easiest/best DV video cam with Mac OSX

[happycats]

Hi all - kinda frustrated here.

I recently bought a JVC Everio Hard Disk camcorder. of course the salesperson says "it just plugs in and you can play/edit, etc. with Imovie".

the manual has an interface for pc and software for editing, etc., but for MAC I'm apparently SOL, no software included, but they refer to another vendor to download Mpeg2 play/edit software for $50.

The file format it creates for video is .mod (which I THINK is mpeg-2 or mv2), and I think the audio is .moi .

So my question is, is there any hard disk camcorder on the market that you know of that I could buy, bring home, and plug in and play/edit with my G4 powerbook? Or are all cameras going to record in a format that I will need to download a bunch of extra software for to view and edit?

 

[bmcgonag]

Hi all - kinda frustrated here.

I recently bought a JVC Everio Hard Disk camcorder. of course the salesperson says "it just plugs in and you can play/edit, etc. with Imovie".

the manual has an interface for pc and software for editing, etc., but for MAC I'm apparently SOL, no software included, but they refer to another vendor to download Mpeg2 play/edit software for $50.

The file format it creates for video is .mod (which I THINK is mpeg-2 or mv2), and I think the audio is .moi .

So my question is, is there any hard disk camcorder on the market that you know of that I could buy, bring home, and plug in and play/edit with my G4 powerbook? Or are all cameras going to record in a format that I will need to download a bunch of extra software for to view and edit?

No big issue, I have an everio that I just got.

Rule 1. Never trust a sales guy - his job is to sell...not to know.

So, there is a nice piece of software call MPEGStremClip, here is the url of the download page

http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

1. Copy video folder contents from Everio to Mac.

2. Delete any file that is not .mod

3. (optional step) To preview your .mod before converting, just change the extension to .mpg or .mpeg, and use mplayer (free) or vlc (free). Quicktime will play video also, but no audio. Change extension back to .mod

4. Drag clip you want to covert over to MPEG Stream Clip, you can preview the clip here as well.

5. File >> Export as XXXX <--- Export as whatever you want. If you want to edit it in iMovie, the do Export as DV

That's it, now you can delete the .mod files too.

Hope this helps, and it only takes a few minutes once you have the software installed.

Brian