MPEG-2 and Editing - MPEG streaming. Sony digital camera.

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KBleivik
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MPEG-2 and Editing - MPEG streaming. Sony digital camera.

Post by KBleivik »

Tags: sony handy cam, final cut, mpeg 2 and editing, mpeg streamclip

1. Background

My youngest daughter have an iMac with Final Cut Express and I have a Sony digital camera sr72. She have had problems editing the movies.

2. Information.

Thread: Using a Sony Handycam with Final Cut Express | Geeks & God

More precisely this

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Hey John....

This is an issue that isn't talked about much but is frustrating ALOT of users who don't read and educate themseles before they buy a camera.....

Right now, the video camera folks are trying to make life 'easy' for consumers that are buying video cams. And, in theory, they are. The problem is, they assume that people don't actually want to EDIT video...they just want to shoot it and watch it. Basically, they're able to allow cheap cams shoot "higher quality" video, by putting that video into a format that can't be edited very easily...

I got this exact question the other day from someone who bought one of those Sony DVD video cams, and then said "My Mac sucks..it won't edit the video from my camera!". Come to find out, he had the DVD based cam, which NO editing systems can accept video from natively.

The problem with this, and the model you suggest, is the MPEG2 format. It's not a format that can be edited natively very easily. It's kinda hard to explain, but basically, these type of video files can't just be cut wherever you want them to be....they don't actually record full frames of video (they record one frame, then record changes to that frame over the next few seconds)...therefore, you don' thave full frames to cut on when editing. This is also a problem with folks who are editing HDV...the computer has to do a TON of work to figure out how to edit the files, because it's not a straightforward process....so unless your program is built to edit MPEG2 (like how iMovie and Final Cut is built to edit the HDV flavor) you're outta luck.

Basically, the answer is "don't buy a camera that records MPEG2 files if you want to edit". Unfortunately, that's not a great answer...but that's the way it is.

Now, you can import your files, convert them to another format and then edit them, but who wants to go thru all that. The simple and expensive answer is to buy a cam that shoots a format that can be edited.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! Thanks for the question....

-Rob Feature
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post.

3. One solution.

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To my knowledge, the best conversion tool, once the mpeg-2 files are on the mac is MPEG Streamclip. This is the swiss army knife of converters, and will do the job.

It's only available on Mac, though...so windoze folks are outta luck.
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Kjell Gunnar Bleivik
Make it simple, as simple as possible but no simpler: | DigitalPunkt.no |

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