Same problems, but the switching between DV and HD didn't work until I quit iMovie HD and re-opened it. Bing! (to kind of quote Ground Hog Day--don't ask.)

heath

Annnnnnnnnd now it's not working. Sigh...It's just not reading it--it should say the camera name, but it isn't. And I'm getting the snow. Did everything--switched between HD and DV, unplugged and plugged in the firewire cable, quit iMovie HD and re-launched with the camera already on.

Does the FX1 support my HD10-shot tapes?

heath

Heath, I believe it does support the HD10 tapes. But, it upconverts them to 1080i..so, it might look funky. I have to try it myself, also all my old DVCAM and mini-DV tapes shot on PD150's.

It uprezzes? iMovie HD uprezzes?!

heath

Oops, I think that I remember now. Its not the tapes...it's the file that can be converted. If I remember correctly - you can capture the file and convert it into 1080i. So, the tapes do not play in the FX1 or Z1...my bad.

However, I did find this quote which leads me to believe there is an option in the menu system of the HD10u? I don't have the camera anymore, so you'll need to check it. My memory tells me that it's an option though!

"JY-HD10U provides format-conversion while playing back through its analog component outputs, so it can upconvert or downconvert into virtually any format, including 1080i..."

Here is the link I found that has the quote:

http://www.cineform.com/press/JVCRelease1.htm

Yep, it's done through the component out, up to 1080i, or down to 480i and I think 480p.

the FX1 does it on the fly from 1080i to 480i via IEEE 1394 (Firewire/iLink), which my DP utilized while shooting my latest short film. He did a "live" digital downconvert to his DVX100A.

heath

iMovie by itself
 

Can anyone give me a hands-on report on editing HDV with just imovie? All discussions here seem to be about FCP and/or only using imovie as a means to another end. Specifically--could one edit a long-form documentary on it? How easy is insert editing? Can you do J,L edits easily? How many audio tracks are available? What does it not have that's considered almost indispensible these days? Bottom line--is it good enough for most documentary projects these days? Thanks

bottom line... no.
Well I guess you "could", but it would be quite the ordeal depending on your workflow. There is quite a difference between the FREE iMovie and the $1000 FCP. If there weren't, nobody would buy FCP.
The best thing to do is go visit the info pages for the products and see which one looks like it would fit the bill for you.
iMovie
Final Cut Express
Final Cut Pro

Didn't someone enter a film at Sundance that was cut on iMovie?

There's no way I'd mess with it. Final Cut Express is a pretty good deal at $300. I'd go that route for serious editing.

Lynne,

Since AIC is the major bug in the process, cutting directly to imovie will not solve anything. Even the first generation (the capture conversion to AIC) shows artefacting compared to the original file !

I talked to Chris and I will soon post examples of that compression on this forum.

FX-1/Z1 Editing using iMovie?
 

Apparently (according to Apple) the new version of iMovie is HDV compatible and lists the FX-1 as a device it can capture from and edit in HD - does anyone have experience with this? If so does the print to video/timeline playback work in real time to get the material back to the camera via the firewire?

If it works it could be an interesting (and affordable! because I don't really want to waste money on FC Express) stop gap for me me until Apple get their act together and release another version of FCP with full HDV compatibility.

It's frustrating to have all this nice HD footage and not be able to do some basic editing until June or July when FCP5 appears so iMovie could save the day if it works.

Sylvain just posted a brief report here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...threadid=40426

Thanks Boyd - Actually I don't understand the weird French English (then again I can't speak French) and the stuff he is talking about taking a long time for 'conversion'.

It either captures from and prints to HDV or it dosent, and to be honest I can't figure out what he is on about - does anyone else have experience with it other than the French dude?

Thanks!

Well I don't work with HDV, but I think he's saying that after you capture from the camera the software has to convert the footage to an editable format, and that takes some time. Then when you export a finished movie back to the camera it has to convert back again which also takes awhile.

Or at least that what this "American Dude" thinks... ;-)

<<<-- Originally posted by Simon Harris It either captures from and prints to HDV or it dosent, and to be honest I can't figure out what he is on about - does anyone else have experience with it other than the French dude?

Thanks! -->>>

iMovie captures and prints HDV, but does not edit HDV.

It captures HDV over firewire, and converts to another codec, properly known as the AppleIntermediateCodec, often abbreviated to AIC.

AIC is 4 times HDV's datarate (1m=1GB) but much easier to edit. Conversion starts as you capture, but you have to wait, depending on your computer's speed, for the conversion to catch up. Only a dual 2.5 G5 seems capable of simultaneous realtime conversion. With trivial hacking, the AIC files can be taken from iMovie and loaded into FCP-HD.

The process is reversed when recording to the camera/deck, though conversion has to complete before recording to tape begins. Going from AIC to HDV takes MUCH longer (say, x5 realtime on a Dual 2.5). if editing in FCP-HD, then the file must be output to an AIC clip and re-imported to iMovie to record to the camera.

Some have complained about bad compression artefacts in AIC footage, it appears to be an inefficient codec given the quality/datarate ratio, given that cineformHD claims much higher quality at similar datarates.

To be fair to Sylvain, the above is fairly common knowledge around here, and his review was aimed at people familiar with iMovie's workflow and interested specifically in how a cheap MacMini would cope with HDV.

I recommend reading this thread. Smooth iMovie/FCP HD HDV Workflow