Editing Home Movies-Mac-Questions (1 Viewer)

Pamela · May 8, 2005

I'm doing a favor for some friends and editing some home movies for them. They were recorded on a Sony Hi-8 cam. Via S-Video, I dumped the movies onto my DVD recorder and burned a DVD. Now that it's on my Mac, I wanted to convert them to DV so that I could open them up in iMovie and edit them.

What application can rip the video to DV format. Is there another format that will work? I know mpeg4 is not recommended.

Thanks!

Brian W. Ralston · May 8, 2005

MPEG2 WORKS 4 is a great program for MAC OSX that will basically convert anything to anything. It works well for ripping DVDs (homemade of course

to quicktime format. From there you can drop it into something like iMovie or whatever your video editor is going to be.

It costs about $25

Joseph S · May 8, 2005

If you have the original Hi-8 I would start from there using a analog/digital converter box's or the camcorder's firewire port. Otherwise you're just going to be editing previously compressed materials.

Pamela · May 8, 2005

Thanks for the info.

I realize the quality will degrade, but I have no choice. I made my friends aware of this. The converter box is not an option. I can't see spending $200 for something I will rarely use. And the camera has no firewire port, thus my dumping the original Hi-8 to the DVD recorder via S-Video.

I must say, I'm having fun learning this stuff! And iMovie is a nifty applications!

Joseph S · May 8, 2005

I believe others have posted more info on this in the past, but the Analog -> Digital boxes are usually available for rental at local video stores.

Lew Crippen · May 9, 2005

Pamela, while there is nothing wrong with iMovie, if you have a couple of hundred bucks, Final Cut Express (now Final Cut HD Express) is one of the great software buys around.

Pamela · May 9, 2005

Lew, I would LOVE to buy Final Cut Express, but the pockets are now empty. After buying the computer, extra RAM and hard drive, and Adobe Creative Suite CS2, the well has ran dry! I do have it on my wish list and will get it at some point!

SteveLa · May 9, 2005

I wish I'd found a place that rented and analog-digital converter. Instead I broke down and picked up the Canopus ADVC-100 (an open box special at NewEgg.) It couldn't be more simple to use and the finished product is excellent. Still, I'll have to convert quite a few more tapes before I can justify the $200 cost.

Lew Crippen · May 10, 2005

I'm not suggesting that you rip your friends off, but they might be willing to contribute towards the software.

Not very expensive split a few ways.

Citizen87645 · May 10, 2005

Also, if you have any friends/relatives in education you can get a discount. Final Cut Express HD is 149.00 at academic pricing.

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