XP To Mac

[SudsMalone]

Hi,

I hope I am posting this in the right spot! Apologies in advance if I am not , please let me know where to repost....

I use Windows XP and have converted videos (VHS) for myself. A friend has a Mac and as she has a lot of old tapes she wants me to do, we want to save them to a hard drive for her to edit later....

What I want to know can I save them on my pc (XP) using Studio 9, copy them over to a Western Digital External drive, for her to open and then edit on her pc a Mac? Will it work between the 2?

Thanks in advance!

(We would just do a test run but we do not live close)

[guns1inger]

Yes, it can be done. If your editor can output MOV files, all the better. She should be able to read from an NTFS formatted drive, which you will need to use if you need to create files larger than 4GB (and you will unless you squeeze the crap out of them). As she is planning to edit them, I suggest DV in an MOV container.

[SudsMalone]

Excellent thanks for that

I can't do MOV but I can capture them as MPEG or AVI...... which one would be best?

[edDV]

DV-AVI. Then convert them to .dv with Enosoft DV Processor or on the Mac with Quicktime Pro.

[SudsMalone]

Sorry I am a little lost DV-AVI my only choice is AVI or MPEG. Is AVI the same as DV-AVI? I am truly a novice (which I am sure is showing lol)

[guns1inger]

AVI is a container. DV is a method of compressing video for storage in the AVI container. It is the format used by mini-DV cameras, but many capture devices allow you to capture DV compressed footage.

How are you capturing the tapes - what hardware are you using ?

[edDV]

Windows saves DV format in an AVI wrapper.

Mac OSX likes DV as a native stream (*.dv) or in a Quicktime (*.mov) wrapper.

Quicktime Pro on Mac will convert DV-AVI for use in Mac OSX.

[SudsMalone]

Hi,

Thanks everyone for helping

My VHS player is connected to my pc via RGB cables to my tv tuner card (I think that is what is is called) and the audio goes into my sound card. I then capture and burn to DVD using Pinnacle Studio.

Thanks

[SudsMalone]

Hi,

My appologies if this keeps appearing, this is the 3rd time now....... not sure what I was doing wrong before

My VHS player is connected to my pc via rgb cables to my tv tuner card (I think that is what it is called) and the sound cable goes into my sound card.

I then used Pinnacle Studio (9) to capture, edit and burn to DVD.

Thanks to everyone who is helping very much appreciated

[edDV]

Hi,

My appologies if this keeps appearing, this is the 3rd time now....... not sure what I was doing wrong before

My VHS player is connected to my pc via rgb cables to my tv tuner card (I think that is what it is called) and the sound cable goes into my sound card.

I then used Pinnacle Studio (9) to capture, edit and burn to DVD.

Thanks to everyone who is helping very much appreciated

Tell us whether Studio 9 can output to Quicktime (mov). You are dealing with a Mac that is very fussy about import formats and is MPeg and AVI phobic. DV is the way to go for quality. Your friend may not care about quality.

[SudsMalone]

Hi,

No Studio doesn't, it will only export to AVI or MPEG. (No DV option or MOV).

Is there another application I can use on XP to do this?

I even looked at Windows Movie Maker but it won't let me select DV-AVI for output, my hunch this is because it is a VHS player connected?

Thanks

[edDV]

Let's start over. Do you want to do all this on the Windows machine so iMovie can read the read the files or do you want to convert on the Mac? The Mac side will require purchase of MPeg codecs. Or you can do it all on the Mac with purchase of appropriate DV capture devices (e.g. Elgato, Canopus ADVC, ADS Pyro, etc), budget estimale $120-250.

Pinnacle studio has allowed DV export since version 4 or so. If you output MPeg2, you will need to move your geek to the Mac with MPeg Streamclip. Codecs will cost.

I'm trying to show you how you can do it on the PC with no budget. If you have a budget, first thing to do is replace Pinnacle Studio.

[SudsMalone]

No budget

• I am trying to record it on my end (XP)
• Then put on external drive
• Then send to her so she can edit not sure what software she will use and I can't get hold of her until the end of the week to ask, she has a MAC

Uh huh....... With studio I was looking at capture not export! I just found the DV video encoder (Sorry! )

So does this mean

• that I capture with Studio as AVI
• then in Studio I output as AVI with compression set as : DV Video Encoder
• and she will be able to open and edit on her end?

do I need to use Enosoft DV Processor as well?

Thanks again, I truly appreciate your patience and your help!

[edDV]

Is your friend a geek that can convert PC files for mac? (e.g. wield Streamclip? or Qucktime Pro?)

If so just cap to MPeg2 and let her deal with it.

If you want the files to open in iMovie, you have to do the work.


PS: If you are trying to impress this person, she will never appreciate the work you are signing up to do. And if you bail, she will remember that forever.

[jman98]

She should be able to read from an NTFS formatted drive,

I'm sorry, but this is not correct. Macs contain no support for NTFS. She'll have to install a 3rd party product to be able to use such a drive. If her technical skills are low, that may end up being more trouble than it's worth for you or even an impossible task for her.

[guns1inger]

OSX reads NTFS out of the box. It cannot write to NTFS drives, but if it is just for file transfers to the Mac, it shouldn't be an issue.

[SudsMalone]

Thanks for all your help

Very much appreciated.

I'll capture them as MPEG2 and then she can use one of the programs you suggested to edit (Streamclip or Qucktime Pro).

I'll put them on the net and she can download from there so we don't have to worry about NTFS

Thanks again for your help.

[edDV]

Thanks for all your help

Very much appreciated.

I'll capture them as MPEG2 and then she can use one of the programs you suggested to edit (Streamclip or Qucktime Pro).

I'll put them on the net and she can download from there so we don't have to worry about NTFS

Thanks again for your help.

"(Streamclip or Qucktime Pro)"

Those are conversion programs. She most likely is using iMovie to edit.

[SudsMalone]

ooppssss.......

Then she can use Streamclip or Quicktime Pro to convert the MPEG and then edit the result in IMovie......

Did I get it right?

[edDV]

yup

[SudsMalone]

Excellent, thanks for that you have been a huge help!

(The files are huge so I'm looking at SynaMan to use to transfer them instead of messing around with NTSF etc)

[jman98]

OSX reads NTFS out of the box. It cannot write to NTFS drives, but if it is just for file transfers to the Mac, it shouldn't be an issue.

My experience has been the exact opposite. I would simply advise the original poster to be aware that there may or may not be issues with NTFS on a Mac.

[edDV]

OSX Leopard and Snow Leopard can read (not write) NTFS drives here. Not sure about earlier versions.

[guns1inger]

Going back at least to 10.4 (Tiger) this has been a standard feature.

[Case]

On a tangential note, NTFS 3G is an open source driver that provides read-write ability for NTSC drives.
Some commercial packages provide similar functionality (Tuxera NTFS for Mac, Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X).