[mjreiland]

There are options for this camcorders. They aren't the best of solutions, but they can be fairly simple. First of all, if there is an HDMI output on the camera, you can purchase a HDMI video capture card and import directly into Final Cut Pro through that. If you do this during recording on the camera, you get uncompressed HD, which is awesome even if a space consuming monster on your harddrive. In addition, you can use the USB 2.0 port to connect to the harddrive on the camera and pull it off to your own internal/external harddrive. There are a number of programs that claim to translate these formats into something that Final Cut Pro can read. In JVC's case, there's even a Quicktime plug-in that supposedly allows for direct conversion. I cannot say how well these options work since I've never tried them myself.
This all being said, I would absolutely encourage Apple to support AVCHD in order to directly get this footage into Final Cut Pro. The problem with Sony's consumer HD camcorders is that they typically don't have a Firewire port so you can't even bring them in without the HDMI option, compatibility or not format-wise.
I just bought a HDMI capture card and a Sony HD Camcorder. I will post more after I try it all out.

[BrianChen]

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One of the reviews on CNETS site for the Panasonic H200 says that he simply change the .MOD to .mpg and the video worked in multiple players. Has anyone tried this?

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I tried this. You get video with no sound when importing it to iMovie.

[meta]

If you're eventually going to turn your movie into a DVD, you'll get better results from the Sanyo if you take your MP4, and use MPEG StreamClip to convert it to DV, then pull the DV into iMovie.
While iMovie supports MPEG-4, it doesn't do a very good job, and iDVD seems to handle it poorly too. The conversion is also very slow compared to MPEG streamclip.
I use this process with the HD Xacti. I actually downscale the HD video and convert to widescreen DV; there's no point keeping more than DVD resolution through the edit process if the end result is going to be a DVD, and iMovie is definitely optimized for handling DV.

[tallscot]

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JVC's Web site came up with this:

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For Macintosh users, the GZ-HD7 also includes plug-in software that works with Apple iMovie and Final Cut Pro.

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It's a Quicktime Component.

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JVC recommended me two methods that I tested diligently. Neither of them worked.

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Weird. Thanks for following up on that.
I saw a JVC hard disk drive camcorder that was SD, not HDV, that recorded in MPEG2 and it came with OS X software for editing. I wonder why they don't have this for the new one.
Thanks for the info. I'm really interested in a HDD camcorder and being able to just copy digital files over versus importing in real time.

[Bregalad]

What I can't understand is why a hard disk based camcorder needs to use a compressed format when the speed and capacity far exceeds that of a miniDV tape. If you're going to record to a tiny SD card I can understand wanting a more efficient format, but not when data rate and total capacity aren't an issue. Shame on all the camcorder companies for pushing an inferior solution on us and shame on Apple who have fallen from market leader to being barely on par with linux in the compatibility arena.

[tytech]

As an alternative, there are some HDD solutions for miniDV:
QuickStream DV:
http://www.mcetech.c...amdv/index.html

Focus Enhancement's FireStor products:
http://www.focusenha...alog.asp?id=150

[rumplestiltskin]

If you have a ".mod" file, make sure you have the MPEG2 component (Apple's) installed and then drop the ".mod" file onto MPEG Streamclip. Export to DV-Stream.
If you create an iMovie project (of the appropriate format - 4:3 or 16:9), "show package contents" of the project file and drop the converted DV files into the Media folder. Open the project with iMovie and, when it complains about some files in the Trash, open its Trash and drag the clips into the Timeline. No extra "importing" necessary, just the initial MPEG Streamclip conversion (which is quick).

[Fixx]

It IS rather stupid that hard disk camcorders do not have an option to record DV format. Or is there any such camcorder?

[rhermoso]

I had read that the JVC 155 and 255s have a firewire cable, allowing transfer into imovie. I assume this to be in real-time, defeating somewhat of the advantages of HDD but keeping the advantage of no tapes to handle and leaving it open to directly edit mpeg2 in the future. Has anyone tried ths feature on these camcorders?
Thanks

[Machound]

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AVCHD has the capability of having a higher bitrate (35Mb/s?) than HDV (24Mb/s), but all current ones I've seen are capped 15MB/s. And before anyonce points out that MPEG4 (AVCHD) is better than MPEG2 (HDV), it appears that the lower bitrate DOES have an appreciable affect on the quality according to every review I've ever seen of AVCHD camcorders (CNET, camcorderinfo.com, etc).
-MilSF

