Sony Handycam DCR-DVD403

[cipher]

I got a Sony Handycam that can only be connected to the computer by using a USB port. The problem, as many know, is that the Mac doesn't recognize the USB port as a video input.

This camera saves the movie/pictures in a DVD. A theory was to connect, then the computer would recognize it as an external drive so I could take the video by using DVDxDV or Cinematize, but the problem is that the format that is shown is strange, the files end in .BUP, .IFO and .VRO. I found an application called Export2QT that said that it could convert VRO files into QT, but that didn't work as well.

Anyone got any suggestions? I guess that Sony says that the camera is not compatible, but there should be a way to plug it into an iMac, maybe by using some kind of software?

[terryj]

(I believe that this is the .VRO designation you speak of--see here: http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=vro&goButton=Go)

I've had a query come across my desk at work as to
a friend of mine, who regularly lurks on this site,
was telling me of an experience he had with
a DVD-VR made by a Sony Product.

The Sony discs produced were tagged .VRO instead of .VOB,
and had an .IFO.

Well using Movie Factory, he tried to to extract the .VRO,
thinking they were .VOB files, and tried to do an extraction
of a chapter/cell from the .VRO.
He ended up capturing both the entire .VRO and
the corrosponding .IFOs, which as he tried to access the
chapter he was wanting, the track "jumped" from segment
to segment, never playing the chapter he wanted continously,
but instead played it in pieces, and the .IFO worked to stitch the file whole.

Long story short and how this appies to you:

The Sony recored discs in their Standalone recorders and Cameras
use the .VRO standard to enact "real-time" encoding
to the disc. But, unlike a traditional .VOB that
has all the pertinent info as to how many Chapters, etc.,
the .VRO file relies on the .IFO to act as a "traffic guard"
and direct how the data is assembled, and thus gives you
an incompatible way ( I'm assuming out side of
Sony Vegas Video Suite, since Sony likes to keep everything
properitary to the Sony brand) to do anything with it
once you COULD get it into your Mac.

If the Camera has Analog out ports, I would hook it into
a Canopus ADVC-100, and play it into the Canopus,
and capture that way to iMovie/FCP.

But outside of that, with no FW, and the .VRO format, it would be tricky indeed...

you could try:
http://www.pixela-1.com/vrf_browser.htm

[patriot1405]

i also have this camera, and use cinematize with no problems, however cinematize will export only dvd's......so you must FINALIZE your disc first in the camera.......then you will obtain a video ts folder, with which cinematize will gladly pull 4:2:2 uncompressed video......hope this helps.

[cipher]

/bump

[terryj]

i'll bite....why did this get bumped?