Video Formats To use With Final Cut Express/iDVD

[PointMeAtTheSky]

Hello,

A friend of mine has an iMac, and he bought Final Cut Express to be able to edit and burn home movies.

However, we have been having problems with formats.

His video camera saves video files in .mod

My question is, what format should we use in order to edit it in Final Cut Express? And how do we convert the .mod files to this format?

We have tried converting the .mod files into several formats using ffmpegx.
Many times, we only end up with a fragment of the video. 10 minutes of an hour video for example.

Also, when we are done editing, do we need to convert the file again before burning with iDVD?

Thank you for your time!

 

[arjen92]

.mod files are AVCHD. If I were you, I would import them into fce. If it's correct fce will convert them to AIC. Which is the appropiate format to edit with. Search the internet to import it correct.

AVCHD is HD. iDVD is SD. If this doesn't say anything to you: the resolution of HD is much bigger (high definition), SD is lower resolution (standard definition). So all your extra details are gone. DVD players only read SD.

So what to do if you want high resolution:
1) I've read that editing with HD and then exporting to SD gives nicer SD. So there is an advantage using HD.
2) you can make an HD DVD. Only your mac will be able to read this. (need toast for this, I believe)
3) get toast, buy an blu-ray burner. Burn you vid. to the blu-ray disc. Get a blu-ray player and HD television. Instead of a blu-ray player you can do with a playstation 3. It has a blu-ray player.