iMovie 08: DVD Camcorder editing made easy

[dejongj]

I just got my copy of iLife 08 for Mac OS X and WOW! iMovie is absolutely brilliant. I've been used to Premiere, Vegas and the likes on the PC. And for editing footage from my Sony DCR-DVD803 I had to use Womble or VideoRedo as it is mpeg2 DVD based....

Although it was easy those apps were more for editing out commercials than a full blown project....

In May I migrated to a Apple Macbook, iMovie was ok but forget about MPEG2 editing...So the workflow was MPEGStreamclip to extract the data from the DVD and convert to DV or MP4 to then import and edit...Slow, cumbersome and no scene recognition or anything...

Last Tuesday Apple released iLife 08 which includes iMovie and wow have they improved it!? Just a case of plugging in my DVD Camcorder, it immediately recognises the footage on it, and properly in the correct aspect ratio (always had to correct it with Womble on the PC) and imports it immediately into the video library (bit like iTunes for Video!!!)....

DVD Camcorder footage editing has become incredibly easy, and I have not even started about the new features in iMovie which makes it so quick and easy to pick the right scenes etc....

Highly recommended...

Oh and for those who need it, it is fully AVCHD compliant as well! £55 is an absolute bargain....

[rhubarbe]

Plus £1500 for the MacBook, of course.

[rhubarbe]

Don't get me wrong. I'd love a Mac notebook. It's just that every time my laptop goes belly-up I look at the price of Macs, and I look at the price of Windows notebooks and it's just such a no contest that I never take it any further.

[dejongj]

Originally Posted by rhubarbe

Plus £1500 for the MacBook, of course.

One should already have one Mine is a black Macbook which was actually only £911 brand new which is a bit of a bargain as well when you compare the specs like for like....

[rhubarbe]

Thump. (noise of rhubarbe falling over).

I paid £680 for my last 17" Win notebook. Reduced from £1610 because it has a Pentium M760 and JP has been conned that he needs C2D to do more than basic surfing and email, bah!

[dejongj]

Originally Posted by rhubarbe

Thump. (noise of rhubarbe falling over).

I paid £680 for my last 17" Win notebook. Reduced from £1610 because it has a Pentium M760 and JP has been conned that he needs C2D to do more than basic surfing and email, bah!

Conned? I think someone is fishing and trying to hook one....And please don't turn this into a Windows versus Apple thread especially not with those out-of-date 'you have to pay more for an Apple machine' arguments...The hardward is cheaper than any PC based equivalent, and so is the OS...But that is not the point as useability is priceless....

And in my experience DVD Camcorder editing is not simpler on anything else than on this setup....

[massimo]

I am really pleased Apple have made it even easier to edit video in iMovie, not that it wasn't already easy enough, but the compatibility with AVCHD means I now get to buy myself a new Panasonic camcorder.
I'll also be getting myself a new iMac with iLife '08 to help me edit it.

Dejongj, are you editting HDV(tape) footage or AVCHD?

[dejongj]

Originally Posted by massimo

I am really pleased Apple have made it even easier to edit video in iMovie, not that it wasn't already easy enough, but the compatibility with AVCHD means I now get to buy myself a new Panasonic camcorder.
I'll also be getting myself a new iMac with iLife '08 to help me edit it.

Dejongj, are you editting HDV(tape) footage or AVCHD?

I'm actually editing MPEG2-SD from a DVD Camcorder. Only bought this camera 1.5 years ago and I will be in trouble with the better half when I get another one already....My TRV900 lasted 7 years! But I guess I will be looking around for a high-def one next year....

iMovie 08 is incredibly good actually, just edited 3 hours of footage down to about 35 minutes including fades, lower thirds etc in about 45 minutes...That's more like it! Finally all those old outstanding tapes and DVD will get done...

[harrinp1]

Originally Posted by dejongj

I'm actually editing MPEG2-SD from a DVD Camcorder. Only bought this camera 1.5 years ago and I will be in trouble with the better half when I get another one already....My TRV900 lasted 7 years! But I guess I will be looking around for a high-def one next year....

iMovie 08 is incredibly good actually, just edited 3 hours of footage down to about 35 minutes including fades, lower thirds etc in about 45 minutes...That's more like it! Finally all those old outstanding tapes and DVD will get done...

I agree its a lot faster to put stuff together. Shame it doesn't speed up importing miniDV, I'm just working my way through about 12 tapes. Once thats done I think its time to retire the miniDV camcorder and get myself a new HD one....

[rhubarbe]

No no, I have no axe to grind Windows or Apple and as I said, I'd love to be able to have a Macbook Pro.

My abbreviation JP was meant in place of Joe Public, not Jean Paul. I wasn't meaning to insult you in any way.

[dejongj]

Originally Posted by rhubarbe

No no, I have no axe to grind Windows or Apple and as I said, I'd love to be able to have a Macbook Pro.

You did but then retracted it, I would do the maths again because like for like in specification they are really cheaper than the PC laptops...

Originally Posted by rhubarbe

My abbreviation JP was meant in place of Joe Public, not Jean Paul. I wasn't meaning to insult you in any way.

Thanks. However I think Joe Public does a lot more....Digital camera images are 10mp and above nowadays, high def camera's can be had for around £450, sharing on YouTube etc....For example I am now rendering a DVD in the background, burning some CD's in itunes, preparing the label printer and responding to the forum....And somehow the machine just does not slow down, I think the C2D is very good and useful especially with new media...

[dejongj]

Originally Posted by harrinp1

I agree its a lot faster to put stuff together. Shame it doesn't speed up importing miniDV, I'm just working my way through about 12 tapes. Once thats done I think its time to retire the miniDV camcorder and get myself a new HD one....

That is unfortunately a limitation of DV, it has to play at realtime speed from normal consumer camera's...Nothing much to do with iMovie...But at least you gain back the speed with editing...

[massimo]

Well I've gone and done. I ordered one of them Panasonic SD card HD camcorders. And all because of iMovie 08. B*st*rds!

[rhubarbe]

You mean the SD1, or the new SD7?

[Solidstate]

I've got a Sony DCR-IP1 MicroMV camcorder gathering dust and I wonder if it would work properly with iMovie08?

Previously the conversion software I tried would store the tape as one long video clip and I had to manually splice it up into the individual scenes. Needless to say I only did that once, then bought a new HD camcorder instead. But I really loved my DCR-IP1 for its incredibly small size.