Cannot read folder on SD card from Panasonic camcorder

[sparkysewell]

Hi all,
My mum has a Panasonic HDC-SC700 camcorder. She has (until recently) uploaded to her 2019 iMac 5k and edited in iMovie.
Since updating to Catalina, the Mac will not recognise the folder with her videos on. Although, the computer will still recognise the card and show the folder with jpg in.
I understand this is an issue with Catalina not recognising 32-bit files any more.
Mia there a work around, or does she;
A) need to get someone else to convert her videos
B) need a new camcorder?

many thanks for all of your inputs.

mark

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

Catalina will not run a 32 bit program as Mojave was the last version of macOS to do so. Something must be going on, perhaps with the program that she's using to convert the videos. Do you know which program she's using to convert the videos?

 

[sparkysewell]

Hi ,
And thanks for answering. Much appreciated.
When you open Finder, you can see the SD card (from the camcorder) and the folder with JPGs in. You can even open the JPGs too. It’s just you cannot see the folder or files of any video. To clarify, any video that was already uploaded to the Mac is visible, but only accessible using Handbrake, which we used to convert individual files to a new format. The main issue is that it seems we cannot use or even see any video files recorded on the camcorder.
I’d understand if Mac no longer supports this file to work with. But I cannot understand that it doesn’t even allow you to see the files in Finder. Thanks for your help.

 

[chscag]

Okay, thanks for the additional info.

We will have to wait until our experts on video recording and editing can chime in. One of our moderators has done quite a bit of work with videos and editing and I'm sure he will offer assistance once he reads your post.

 

[sparkysewell]

That’s very kind. Thank you so much. I look forward to any light that you might be able to shine on this. Thanks.

 

[Slydude]

You've handed me a real puzzler here. It may take a day or two for me to figure out an answer. In the meantime a couple of questions occur to me:

1. Are you sure about that model number? I've been looking for the specs but I not finding that model number. I believe the closest I'm finding is Panasonic HDC-SD700 camcorder or something similarr. Depending on where you sre located that could be s minor difference in naming conventions.

2. When your mom was able to "see' the files in Finder did she have to do any kind of conversion first? If not, I doubt that this is an issue with 32-bit software. I've got older video files that still open as long as they are in a common format.

If she was using some kind of conversion program, the file might be mpeg. I'll have to do some investigating to see how those files are seen by more recent OS versions.

3. You mentioned that you can see jpeg files? is it possible that the jpegs you see are individual frames of a video?

Edit:
4. If you put the card back into the camera does the camera "see" the video files?

 

[sparkysewell]

Slydude,

My apologies. A couple of things have come to light.

1. You are correct about the model number. HDC-SD700 is the number.

2. The files that she could see in Finder were already on a mounted HHD. We managed to convert them individually with Handbrake such that iMovie recognised them and could import them. The camcorder SD card simply did not show the folder or files of the video clips. I’ll try to get some screen shots from her to clarify.

3. No. These are definitely jpegs taken on the camcorder. This tallies with what you see when the card is in the camera.

4. Yes. As soon as the SD card is back in the camera, it is fine. You can see all files. The same when the SD card is put in a PC. It is just on the Mac.

I also asked her to screen shot the computer details. It’s 2017, not 2019 but don’t think that makes a difference. Please see attached.

I am trying to do this remotely, so please forgive the initial inaccuracies.

Thank you again for helping out. Much appreciated.

Mark

 

[Slydude]

Thanks for the clarification. That might help. It's getting a bit late here. I'll try to take a look at this a bit more tomorrow.

Do you have any ideas about the answers to questions 2, 3, and 4?

 

[sparkysewell]

Thanks for the clarification. That might help. It's getting a bit late here. I'll try to take a look at this a bit more tomorrow.

Do you have any ideas about the answers to questions 2, 3, and 4?

Hi Sly,
I edited my post to add answers to your questions. Thanks again.
Mark

 

[Slydude]

Thanks for the additional information above. The fact that you can get to the files from a PC and convert them suggests that the files are indeed video files rather than a series of jpeg still shots.

I'll take a look and see what I can dig up in the way of helpful information.

 

[Horsa]

Anyone mind if I chip in with a (slightly sideways and possibly useless) thought?

@sparkysewell - up to now you've been taking the SD card out of the camera and putting it into a card-reader slot on the mac, yes?

Does your mum's camera have a USB socket? I'm just wondering whether, given that the camera's own software can see the video files, perhaps they might become visible/accessible to the mac if the path to them is somewhat mediated by the camera's own gubbins (technical term). Transfer speed will no doubt be considerably slower, but worth a shot perhaps?

 

[Slydude]

Today will be the first day that I have had a chance to look at this carefully, but that is worth trying.

@sparkysewell You mentioned mom recently upgraded to Catalina. Do you remember what version of macOS was on there before the upgrade? I don't expect it to be an issue because it has been quite some time since a Mac OS dropped support for a video format, but it's one more thing to exclude as a possibility.

 

[Slydude]

I am having difficulty finding useful information to address the issue you are having. In the meantime:

1. Herr are the directions for connecting the camera via USB. That is certainly worth a try. Note that there is a setting that may need to be changed to have the camera in USB mode. If that setting somehow got chan ged recently that could resent some interesting issues. https://support-uk.panasonic.eu/app/answers/detail/a_id/3691/”

2. So far, this is the only other potentially useful information I've found The software only shows my pictures and not videos. Why is this?

 

[sparkysewell]

Hi all,

Apologies for being off the radar for a bit. Thank you for your suggestions. I will pass everything on and try to spend some ‘FaceTime’ with her to see if we can hook up the camera directly.
Sly, that article you linked is very interesting, and something I’ll investigate further. Perhaps with the advent of the latest OS, we need to use Panasonics software to copy the files across?
Again, I will let you all know how it all pans out.
Many thanks again everyone. There are now a couple of options to try, that I’d never have known without coming here.