[harleyjean]

Hi all,

I hope that I am in the correct forum for this question. I have a Canon SD30 digital camera that I've used to record movie clips. I would like to be able to import them into iVideo to clean up a bit and then burn onto a DVD to share with family and friends. The camera records in Mpeg and I've already gone through the process of converting into Mpeg-4. When I launch iVideo and select "import file", I can see the file name in my library, but it appears grayed out and I can't click on it.

Is there a step that I am missing?

Thanks,
~Melissa

[doublem9876]

Note to all:

make sure to realize she is using this iVideo:
http://www.waterfallsw.com/ivideo/

and not this one:
http://ivideo.sourceforge.net/

as the last one was discontinued in 2002.

Thats said, I have no idea.

[kieran]

I thought it was a typo and she meant iMovie.

oh well, I got nothing for her anyways.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Check to make sure the MP4 format you use is the MP4 format iVideo expects. That's the only thing I can think of.

[harleyjean]

I'm an idiot. I had a complete brainfart when I posted my message yesterday. I did mean iMovie kieran23kk. ::ducks blows::

I just got my MBP two weeks ago, and I don't think I've slept for more than 3 hours a night since -- too busy trying to learn everything I can about it. Along with iMovie, I have FCP, which I'm hoping to use to edit my honeymoon videos. They were taken with a Sony HandyCam DCR-SR42 -- only problem is, the Sony doesn't connect with the Mac to import the movies. I think I may have to import them into Windows, then transfer them over to the Mac side to edit....if that will even work. Otherwise, last resort, I'll burn the raw footage onto DVDs and try to import those.

Unless anyone has any other suggestions?

Thanks for bearing with me.

~Melissa

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Can you just copy the file off your camcorder directly onto a computer? If you can do this I'm sure someone here can figure out which free program you need to convert your video into a format compatible with FCP / iMovie.

I will say FCP is compatible with more formats than iMovie is. iMovie works with DV and MPEG 4, but I'm not sure it'll work with anything else.

I'm gonna see if I can find anything.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Looks like the data from your camera is in MPEG-2 format.

If you go to http://www.squared5.com , you can snag MPEG Streamclip which will convert between different video formats. This program is free and has both OS X and Windows versions (in case you can't extract your video on a Mac).

From this article it looks like you should be able to dock your camera, then use Finder to snag the video files. Then use MPEG Streamclip to convert to either MPEG4 or DV format and use this with iMovie / FCP.

Let me know if this works.

[edit]
Congratulations on your marriage! Also, where did you go on your honeymoon?

[harleyjean]

bassplayinMacFiend, you rock!!!! (haha, no pun intended.)

I'm going to print out everything you just posted and try it tonight (going to use FCP). I'll let you know what happens.

The hubs and I went to French Polynesia (Tahiti, Moorea, Raitea & Bora Bora) and Hawaii (Hilo, Kuauai, Maui & Honolulu) for our honeymoon. It was a three week cruise, so you can imagine how many hours of video footage I have to edit! Maybe I'll have it done in time for our one-year anniversary (8/26).

~Melissa

[colivigan]

I think that in order to use MPEG Streamclip you'll also need the $20 MPEG-2 Quicktime codec from Apple?

You might also try Visual Hub. It's not free, but only costs about 20 bucks and there's a free trial.

Some of the posts in their forums, like this one, seem to indicate that it will work for your camera's files.

[bassplayinMacFiend]

The MPEG-2 CODEC is included with FCP.