• The Mac-Forums Community Guidelines (linked at the top of every forum) are very clear, we respect US law and court precedence when it comes to legality of activity.

    Therefore to clarify:
    • You may not discuss breaking DVD or BluRay encryption, copying, or "ripping" commercial, copy-protected DVDs.
    • This includes DVDs or BluRays you own. Even if you own the DVD or BluRay, it is still technically illegal under the DMCA to break the encryption. While some may argue otherwise, until the law is rewritten or the US Supreme Court strikes it down, we will adhere to the current intent of the law.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying unprotected movies or homemade DVDs.
    • You may discuss ripping or copying tools in the context that they are used for legal purposes as outlined in this post.

Movie Format Question

Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Messages
72
Reaction score
2
Points
8
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac Intel Core 2 Duo (Aluminum & Glass) 260 GB HD
Okay here's my dilema. In September when my PC died, it had 20 GB of Video that had yet to be edited, it was saved on the Computer in an .avi format with a resolution of 720x480.

It's sitting on my office PC (that I used to recover my photos and video) but My question is: if I copy this onto an external harddrive and take it and put it on my Mac am I going to have any issues? or does anyone know if I can even import .avi files into iMovie 06, iMovie 08, or Final Cut Express 2?

Anyone forsee any real difficulties?

I'd hate to lose this home video, its my Daughter's first swimming lesson, her second birthday party, and a few other things too. Memories that I dont want to lose.

Please if anyone has any advise I would appreciate it.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2007
Messages
28
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Wyandotte MI.
Your Mac's Specs
imac 24" 2.8 ghz
Yes you can import avi files into imovie 6.
 
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
1,814
Reaction score
137
Points
63
Location
NY USA
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 5.1 | iMac 7.1 | iMac 12.1 | iMac 19.1 | iPhone 11 Pro | Watch s5
With ffmpegX you can can convert the video into any format. Or get the proper codec for quicktime and you can use the AVIs natively.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2005
Messages
3,231
Reaction score
112
Points
63
Location
On the road
Your Mac's Specs
2011 MBP, i7, 16GB RAM, MBP 2.16Ghz Core Duo, 2GB ram, Dual 867Mhz MDD, 1.75GB ram, ATI 9800 Pro vid
I'd hate to lose this home video, its my Daughter's first swimming lesson, her second birthday party, and a few other things too. Memories that I dont want to lose.
I'll be blunt. BACK IT UP! That 20GB will fit onto about 5 DVDs as Data that you can later recover from.

If you recorded those assets on DV tape and still have the tapes then you have a form of a backup since you also have those assets on your PC. Don't record over used areas of tape. Those are your originals that you would hate to lose.
 
OP
bryans83
Joined
Aug 28, 2007
Messages
72
Reaction score
2
Points
8
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac Intel Core 2 Duo (Aluminum & Glass) 260 GB HD
I'll be blunt. BACK IT UP! That 20GB will fit onto about 5 DVDs as Data that you can later recover from.

If you recorded those assets on DV tape and still have the tapes then you have a form of a backup since you also have those assets on your PC. Don't record over used areas of tape. Those are your originals that you would hate to lose.

Well Obviously it's going to be backed up, I'm in the process of purchasing an External Harddrive for situations that require Large data transfers... But here's the situation out of the 20 GB there are only 3 files, one is small enough to fit on a standard DVD-R (just over 3GB) the two others would need a dual layer disc which is no problem burning on my iMac. My concern is not just about backing up. IT IS whether or not one of the three Movie editing programs (iMovie 06, iMovie 08 or Final Cut Express 2) on my Mac will allow me to import the raw .avi video so I can edit it, and burn a completed DVD Home Movie to watch on a standard DVD player.

as for the original miniDV tapes, My wife put the Tape back in the Camera without notifying me because she watched it on the TV through the camera, one day. when we left for a trip we recorded over the previous footage, because as far as I knew it was a new tape, which is why I'm in this dilema. Otherwise I am quite aware I could have just transferred it back from the tape to the Mac.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top