iMovie 08: DVD Camcorder editing made easy

dejongj · 10-08-2007, 3:07 PM

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 · 10-08-2007, 3:31 PM

Plus £1500 for the MacBook, of course.

rhubarbe · 10-08-2007, 3:33 PM

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 · 10-08-2007, 3:35 PM

Quote:

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 · 10-08-2007, 4:08 PM

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 · 10-08-2007, 4:20 PM

Quote:

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 · 10-08-2007, 5:24 PM

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 · 10-08-2007, 5:33 PM

Quote:

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 · 10-08-2007, 7:55 PM

Quote:

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 · 10-08-2007, 7:56 PM

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 · 10-08-2007, 9:34 PM

Quote:

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...

Quote:

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 · 10-08-2007, 9:35 PM

Quote:

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 · 11-08-2007, 12:49 AM

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 · 11-08-2007, 7:57 AM

You mean the SD1, or the new SD7?

Solidstate · 11-08-2007, 11:09 AM

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.

massimo · 11-08-2007, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhubarbe

You mean the SD1, or the new SD7?

SD1.

rhubarbe · 11-08-2007, 12:31 PM

As the release of the new SD5 becomes imminent I would expect the price of SD1s to fall. Although the purist would argue that they are different beasts, there are more punters than purists out there, and the starting price of the SD5is supposed to be going to be lower than the current street price of the SD1, so watch out for some bargains.

redbull2075 · 11-08-2007, 2:36 PM

I was very happy before with my sony CX6 but now with the upgrade to Imovie things have just got a whole lot better... went out to the coast yesterday with the super light CX6 and 2 x 8gig memory sticks... bliss.. now I can burn HD footage straight to PS3 or edit away on the MAC....

Thanks Apple !!

rhubarbe · 11-08-2007, 4:11 PM

And here's me painting the kitchen.

*Tenex* · 11-08-2007, 11:43 PM

@ Solidstate

there are a few reports of problems hooking up a few Sony's to '08, but they are very few and if its more than a few incapable users Apple will fix it quickly.

I've never had a problem connecting my Sony miniDV to '05 or '06 and I've just bought a Canon which worked immediately too.

I think it was rhubarbe who commented on the price of a Macbook Pro? Take it from me you don't need a MBPro to handle video editing, I used to do it on a G3 iBook under '05 with 640Mb RAM.

If you want to try an Apple notebook I'd suggest getting the base spec MacBook (assuming you don't want to burn DVDs otherwise go to the middle model). More memory will, as always, speed things up.

My local Apple store run all their demo lectures including video editing of HD content from MacBooks (not Pro's) to a 30" ACD and the speed of the MacBook amazes me. The base Macbook with all iLife apps and the OS costs £600 with HE education discount a little more with regular education discount.

I switched over a year ago and no OS is perfect but for all of the things you want to do with a computer (I don't game) its just so easy on a Mac.

harrinp1 · 12-08-2007, 6:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhubarbe

As the release of the new SD5 becomes imminent I would expect the price of SD1s to fall. Although the purist would argue that they are different beasts, there are more punters than purists out there, and the starting price of the SD5is supposed to be going to be lower than the current street price of the SD1, so watch out for some bargains.

I'm looking to pick up an SD5 when they come out, though I just noticed a thread over on the apple support forums saying about sound issues with the SD1 and iMovie 08:-

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1194

rhubarbe · 12-08-2007, 8:57 PM

The HDC-SD5 has just appeared on here:

http://www.computeruniverse.net/

Totally brilliant German company who give a two yesr guarantee on everything and offer good pricing.

Davidgilmour · 18-08-2007, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rhubarbe

The HDC-SD5 has just appeared on here:

http://www.computeruniverse.net/

Totally brilliant German company who give a two yesr guarantee on everything and offer good pricing.

Thanks, they are able to deliver it to me for 920 euros. I was thinking about ordering on ebay but then there's taxes and the risk of damage/stolen. This is safer

On ebay they're 900 euros inc shipping but that's including a 8GB card, I'm not sure.

