Summarize Mac capabilities, please

[rsovitzky]

Hi! Brand new HV20 owner and relatively new Mac (iMac 20) user after decades of Microsoft.

I have looked at many threads since discovering this forum a couple days ago. I would like to know what I can do with the iMac (iMovie, etc) and the HV20. That is, without getting a lot of third party software, especially big bucks stuff, what can I reasonably expect to be able to do? Or maybe, what CAN'T I do?

I want to do as much HD, of course. I want to play around with 24P, don't I? Is that where things go bonkers with the native iMac software?

If so, is there a good source (tutorial maybe), here or anywhere else, that I can use?

Thanks...

Rick

[neocastillo]

If your only available software is iMovie then I suggest you shoot in 1080i60. You can edit that in iMovie just fine. As for the 24p, I don't believe there is an option for 24p with iMove as of yet, sorry.

[retired26]

Hi All
I have a Imac and tried to edit footage from my HV20. When I import, the footage from my camcorder plays alright but the speed is different on my screen. It's like a delay, and it drives me crazy. A little box says I am viewing at 1/2 speed. I can't find anything in preferences to change it to full speed.
I thought someone out there might have an answer. I tried looking at help, but no help there.

JW

[neocastillo]

Hi All
I have a Imac and tried to edit footage from my HV20. When I import, the footage from my camcorder plays alright but the speed is different on my screen. It's like a delay, and it drives me crazy. A little box says I am viewing at 1/2 speed. I can't find anything in preferences to change it to full speed.
I thought someone out there might have an answer. I tried looking at help, but no help there.

JW

The reason this is happening is because you system is not beefy enough to import the HDV and convert it to AIC (what iMovie uses) on the fly. You machine can do it at half speed. When the footage is all in, it will play and edit normally. What are the specs of your iMac?

[retired26]

I have one of the first IMac 20's that came out. I gig of ram. It's a 1.8GHz power PC. One thing that helped is closing the LCD door while importing, that way I don't see the delay.

I have tried to share a little footage with friends using Quicktime. It sends it but the window shows up small and with not great quality. I am using imovie.
I just don't know yet how to send someone sample video that shows the quality of the video from this camera.

JW

[rhithyn]

I have one of the first IMac 20's that came out. I gig of ram. It's a 1.8GHz power PC. One thing that helped is closing the LCD door while importing, that way I don't see the delay.

I have tried to share a little footage with friends using Quicktime. It sends it but the window shows up small and with not great quality. I am using imovie.
I just don't know yet how to send someone sample video that shows the quality of the video from this camera.

JW

The video delay of time is expected... I haven't seen a direct correlation of video on LCD to what the computer sees yet... and neocastillo is correct about the speed of encoding.

As for sharing your footage, Quicktime defaults to a low-quality renderer for video playback. Your friends can alter their quicktime preferences to default to high quality or if you have Quicktime Pro, you can change the movie's settings so it tells the quicktime player to play the movie in high quality by default.