[Jordan]

I have a Sony DCR-P101E (the PAL model) and several Mac's.

I have been merrily using media I have recorded and importing it into iMovie with no problems.

Problems started when I got hold of several tapes that a friend recorded in Japan on an NTSC camera. This was a charity event that I am trying to burn to DVD now.

I can play the footage on the camera, and on an NTSC, PAL and multi-system TV. However, I can't get it to play in iMovie. As soon as it starts, it immediately stops. I suspect iMovie is trying to "help" by not playing NTSC from a PAL camera.

I have tried BTV and all it can do is get the audio off. Says there is no video source.

I have had limited success with ImageDV 1.3. At least I can see the video and it seems to import okay. However when I play back the film there is a horrible lag in the audio and it is about 5 seconds out of synch.

Appreciate any advice from anybody on what I can do here.

As I said, this is for a charity so you will be helping a worthy cause. (insert warm fuzzy feeling here).

Thanks in advance,

Jordan

[moxiemedia]

We are attempting similar job for our charity in Oxford. We are importing video shot in NTSC using a PAL device that provides some NTSC playback capability.

Even with Final Cut Pro with a lot of setting options, it sems a bit tricky, and a little unreliable, so I have doubts of your success with iMovie.

We have had to try various import & device controller combinations. Also, apparently the firewire bus sets itself for either a PAL or NTSC video signal and requires the computer to be restarted in between. So there are various issues at play.

As you know, the colour space, the frame size and the frame rate are all different between the two standards. And I think NTSC playback capability from a PAL device doesn't actually perform a real conversion, just enables it to be viewed.

So try to see if there is an iMovie setting that allows you to switch input stream to NTSC. And then worry about conversion later, using QuickTime or something.

We have some success using NTSC import settings and setting device controller to non-controllable device. We are now working on getting the best conversion from one to standard to the other within the computer.

Good luck.
Moxham

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by Jordan:

I have had limited success with ImageDV 1.3. At least I can see the video and it seems to import okay. However when I play back the film there is a horrible lag in the audio and it is about 5 seconds out of synch.

you can fix the sync problem with Sync-Hole. Afterwards you should probably export to DV again to prevent your editing program from trying to fix it back to standard DV (all Sync-Hole does is change the framerate and/or offset). also you can direct any tech support questions on this product towards me :)