Importing Mini DV direct to laptop

[StevenUK]

Hello,
I've just been experimenting with my new Intel MacBook and my old Canon XM1 (I think it's called a GL in the U.S.).

I haven't put FCP on my laptop yet but I've found I can import direct to my hardrive through the free iMovie HD program. I need to have a tape in but it records direct to my computer. Is there any advantage in doing this? Am I getting raw DV (surely not)?

It also gives me a handy field monitor.

Any advice?
Steven

 

[Loud Orange Cat]

iMovie and Final Cut Express doesn't import the raw format only Final Cut Pro does.

What iMovie is importing is straight limited-bandwidth DV.

 

[StevenUK]

Thanks for the response, so...

...when I put Final Cut Pro on my MacBook will I be able to import raw DV from my Canon XM1 (GL) via firewire? Also is limited band-width DV better than MiniDV?

As you can see I'm not afraid to ask questions that make me look stupid.
Steven

 

[knightly]

I have used iMovie as a capture utility before. You will need to re-encode all of the footage captured through it to use in either vversion of final cut. The audio is different and it'll drive you nuts requiring you to re-render the timeline every time you make even a minute change. I recommend not using iMove as anything other than a field monitor if you intend to cut your work in Final Cut. Personal experience.

 

[Loud Orange Cat]

I recommend not using iMovie as anything other than a field monitor if you intend to cut your work in Final Cut. Personal experience.

I second that!

 

[StevenUK]

Thanks again for the advice.

What if I capture using Final Cut Pro, will that be raw DV?

Is reduced bandwidth DV better that mini DV tape?

Sorry to sound a bit thick.
Steven

 

[Will Vincent]

I recommend not using iMove as anything other than a field monitor if you intend to cut your work in Final Cut. Personal experience.

I .. uh.. third that? The audio thing is indeed a major annoyance.

 

[oakstreetphotovideo]

Raw DV? DV, recorded directly from a mini DV camcorder via the firewire is compressed with the same DV codec the camera would use to record to tape. Since the signal is recorded digitally, there should be no quality difference between direct FW and capture from tape. When capturing, your computer is only copying interleaved audio and video data. The difference between iMovie and FCP is in the way the stream is stored. iMovie stores an interleaved DV stream, whereas FCP and FCE break the stream into tracks and store the tracks in a Quicktime movie format. Since it's all digital, and it's not recompressed, I doubt there is any difference in quality. You do need to convert the DV-stream to a Quicktime movie to avoid rendering in FCP, *AND* the timecode track is not recorded by iMovie (the last time I checked), so that will be lost if you capture with iMovie.

Can someone explain to me what format "raw DV" is?

 

[knightly]

raw DV is generally only used with rice and wasabi.

 

[StevenUK]

Raw DV. I've already been informed, on another forum, that I may have picked this term up by mistake.

Oh hum, so much terminology to learn, so little time.

Better to look a bit silly here than film hours of poor quality tape though.

Thanks for all your responses.
Steven

 

[knightly]

I think when folks talk about raw DV, they mean the feed before it hits the encryption to get stuffed out the Firewire or onto the tape. THere's a hack out there for the DVX that purports to do this called andromeda, claims to bump it up to HD as well...it also blantantly destroys any semblance of a warranty you might have and forces you to record externally as it bypasses all of the stuff that puts it on tape.

 

[oakstreetphotovideo]

Yes, we had some people here at the local university working with Andromeda, or a work-alike. It was pretty impressive, but completely non-standard.

Unrelated digression: I was just reviewing options in HD/HDV cameras. I don't think miniDV has long left. I stumbled across the JVC GZ-HD7 (scheduled to be available in April). For $1800, with a higher-than-HDV bit rate (30Mbps max), it looks interesting. Some of the details make me a bit queasy, but I like the focus assist feature, as it is described, and the 5 hours of recording on the internal, 60GB hard drive. I'm not really clear on whether or not you can edit the hard drive files without converting them, or using special software. That terrifies me. The features say you can capture through FireWire, like HDV, but I really don't want to "capture" ... that's just too time consuming. Also, there goes my 30Mbps, down to 19Mbps (HDV). We should know more, soon.