I did some searches on this and tons of googling but still have yet to find a solution that seems to work.
Bought new MBP, i5, 4G RAM, 17" etc and have a Sony DCR-SR42 HDD camcorder. It comes with software to import the the footage into Windows ONLY. I looked up the camcorder model on the Sony site and they say that iMovie on the Mac will import the footage. When I try it, it doesn't work. It goes through the import process but after it's finished I get an error message saying unrecognizable format or something along those lines. The camera stores the files as MPEG2 on a hard drive. Apple wants me to buy an MPEG2 add-on for $20 or 30 buck of course but this doesn't guarantee iMovie will still be able to import the footage off the camera.
Currently, I'm having to import the footage from my camera in Windows using the Sony software, copying the files to my Mac partition, and then converting all of the files to MPEG-4 using Handbrake before I can import them into iMovie. Handbrake doesn't seem to have a batch feature so I have to open each file (hundreds of them) individually, put them all in the queue on by one, render them into new format then import into iMovie.
Am I missing something? What have you other switchers done to import video from your camcorders? Surely there is something obvious that I'm missing but I just don't understand why importing video into my mac is such a big issue.
This is the only thing that is keeping me in the Windows world and I need to delete the boot camp partition now as I need the space and I really want to be rid of windows completely.
Thanks for any advice or experiences that you switchers have come across or from any of you experienced mac guys.
Bought new MBP, i5, 4G RAM, 17" etc and have a Sony DCR-SR42 HDD camcorder. It comes with software to import the the footage into Windows ONLY. I looked up the camcorder model on the Sony site and they say that iMovie on the Mac will import the footage. When I try it, it doesn't work. It goes through the import process but after it's finished I get an error message saying unrecognizable format or something along those lines. The camera stores the files as MPEG2 on a hard drive. Apple wants me to buy an MPEG2 add-on for $20 or 30 buck of course but this doesn't guarantee iMovie will still be able to import the footage off the camera.
Currently, I'm having to import the footage from my camera in Windows using the Sony software, copying the files to my Mac partition, and then converting all of the files to MPEG-4 using Handbrake before I can import them into iMovie. Handbrake doesn't seem to have a batch feature so I have to open each file (hundreds of them) individually, put them all in the queue on by one, render them into new format then import into iMovie.
Am I missing something? What have you other switchers done to import video from your camcorders? Surely there is something obvious that I'm missing but I just don't understand why importing video into my mac is such a big issue.
This is the only thing that is keeping me in the Windows world and I need to delete the boot camp partition now as I need the space and I really want to be rid of windows completely.
Thanks for any advice or experiences that you switchers have come across or from any of you experienced mac guys.