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The maximum average bitrate for AVCHD is 25 Mbps, as defined by Sony and Panasonic. This restriction is to keep AVCHD squarely in the consumer field, thereby achieving market separation from professional cams. You are correct that none of the current crop of AVCHD cams exceeds 15 Mbps average (Sony SR1), but that's just how the companies positioned their first round of AVCHD products. It leaves room for gradual upward bitrate expansion before reaching that arbitrary 25 Mbps cap.
Does anybody else feel manipulated by all this bitrate restriction? I wonder if Steve postponed support for AVCHD because he, too, felt the current choices wouldn't serve customers well.... Or maybe Apple is just too busy getting iPhone ready. I don't know the real reason why Apple decided not to be on the cutting edge with AVCHD. But Apple's apparent lack of excitement about AVCHD caused me to buy a Sony HC3 (HDV) camcorder last autumn instead of an SR1. In retrospect, I still feel that was a wise decision. Just my opinion, but perhaps Apple is looking out for our best interests in steering us away from AVCHD.
Maybe someday AVCHD camcorder manufacturers will learn how to reduce glaring dark region artifacts in order to sell people third or fourth generation AVCHD cams. But for now the results with AVCHD are too big of a step backward from yesteryear's HDV standard, crippled as HDV is by constant bitrate long-GOP shortcomings.

[macnews]

As some have pointed out, the compression of the hard disk/dvd based camcorders leaves much to be desired. The problem also exists in the long run of what you are going to do with these old "tapes" - so to speak. The multiple formats makes it even more difficult to find the person who will be able to convert this in some format you can use when you are 30 years older. Granted, the same is true a bit with 8mm film but I suspect the problem will be much worse for these camcorders in the future.
Some standard needs to be established and it is a shame so many people are capturing their life on a format which degrades the quality and will not be around for a long time. By far, this is the one feature ALL reviews should point out of any current digital cam - at least in my opinion.

[Machound]

I absolutely agree with your points. Some people are leaping on hard drive camcorders in the hope of future-proofing their memories. Maybe so, but only with ongoing effort and a good backup plan.
There's much to be said for the time-tested longevity of magnetic tapes versus hard drives or DVD-R discs. As you say, nobody knows how easy it will be to access AVCHD or HDV data structures in 20-30 years. My guess is HDV tapes will be the easier of the two, but that's just an educated guess. Sony continues to make professional tape players to support 1970's media. I expect HDV tapes have a sufficient following that Sony will make players for those too. AVCHD playback is less certain, as it depends on the aftermath of the BluRay versus HD-DVD war. Though either media type should, theoretically, support AVCHD playback twenty years from now, who can say with certainty AVCHD won't be dropped by the winning consortium? And who knows how long home-burned BluRay or HD-DVD disks will last?
People need to understand the commitment they're making to backing up hard drives or DVDs every 3-5 years, depending on a person's risk tolerance and media quality. Otherwise these 'memories' will just be memories.
I see a market opening up for gold foil archival DVD-R disks, but they're pretty exotic and they're not impervious to data loss. People had better commit to backing up the data regularly! I think it's likely to be just one more project that gets pushed off in peoples' busy lives. Data recovery services will certainly see an increase in their business as a result of people neglecting to follow rigorous backup strategies.
I suppose it's no different than people who neglect to update their wills periodically, or who fail to invest for retirement. Some people live riskier lives than others. We'll hear their agonizing moans down the road when problems develop.
For those of us who acknowledge the challenge of backing up often, DV tape seems a safer alternative versus hard-drives-only. Tapes fit nicely in our fire resistant safe and they are unlikely to fail completely unless they melt or burn. Some 30 second drop-outs are to be expected with HDV tapes over time. Keeping a couple hard drive copies off-site gives adds peace of mind. Multiple backups, multiple media formats, stored at multiple locations == owner sleeps well at night.
No backup strategy is risk free; however lack-of-planning invites a visit from the data loss Devil.

[tatilsever]

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JVC recommended me two methods that I tested diligently. Neither of them worked.

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I really wanted to buy this camera, but I couldn't find anyone on Apple's forums that had any luck using it with iLife.

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Somebody seems to have better luck:
http://forums.macrum...ad.php?t=316154

[derbazooka]

Amen.