[johnconroy]

To my dismay, I have just bought a Sony Camcorder (Sony DCR-DVD505) and discovered it can not be connected to iMovie HD. I have found a way to get the movie clips into iMovie HD, but it is extremely time consuming. http://forums.macnn.com/images/smilies/bang.gif

Does anyone know whether there is any chance a driver will be released so that it is possible to connect the Camcorder to iMovie HD or do I need to buy another Camcorder?

For those who want to know how to do this...

First download the MPEG2 files from the camera to a PC using the Sony Software Picture Package
Secondly transfer them to a MAC
Thirdly convert them to QT files using MPEG StreamClip (Batch the clips otherwise you will go mad)
Finally import them into iMovie HD for editing.

FYI I first purchased the QuickTime MPEG 2, to directly import the clips into iMovie HD, but because they are Muxed MPEG 2 files there is no sound.

[sonicularulus]

well, the big problem is that it is a dvd based camcorder.
very few programs will offer editing compatibillity with dvd recorded media.
if i were you, i would either switch to pc and go through Sony's method and also go through the hassle of the windows life....
or you can sell/return your cacmcorder and ge a digital tape based camera, like mini dv.

From camcorderinfo.net review of your camcorder:
Editing
The editing capabilities for DVD camcorders have always been extremely limited, and the DCR-DVD505 offers few solutions to this problem. Most serious editing programs cannot yet import DVD footage. Perhaps a better editing system will soon emerge to address these issues. But thus far no improvements have been made in this department over last year’s models.

[k_munic]

* miniDV still offers a superior image quality compared to other compression methods (dv vs. mpeg2)
* and these camcorders use a very low bitrate to get some minutes on that tiny dvd-rs... not to be compared as on commercial disks....
* firewire isn't just a kind of cable, it contains protocol standards: no drivers needed, the app can easiely remote control the camcorder (ff, rew, rec, etc)
* mpeg2 is meant for playback only; it doesn't store every frame for compression reasons; any edit is just possible between two GOPs; to do frame precision, the computer has to "estimate" (=>loss of quality) content and it needs additonal re-encoding (lossy again...)

even after years of homemovie making I would never ever bore my audience with unedited camera footage... (record to disk/put disk in drive/…???)

dvdcorders make no sense to me...

[johnconroy]

I had a mini DV Camcorder that I gave to a friend when I upgraded (haha) to this rubbish. I must admit, I thought that the new CMOS imaging plus 4mb digital photo capability meant that I could ditch my digital camera and just have one complete gadget, how wrong can one be. The reviews were also pretty good. How disappointing!

To be honest, the picture quality is pretty good even after all of the reformating, however I now have the most annoying clicking / whirring sound every 20 seconds. I guess this is the data writing to the disk.

[deslock]

Nwok's workaround solved the same problem I had with my DVD403 Sony camcorder. I just bought my first Mac last week and I thought I'd lost my raw footage saved on my old PC when I found out that the Sony & Mac could not talk to each other.

This method is time-consuming and costs 20 bucks, but it works.

Thanks Nwok!

[bluedog]

There are two applications you can use to extract DV video off the miniDVDs your camera records.

IF YOU HAVE A SLOTLOADING MAC DO NOT INSERT ANY MINI OPTICAL MEDIA INTO YOUR SLOT LOADING DRIVE. My brother-in-law purchased a similar camera and got an iMac G5. Apple has a technical article on whether it may work, but I don't recommend trying for anyone who isn't willing to either rip out the drive themselves or pay a service fee for Apple do to it for you.

Here are your options if you have a tray loading DVD drive.

First, DVDxDV or their pro version DVDxDV Pro. $29/$79 respectively.

There's also an option sold at retail Apple stores or online called Cinematize. But I haven't used it.

Both extract the content of a DVD as a DV or .mov file. DVDxDV does a good job for extracting the content, but the camera itself is still using the MPEG-2 stream and your extracted file has already been converted once.

These DVD recording cameras are great for someone who really just wants to plop in their miniDVD after recording it and watch the content without editing. It makes each recorded portion a scene. It is by all means a consumer device and not for someone who really wants to produce content because of the compression of the video (think multiple copies with signal loss of VHS tapes of yesteryear).

[k_munic]

Originally Posted by bluedog

There are two applications you can use to extract DV video off the miniDVDs your camera records. ….

by far, much more ways lead to Rome...:
* DVDxDV (free trial adds a watermark, 25$)
* Apple mpeg2 plugin (20$) + Streamclip (free)
* Cinematize >60$
* Mpeg2Works >25$ + Apple plug-in
* Toast6/7 allows as a "free" feature converting to dv, slide in dvd, and hit apple-k
* connect your Camera to a DVD-player and copy to tape/use as converter
…

and some others...

[spice003]

same thing happend to me when i bought sony micro mv camcorder, makes each recorded portion a scene, i hand to sell it, but it works with pinacle studio if you have a pc.