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Camera God · May 19, 2003, 07:10 PM

Hello,

I have been trying to do this transfer for the past 2 days, so I would like to know if this is possible. I have a Canon ES-55 8mm camcorder, and I want to archive them all onto DVD's. The only way I have of doing this is on a PC with an ATi 8500 All-in-Wonder video card. I would like to avoid purchasing additional equiptment. Anyway, I want to transfer the video files to the iMac and import them into iMovie, then to iDVD. I have tried making the video files on the PC in .avi and mpeg-2 formats, but they will not import into iMovie. I am using Unlead VideoStudio 6 on the PC, but my brother said that they have one of these for the Mac platform as well; I am not to sure on that. This brings me to my questions:

1. Is this possible, or am I dreaming?
2. If it is possible, what format should the video files be in so that iMovie can see them?

I am greatful for any help in this area, as I have never worked with video editing before. Thanks!

-CG

tr · May 19, 2003, 08:23 PM

is there any way you can import to DV? that's ultimately what you will want to get the video into iMovie.

i'm not familiar with the AIW, and it's capturing. maybe there is some windows program that will allow you to convert the avi or mpeg2 into DV stream.

tr

k_munic · May 20, 2003, 02:24 AM

sure it is possible, you just need one lil' piece of software: quicktime pro.

import your .avi file into qt pro.
export them as .dv stream (choose as destination folder the folder of your imovie project)
next time you start your imovie project, it will inform you, it found xxx new, unknown files. say "yes, into the the clip area".
edit your files, add titles, etc.
click idvd.
enjoy your old 8mm videos as dvd!!

you have to spend much time for these kind of projects, but it's worth every minute!

dlefebvre · May 20, 2003, 08:34 AM

You could also borrow a Digital 8mm camera. It has a Firewire port and you could do everything in the iMovie. No transfert from machine to machine, no convertion of format, thus better quality.

Camera God · May 20, 2003, 10:39 AM

Originally posted by k_munic:
sure it is possible, you just need one lil' piece of software: quicktime pro.

import your .avi file into qt pro.
export them as .dv stream (choose as destination folder the folder of your imovie project)
next time you start your imovie project, it will inform you, it found xxx new, unknown files. say "yes, into the the clip area".
edit your files, add titles, etc.
click idvd.
enjoy your old 8mm videos as dvd!!

you have to spend much time for these kind of projects, but it's worth every minute!

THANK YOU!!

This worked like a charm. I also figured out that the PC software can export as .mov files. Would this be a better format to import into Quicktime Pro?

Camera God · May 20, 2003, 10:41 AM

Originally posted by dlefebvre:
You could also borrow a Digital 8mm camera. It has a Firewire port and you could do everything in the iMovie. No transfert from machine to machine, no convertion of format, thus better quality.

Hmm, very possible since I work at a camera store. I might just be able to borrow one of those for a couple weekends. I'll try it out and see how it goes. Thanks you as well.

buddhabelly · May 20, 2003, 01:14 PM

Originally posted by Camera God:
THANK YOU!! This worked like a charm. I also figured out that the PC software can export as .mov files. Would this be a better format to import into Quicktime Pro?

.mov and .avi are containers, meaning that the actual video can be encoded a variety of ways, ie dv, mpeg, sorenson etc.

if you can capture mpeg-2, you might export that as a .mov and see if you can open directly in iDVD. May not be applicable if you need to actually edit the movie in iMovie. iMovie will only accept DV stream encoded video files.

Probably the easiest and fastes way would be to get a digital 8 camcorder and import directly into iMovie.