- Sony Handycam to Mac PB -Newbie Needs Help
- Posted by Skookum on February 24th, 2007
Hi
First, sorry that I may be very dumb about this. I did scan old
messages on this and some Mac newsgroups and still don't "get it".
I bought a Sony Handcam HDD (30GB) last week. I have a Mac Powerbook
G4 (OSX 10.3.9). I naively thought - because I'd heard that the
interfacing of Macs with most camcorders was seamless, that I'd just
have to hook 'em up and the right software would open and away I'd go,
downloading, editing etc.
Well here they both sit on my desk like two estranged lovers. When I
clicked on HDD on the camcorder screen it indicated that it was
connecting but all that happened on the Mac was that iPhoto opened, I
guess in case I had some still photos which I didn't.
In the Mac's finder, the Camcorder comes up simply as "No Name" drive.
Inside one of that "drive's" folders are my movie clips in .mpg format
and, to make matters, worse, they won't open for viewing in Quicktime
nor with iMovie. Both give error messages. I was able to view them
with VLC Media player but that's a long way short of all the new fuin
things I thought I'd be doing.
Of course, the devil is in the fine print when it comes to Sony's
software. Squirreled away on p.79 of the camcorder manual is advice
that compliant editing software for a Mac can be got from Pixela -
yeah: for about $70 US.
Ok, enough raving. I guess my question is whether, short of investing
in additional software, there are some tweaks I need to make that will
allow me to interface this not very cheap camcorder with the reputedly
video-friendly Mac. Do feel free to scold me for being a dunce but
hard information much appreciated.
- Posted by Jim on February 24th, 2007
In article <1172335706.645008.132150@z35g2000cwz.googlegroups .com>,
"Skookum" <ndale@uniserve.com> wrote:
Either invest in the software or get a miniDV camcorder. The new DVD
and HDD camcorders record in MPEG-2 format which is compressed and
_NOT_ lossless.
--
Edo ergo sum
- Posted by Kill Bill on February 24th, 2007
Skookum wrote:
Whats the Camcorder?
-Bill
- Posted by Dave on February 24th, 2007
Jim wrote:
Some of the newest Camcorders record in Mpeg-4 or a variant of such.
-dave
- Posted by Skookum on February 24th, 2007
On Feb 24, 11:42 am, Kill Bill <billcent...@NOSPAM88.com> wrote:
Sony Handycam DCRSR40
- Posted by NBK on February 25th, 2007
Skookum wrote:
I checked the iMovie website saw nothing about support for Hard Drive
Camcorders at all.
NBK
- Posted by Eric Lindsay on February 25th, 2007
In article <1172350717.524085.27030@8g2000cwh.googlegroups.co m>,
"Skookum" <ndale@uniserve.com> wrote:
Reviews don't seem to indicate it has iLink or Firewire connection you
would expect from a traditional mini DV camera. Seems to record in a
compressed format, like most of the hard drive cameras, which is why you
need 3rd party software. Suggest trying to return it (and get a camera
using mini DV tapes - say a Canon or something, with Firewire).
--
http://www.ericlindsay.com
- Posted by Richard Crowley on February 26th, 2007
"Michelle Steiner" wrote ...
Exactly so. The computer and the software don't know or care
what the camera recorded on. However, they DO care what
format the video is in. Appears to be MPEG for this camera,
so be sure that your chosen editing software handles it.
That camera appears to record MPEG and use USB2 for
transfer to computer. Not Firewire. At least that is the
impression from several reviews, etc.
Support the terrorists: Bring them back to the US.
