DV Capture in OS 10.3.3

[danaaprildarren]

I recently got my first Mac, iMac 1.25 Ghz and have tried iMovie wich came with it. Is there a way to capture DV video from my camera in .avi format? If I run it through iMovie it is the only program that recognizes the files.

[FCPguy]

Just wondering - why do you want to do that?

[danaaprildarren]

So that I can play them (unedited) with quicktime, or send them to my family to edit on a PC. Otherwise I am just happy converting them to .mov and importing in iDVD.

[FCPguy]

I'll take a look, but I'm not so sure you can import as anything but DV. (pretty sure of that actually, but exporting as .mov would be a good way of doing that I'll write back if I find a definite answer) Peace

[danaaprildarren]

Correction:


What I want to be able to do is import it (Raw DV data) into a format that is readable off of the hard drive, not just in imovie.

[danaaprildarren]

I was just able to open the file in Quicktime. I guess I am still used to windows, there was no file type so I assumed that it would only work in iMovie, but I can open Quicktime and then import the video files. Then if necessary I can export into a diferent format.

Thanks for your help FCPguy.

[tgpo]

iMovie saves your imported movies in DV format in the media folder of where ever you saved your project.

I believe that QT on the windows platform will read the files with no conversion, but it'll take a lot of space to move those files.

If you are wanting them to get them from you off the internet you should look into exporting them as MPEG-4. Both Mac and PC Quicktime can read this format.

[danaaprildarren]

Thanks, I think that is the way that I am going to go.
Do other programs have better output settings? (Adobe Premiere) (Final Cut Pro), if I can get really good quality with lower file sizes than it's worth the money to me.

[tgpo]

They would have the same exports as iMovie. Just use the Expert Settings in the export menu. Click on the options button and you can export with the different video codecs to see which gives you the best quality/file size ratio. Sorenson is good for keeping files sizes down, while Motion JPEG A is good for keeping quality high. Just play with the settings and see what you like.

PS. PCs with quicktime can play all of these default codecs.

[WiseWeasel]

You can export from iMovie directly to iDVD, and lose a lot less quality. If you plan on editing this later and/or making a DVD out of it, you should stay away from those highly-compressed formats such as sorenson, mp4 or divx. You can get the full quality unedited .dv clips you captured as tgpo explained in the media folder, wherever you saved your iMovie project to. The best bet would be to do any editing yourself, and then master a DVD to share with the family and play on DVD players and computers. If you want your family to be able to edit it without losing any quality, just find a way to get them the 2 GB clips that iMovie saves, add a .dv filename extension, and they should be able to play and edit them on a PC or Mac. If you want to edit it together into a single file, you can put the clips you want on the timeline, then choose 'Export' in the File menu, choose the QuickTime export option, and 'Expert Settings...' format. Then, in the next window, select 'Movie to DV stream'. This will preserve the quality, while allowing you to do some basic editing and to keep the movie in a single piece. This will take up a lot of room, but at least you can then edit it and make a DVD without losing quality needlessly along the way.

[danaaprildarren]

Thanks again guys, your advice worked and my files look great. And you saved me a lot of money from buying a program that I really don't need.