Compatible cameras

I'm in the market for a camcorder and have become a bit confused. I want something that will work with iMovie, and i don't want to deal with a bunch of converting.

I know that most miniDV cams with firewirewill work, but i'm leaning more towards a tapeless cam if possible.

I noticed that apple lists the JVC MG505, MG155, and MG555 to be compatible with imovie '08, but has anyone tried the MG130?? As far as I know, if a cam isn't on apple's list, it doesn't mean it won't work.

What other hard drive based cams has anyone had success with in the under 500$ range?

oh, fer cryin' out loud...lol..nothing? really?

The 130 appears to use the same video format so I can't see why it would not work.

I use an older JVC MG37 Everio and the conversion issue is not a big deal. I know you said you don't want to mess with that, but it only adds a few minutes to the overall task and the conversion software is free.

Not much help but I hated to see you hanging out here all alone.

Do you lose a lot of video quality in the conversion process? I was told that you do, and i was also told that the conversion can be hours, is that not true?

TheMonkeyProjec said:

Do you lose a lot of video quality in the conversion process? I was told that you do, and i was also told that the conversion can be hours, is that not true?

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As far as I'm aware they record in a specialized MPEG-2 format, so converting to standard MPEG-2 isn't a big deal (in time or quality loss); however if you wanted to convert to DV or something else then it would take awhile and quality loss would depend on how good the software is.

thanks for the help, i think i'm just gonna stick with miniDV to simplify things.

although i may take a closer look at the MG-130

TheMonkeyProjec said:

thanks for the help, i think i'm just gonna stick with miniDV to simplify things.

although i may take a closer look at the MG-130

Click to expand...

Let us know how you make out. I am in the same position and would like an HDD based camcorder as well. Good luck!

Thanks for nice tips.

So I use a JVC Everio HDD Camera with 4:3 and 16:9 Standard Def. I convert from their proprietary mpeg-2 format called .mod right to .dv to edit in iMovie with no noticeable quality loss. It makes the files huge, but that is the nature of .dv.

I use MPEGStreamclip, and the camera came with a CD that said windows, but had the mac software on it too, including the necessary quicktimempeg2component.

You can just buy the component from apple for $20 anyway, and when you are spending 100s of dollars on a camera what's 20 more?

anyway, I like the HDD route a lot. The conversion time from .mod to .dv is extremely fast. Faster than realtime actually. The quality loss comes from compressing the video when i export from imovie to .mp4 or some other compressed format. But you can even tweak those setting and make it a smaller file w/o much loss.

My suggestion. IF you have a portable Mac, Macbook, MBP, Powerbook, whatever, take it to the store, and ask the guys at the counter to connect any camera you are interested in, with a little footage shot from around the counter, import, convert, capture, do whatever you need depending on the type of camera (miniDV or HDD), and see how each one looks, if it works with macs at all, and then buy the one you like best that fits your budget.

One added note, since you won't have the software yet...if you try an everio with the .mod extension. Dig down into the folders after connecting, and drag the .mod file to your mac, then change the file extension to .mpg, and use MPlayer for OS X to play it. This way the sound an video work.

Brian

I'm also in the same boat. I looked at the JVC MG130 this weekend, but when I read it recorded to .mod I was thrown off a bit. Also looked at the MG155 and MG255.

Keep this thread going with updates. I think HDD Camcorders are definitely the way to go.

i i am in same situation, i have the 40GB version MG575AH , just bougght today.

the sales showed me by plugging in USB to the computer and imovie found the cam. when i got home, using also imovie o8 i set everything up but nothing..........then i tried using thye craddle and firewire cable (cable not supplied) and once i hit play on the cam imovie asked me if i want to import the movie. i hit yes and then the whole movie plays and imports.

so somehow it works, i just dont understand why it has to play the whole movie on the camera (and the lcd screen)

anyway editing and saving with imovie and idvd was a blast, but imovie and idvd took about 30 minutes each to render and burn the disc with only about 25 minutes of video.