video from my camcorder so long as it's through firewire (known as i.Link on my Sony) but I only have a USB cable. I'm not too jazzed about buying a firewire cable. Is there no way for me to import the video? Even through a different program would be fine. I'm running Panther. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
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Using USB to extract DV
- Thread starter rjfiske
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Originally posted by slowtreme
You're talking about 10 bucks or something? Get the cable
I've no idea if imovie will import from USB, hell it wont even detect my Firewire camera. Are you in USB2.0? i don't think USB1.1 has the sustained speed to transfer Full DV.
does it cost just 10 bucks? coz i had the same problem. My roommate has camcorder and i wanted to show him the cool things that imovie can do...(he is a windowz guy..
) but i dont have firewire cable..last time i saw that cable at best buy it was around 20 bucks i guess
a 6 ft firewire cable will probably run you around $20. And it's the only way to digitally get video off the camera.
Lethal
Lethal
I have a related question. Is there some way to get video onto an iMac that's so old it doesn't have firewire at all, just USB 1.1 ? I know USB 1.1 isn't fast enough for realtime DV, but I'm curious if there's some way.
- Mark Collette
- Mark Collette
Get a 4-pin to 6-pin FireWire cable for your SONY camera and stop wasting time trying to invent workarounds using USB. That is just silly.
4-pin FireWire connectors are what SONY calls i.link. This is basically the FW connector that just carries data, no power.
6-pin FireWire connectors are for the ports built into all Macs and FW cards. These carry data and power.
As for importing video into a tray-loading CRT iMac, you would need something like the Eye TV or if you can find it, XLR8's InterView 2.0 These devices would give you roughly half the quality of a DV camera signal but you could make videos for the web and Video CDs with that. You would also need a video editing application that can work with them. I would recommend Adobe Premiere for the XLR8 since it is Motion-JPG based. The ElGato Eye TV comes with its own software.
Finally let me just say that those iMacs are not very useful for video work. I should know, I have one.
4-pin FireWire connectors are what SONY calls i.link. This is basically the FW connector that just carries data, no power.
6-pin FireWire connectors are for the ports built into all Macs and FW cards. These carry data and power.
As for importing video into a tray-loading CRT iMac, you would need something like the Eye TV or if you can find it, XLR8's InterView 2.0 These devices would give you roughly half the quality of a DV camera signal but you could make videos for the web and Video CDs with that. You would also need a video editing application that can work with them. I would recommend Adobe Premiere for the XLR8 since it is Motion-JPG based. The ElGato Eye TV comes with its own software.
Finally let me just say that those iMacs are not very useful for video work. I should know, I have one.
Since my iMac 333 was my first Mac, I had no idea that for just a few more dollars I could get one with significantly more features. But luckily there are people like you to point me to resources to allow me to get what I can from this box. Thank you.
At my school we have to pay money for computer time to do video editing for assignments, so I have been able to save money by only paying to import video at school, and spend the many hours of editing at home, for free. So, I'm still glad I have this machine
- Mark Collette
thanks...
So I've read that the responses consist of either other people having variances of the same question or people telling me to just buy the cable. Thanks for the replies.
I should have clarified... it's not MY camera (even though I incorrectly said it was). It's a friend's. He wants to use my computer to edit video instead of his PC (can you blame him? ) I'm not jazzed about buying a cable for HIS Sony.
If it were MY Sony camera, yes I would have bought the darn cable by now. I was trying to find a viable alternative for HIS camera without paying the $10 - $20 for a cable that will get used once. Sorry, I should have been more clear in my original post.
So I've read that the responses consist of either other people having variances of the same question or people telling me to just buy the cable. Thanks for the replies.
I should have clarified... it's not MY camera (even though I incorrectly said it was). It's a friend's. He wants to use my computer to edit video instead of his PC (can you blame him?
) I'm not jazzed about buying a cable for HIS Sony.If it were MY Sony camera, yes I would have bought the darn cable by now. I was trying to find a viable alternative for HIS camera without paying the $10 - $20 for a cable that will get used once. Sorry, I should have been more clear in my original post.
