Using Sony DVD Camcorder to make Movies on iMAC

Hi all,
I am a new iMAC user, and we currently have a Sony DCR-DVD101 camcorder. I have a bunch of videos from our daughter, and I am looking to make a movie, but the computer says the files are not compatible with the computer...How do I get them to work??? I know I may not be able to "edit" these movies, but I really just want to put them on DVD's to pass out to family, and add some music to them...

Any ideas??? We are desperate, and don't want to have to buy a new video camera!

Thanks.

Same Issue

skibrat said:

Hi all,
I am a new iMAC user, and we currently have a Sony DCR-DVD101 camcorder. I have a bunch of videos from our daughter, and I am looking to make a movie, but the computer says the files are not compatible with the computer...How do I get them to work??? I know I may not be able to "edit" these movies, but I really just want to put them on DVD's to pass out to family, and add some music to them...

Any ideas??? We are desperate, and don't want to have to buy a new video camera!

Thanks.

Click to expand...

I have the exact same camera and have been playing around with it and got it working.

First off, the Sony DVD is treated like an external DVD player, not a camera. Since this camera basically burns to DVD, you'll have to RIP from the camera to your Mac. From there, you can either edit in iMovie or burn to DVD using iDVD.

I'm using Handbrake to rip from camera (free software). As soon as you connect camera to Mac using USB and fire up Handbrake, it will detect that volume. You have the capability to pull down by chapter, or all at once into one MPEG4 file. I'm finding that breaking it down into seperate chapter MPEG files helps keep the quality somewhat better. Also easier to manage the multiple files for editing purposes.

The only issue about doing this in the future is that you loose some quality because the Sony mini-DVD is basically "burning" a DVD already and by transposing into MPEG and reburning, you are losing some of the quality. I have 3 years worth of Mini-DVD's of our 3 year old that I'm moving to my Mac's backup hardrive (another thing, huge space eater) so I can then make movies/compiled movies for family and friends.

Question, did you save all your movies onto various mini-DVD's, or did you use the Sony software and put onto your old movies on previous computer. If on PC, the Sony software converts to MPEG2, which doesn't work with iDVD or iMovie. Found another program to convert, using the Quicktime MPEG converter ($19 on Mac site). Not at home so I can remember the program, but can post if you have a bunch of files you loaded up to PC.

I don't really feel like buying a new camera either, but I'm looking into selling mine on E-bay and getting a Firewire comatible camera. The prices have come down a lot since I got this Sony model, so in order to use full capabilities of Mac, that may be the route to go (getting Firewire capable DV or HD video camera).

Hopefully this helps and if you got any questions, let me know. Good luck and I can relate.

I believe that stonesrock is speaking of QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback - Mac OS X.

rman said:

I believe that stonesrock is speaking of QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback - Mac OS X.

Click to expand...

That's it, thanks for the correction.

Another method I'm trying tonight is using Streamclip. Then use Steamclip to convert to DV and import into iMovie. Found this article that helps as well: Article

Thanks Stonesrock. I was able to capture the video and now I can edit it. It's amazing, I've had this camera for two years and couldn't get it to work on a PC, had an iMac for a weekend and I'm in business.

I haven't done much work on editing the video (work gets in the way) but I think I'm on my way to some cool video. Thanks again.

skibrat said:

Thanks Stonesrock. I was able to capture the video and now I can edit it. It's amazing, I've had this camera for two years and couldn't get it to work on a PC, had an iMac for a weekend and I'm in business.

I haven't done much work on editing the video (work gets in the way) but I think I'm on my way to some cool video. Thanks again.

Click to expand...

skibrat,
glad you were able to extract the video. I played around with Steamclip last night and found that this was the best way to pull and edit. I want to be able to edit in iMovie to remove shots of the floor, wall, etc as I was setting up camera for shots. I used Streamclip to convert vob files to DV (digital video) format. Then, I could import into iMovie for edits.

I understand about time, I'm just trying to move 1 movie per day when I get home from work, etc. so I can eventually get all movie files together to create DVD's for family, friends, etc.

Good luck and enjoy the Mac, I'm loving mine and wish I never had to use a PC again (work computer is PC).