iMovie fire wire or usb connect?

[thedorrells]

Hi first thread on emug!

I currently edit my home movies on iMovie HD 06, uploading through my rather old vid camera via the fire wire. But when i tried my friends Sony with a USB connection iMovie failed to recognise the camera so was unable to download any video footage.

Yet when I watched the apple video on the website demonstrating the new iLife08 the guy connected up a Panasonic hard disk camera via the USB???

Is this possible on 06? or just the new 08 software?

A trip to the local electrical store last week proved fewer vid cameras are coming with firewire and USB seems to be the norm??? So can I upgrade to a new camera with USB with confidence that it will sync with imovie no problems???

rgds
PJD

[gday21]

Hi,

Good question. From experience, like you with Firewire when you plug in the firewire cable it just works. That's because iMovie uses the Firewire protocol from the camera etc.
With a USB, like my Ixus Camera I have to import my images (AVI's) through iPhoto first.
I would suggest if you can get your friends camera to try the following:
Open iPhoto, then connect up the USB cable and see if it recognizes the camera. If it does do an import of images, then open up iMovie 06 and see if you can drag them into the project.
I say iMovie 06 as I believe from the chatter on the web that this functionality is missing iMovie 08??
Let me know how you get on.

Rgds

Gday

[iDubai]

Use firewire.

1) You have better control over (Play/Pause/Re/FF)
2) Faster data Transfer.
3) Compatible with DV cameras.


With USB, I was never comfortable, Firewire always worked. Except with the new HiDef (HD) camera from Sony, The quality is superb. but for some reason, I get that slow motion effect in some parts of my movie, althou it looks amazing on TV set.

What camera *Model* are you currently using?

[inurv2]

Hmm, is this what you were looking for?

Even I had a HDD and MPEG-2 based Video Camera (Sony DCR-SR100) and it did not have a Firewire port. I looked up the net a bit and finally it seemed the only option was to export to other formats and then import them in iMovie. iMovie '08 takes care of it

Yey!

[thedorrells]

Thanks for the responses going to do some more research on this. I am currently using a cheap Panasonic, which is OK for bright outdoor work, but really struggles in low light conditions. So trying to upgrade to hi def and spend as much as I can afford on a higher quality camera.

With regards to iMovie 08, i have just read on appleinsider, some scathing early reports on the lower functionality of iMovie 08. Was going to upgrade immeadiatley, but will try a demo in the shop before I buy now! I called the apple store in Batutta mall and was told wait for a month.

So will struggle on with the old faithful Panasonic for the time being and 06!

rgds
PJD

[inurv2]

Yes there have been mixed responses indeed. Cannot wait to try it out myself. Though some of the features definitely seem cool, it would have been great if all the earlier features had been incorporated. But still one can first edit movies in '08 and then in '06 (Assuming that one is buying iLife anyway), though it is some work...

[iDubai]

Mac has the new Firewire 800, they should use that technology.

in the early days in my Uni..[1999/2000] I remember using firwire on the first iMovie. and it was great. Heh! I had a small built in harddisk (8GB) & I remember having my external firwire HD + my Cam firewire (Connected to Ext-HD) and that was 8 YEARS AGO!!!! hah! man days pass by quickly.

So, I think Apple should use firewire800 cable soon in it's products, (iPod, iPhone, AppleTV, HD Cam etc)

[gday21]

the slow motion parts your seeing is it during a complex image i.e. lots of moving small objects like palm tree branches moving or sand particles blowing?
Only it could be that the image requires rendering or your Mac needs more RAM allocated to picture playback or on capture, is it always in the same place? Is it an HDV file 1080i or a 720P as the 720P will also give you this shuttering effect in some cases.
Just curious.

Rgds

gday

[iDubai]

gday...

Well, not many moving particles in my scenes, + it is a normal trip type video.

We also tried something else, on a tripod, for the AppleTV event couple of months ago, on another Mac. Same thing.

It is 1080i, I tried to reimport the video more than once, I got 4GhzRam on a MacPro.


NOTE:
Lately, I've tested another video cam, it's JVC HDD Everio [GZ-MG275]. Works very nicely with (Firewire +iMovie 08) Problem Free

.

[Magnus]

4GB (not Ghz) RAM?