Need advice on converting MOD (mpeg2) files to usable format for iMovie

[InsanelyOne]

I've searched around the forums and can't quite find an answer to my questions. Hopefully someone here may have some advice.

I've got a Panasonic SDR-S150 (that I'm very happy with). My only complaint is that I haven't found a simple way of converting the files to a format that is usable for iMovie. I bought the MPEG-2 add-in for Quicktime and am using MPEG Streamclip to do the conversion. My problem is that I'm totally overwhelmed by the insane number of options and settings. I really have no way of knowing if I'm doing it right.

First, a few observations. When I view my videos on the camera in the viewfinder, the images are very bright. When I view the MOD files on my Mac with MPEG Streamclip, they are much darker. Also, in MPEG Streamclip I see considerable interlacing artifacts (at least that's what I think it is... I'm not sure of all the correct lingo). Here's an example:




My first question is what format should I be converting these files into for video editing with iMovie? My guess was DV. When selecting the export to DV menu option in MPEG Streamclip, I'm presented with this:



Some of the options are self evident but I'm really unsure about the interlacing, blending, downscaling options. Also, using the Adjustments window, I can make the video brighter, but I'm still wondering why it's darker in the first place. It always looks perfect when viewing on the camera.

My other option was to export to AVI. That option presents me with this mess:



One of the first things that jumps out here is that my source video is not 16:9. I'm not exactly sure of the significance of that but I'm not sure what to do with it. I'm not sure about the compression options either. There are like a zillion of them.

Basically, I'm just hoping someone can help me out here with all of these conversion settings. I checked the forums and how-to's on the site, but most stuff seems to be related to converting things to/from DVD formats. That's not really my need.

If you've made it this far into the post, I hope you can take the time to respond. Thanks in advance.

[rumplestiltskin]

Export to DV. iMovie's native format is DV so anything you give it will be converted to that (assuming it is capable of doing the conversion by itself). In your case, it is not so just convert it to DV.

[InsanelyOne]

rumplestiltskin, thanks for your reply. As I stated, my initial guess was DV but I'm still a little unsure about the conversion settings. One thing that confuses me is that everything I read about the camcorder was that it produced 16:9 video but it's actually 704 x 480 which isn't quite 16:9. The export to DV window in MPEG Streamclip gives me 2 options, 16:9 and 4:3. If I choose 16:9 is it going to do some sort of scaling to fit 16:9 (which I guess is 854 x 480). Do I want to select the Better Downscaling or Deinterlace options? This is where I'm unsure and was hoping someone out there with some experience might be able to shed some light. Believe me, I've don't a lot of research on the web, but the more I read, the more confused I get. Information overload I guess.

Also, anyone have any idea why the video shows up so much brighter when viewed on the camera than on the computer?

Thanks everyone!

[rumplestiltskin]

Less bright on the computer: Probably your screen is not calibrated properly. You can fix this in the Display System Pref.

Just do the DV export. Uncheck the "Interlaced Scaling" and "Reinterlace Chroma". Drop it into iMovie and see what it looks like.

Don't be concerned about the size you see in the H264 box; we'll address that if/when we come to it.