23-08-2007, 10:35 AM

Hi

Can anyone help me please. I have an Apple Mac c/w iMovie and I have a Canon MV750i DV Camcorder. Having followed all the instructions (I think) my Mac just does not see a camera? I have Firewire, I have even taken everything down to the mac shop to see if maybe it was a computer issue but none of theirs could see the camera either. Is there some little settiing in the camera perhaps that i have missed? Any ideas?
Thanks

*Tenex* · 23-08-2007, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitkat1999

Hi

Can anyone help me please. I have an Apple Mac c/w iMovie and I have a Canon MV750i DV Camcorder. Having followed all the instructions (I think) my Mac just does not see a camera? I have Firewire, I have even taken everything down to the mac shop to see if maybe it was a computer issue but none of theirs could see the camera either. Is there some little settiing in the camera perhaps that i have missed? Any ideas?
Thanks

I've recently bought a Canon MV890 and I've connected it to my iMac without a problem.

First off which iLife version do you have - if 08 then I can't help but if 06 or 05 this may help.

The Canon won't show up as a drive in Finder FWIW.

Start iMovie and open a new project. Then connect the Canon. At the bottom of the playback area there is a little grey/black icon pair - showing a camcorder and scissors. with the Canon attached and switched on move the slider to to the camcorder icon (sometimes there is a small menu if you have say an iMac and the iSight camera built-in so choose the Canon).

The playback area should then turn blue and you will be able to control the Canon from there.

If that doesn't help I'd think the problem lies somewhere within a menu on the Canon, though you need to rule out problems with the firewire cable (try another) or either firewire port to be absolutely sure.

HTH

23-08-2007, 11:45 AM

Thank Tenex,
I dont have the new 2008 versions on iLife or iMovie and infact have already tried out your options. Nothing is working. I have now tried 3 differnt fire wire cables. I really dont think its a Mac problem but I just cannot find the info on the camera. I have the same problem with a Sony DCR HC21E. Its very odd.
Cheers for trying though.

*Tenex* · 23-08-2007, 11:51 AM

Can you attach other firewire devices to this Mac with that cable? IS the problem with the Sony to the same Mac with same cable?

Its beyond my tech expertise but you may need to reset the SMU.

Anyway it might be worth checking the iMovie Apple forum http://discussions.apple.com/categor...categoryID=141

*Tenex* · 23-08-2007, 6:01 PM

Canon info for the MV750i here http://www.canon.co.uk/for_home/prod...750i/index.asp

raigraphixs · 23-08-2007, 6:10 PM

like tenex said make sure the ports on the mac are working, on older macs like g4s at least 1 firewire port had a tendacy to stop working.

dejongj · 24-08-2007, 9:03 AM

I remember from the early days of firewire that some cables with my Sony TRV-900 G3-Yosemite were temperamental. There also used to be the 4 vs 6 wires firewire problem as some cables were fully wired and some others weren't....

I can't see a manual for the mv750i online, but are you sure the firewire output is enabled?

It could be that the camera is faulty....Did they try one of their known working camera's in the shop to eliminate that it is your laptop?

23-08-2007, 10:35 AM	#24
Kitkat1999 Guest Posts: n/a	Re: iMovie 08: DVD Camcorder editing made easy Hi Can anyone help me please. I have an Apple Mac c/w iMovie and I have a Canon MV750i DV Camcorder. Having followed all the instructions (I think) my Mac just does not see a camera? I have Firewire, I have even taken everything down to the mac shop to see if maybe it was a computer issue but none of theirs could see the camera either. Is there some little settiing in the camera perhaps that i have missed? Any ideas? Thanks
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23-08-2007, 11:45 AM	#26
Kitkat1999 Guest Posts: n/a	Re: iMovie 08: DVD Camcorder editing made easy Thank Tenex, I dont have the new 2008 versions on iLife or iMovie and infact have already tried out your options. Nothing is working. I have now tried 3 differnt fire wire cables. I really dont think its a Mac problem but I just cannot find the info on the camera. I have the same problem with a Sony DCR HC21E. Its very odd. Cheers for trying though.
	Quote