Question about my HDV video files
 

Hi,

I got married a few months ago and hired a professional to videotape (HD) my wedding. I've been a video enthusiast in SD video for a long time so I thought I should be able to handle the editing myself.

He captured the files in HDV and I asked him to simply give me the tapes so I can borrow an HDV camcorder to capture it myself into my PC and edit it myself (to save cost). I borrowed a HDV camcorder but it couldn't read the tapes, so I had to give the tapes back to the videographer and pay him to capture them for me.

Now I got my portable harddrive back but I can't read the files. (I'm using a PC) They're in MOV format, but I just can't open them no matter how I try. He captured them using FCP; I did some research and found that MAC and PC don't seem to have an interchangeable HD video format, so now I'm stuck.

A few questions, hopefully somebody can give some advice:
1. He captured the files into a HDD for me into separate folders, but I realize that each tape is only a few GB in size, range from 3GB to 8GB. I thought each tape should hold up to 13 GB in size. Why is the file size so small? Is it because when FCP captures it it compress it into a different format? He said that he captured it lossless.

2. Is there any other way I can solve the problem without having him re-capture the tapes all over again or having him to do the conversion? Because if then I'll have to pay him again.

3. Based on a sample file (see below), does the file look compressed or is it still in its original format?

Thank you so much.

Note: I can use quicktime to open the file but there's no picture, just audio. The Movie Info shows the following:

Format: HDV 720p24, 1280x720(1248x702), Millions
16-bit Integer (Big Endian), Left, 48.000 kHz
16-bit Integer (Big Endian), Right, 48.000 kHz
Movie FPS: 23.98
Data Size: 36.25 MB
Data Rate: 2.39 MB
Duration: 00:00:15:04
Normal Size: 1248x702 pixels
Current Size: 1248x702 pixels

I can't help with a PC editing solution, but based on the 720P resolution and 23.98 frame rate it sounds like HDV1 from a JVC...captured on a Mac, hence the Quicktime .mov's.

Fortunately there are forums at DV Info for both PC editing and the JVC cameras, so try searching those.

Based on the info you provided the file is only 15 sec. and 4 frames long hence the small file size and is in its original format. Looks like your videographer screwed up the transfer to the hard drive and only gave you reference files. If he shot it on HDV a 1 hr. file should indeed be 13 GB.

Additionally you could buy QuickTime Pro for Windows - QT will read/open/play just about any video format. There's also MPEG Streamclip www.squared5.com which is an amazing program for opening /playing video.

Buy a Mac :)