HELP!!!

[lame54]

I'm trying to upload video to my Mac but all I get is the soundtrack. Also it goes into quick time. What I'm looking for is a file of my raw footage so I can make a movie
It was so simple on my PC. What am I doing wrong?

[AlCzervik]

1. uploading it from what, a camera? if it shows up on your desktop just double click it

and then just drag it in to a file or imovie. I have never had a problem importing video to my mac.

[lame54]

2. Where do you plug the camera in?...

I had to remove my keyboard jack to upload it

[AlCzervik]

3. is it a lap top or imac? Imac the camera plugs into the back, laptop it's the side.

Is it not recolonizing the device the video is coming from?

[lame54]

4. it is an imac - the back where?...

is there a specific plug for a camera - it doesn't seem right that i should have to unplug my keyboard, or mouse or my printer to borrow the jack but i don't see another jack anywhere

[AlCzervik]

6. just take the fire wire from your camera and plug it into one of the usb ports on the back

when the device comes up either double click that and you can just drag the mpeg or video file directly in to the folder or your choice or iphoto or imovie.

[moggie]

15. Firewire is not USB

The iMac has both USB and Firewire ports: but they're not the same. Different interface, different plugs and sockets.

[moggie]

17. Aren't there USB ports on your keyboard?

Current iMacs have three USB ports at the back, but if you're using a wired keyboard the keyboard itself has two USB ports you can use, for a total of five ports. If you need more than that, you need a USB hub!

[lame54]

5. I am using a usb chord...

Is this right? - my camera also has a dv plug-in

[AlCzervik]

7. how we doing, is it working?

[lame54]

8. No - I can't transfer the file to the movie maker - it's in quick time format and only has audio

[AlCzervik]

9. the video itself? Was it video you shot and if so what is the original format, an mpeg?

[lame54]

10. it is avi

[AlCzervik]

11. ok in my experience you should be able to import it, i have a canon that produces

avi files so i double click that and it will list everything that's currently on the flash card, then i drag the avi file over to iphoto or imovie.

I just did that right now, i used spotlight to find an avi file after i opened imovie and then i imported the avi file and both video and audio came through.

[lame54]

12. I'm completely lost...

there is nothing for avi files, I can't save these clips to my computer, they only open up in quick time and it's only the audio
I know macs are the future but I knew how to use my pc - I hate this fucking thing

[AlCzervik]

13. i don't what to tell you Lame. something went wrong somewhere.

[lame54]

14. I'll try again later...

Thanks chimp for your time, help and patience

[moggie]

16. What's the video format?

AVI is a container format, which can contains various video standards. Is it MPEG-2, perhaps? Apple's Quicktime player can't play MPEG-2 video by default, but you can get a cheap plugin from Apple which enables this.

I've done very little with video, and nothing with video cameras, but there's free software around which might help:

ffmpegx, which converts between numerous video formats:

http://homepage.mac.com/major4/

MPEG Streamclip, a player/convertor/editor for various video formats:

http://www.squared5.com/

VLC media player:

http://www.videolan.org/

There's a lot of help to be found at www.videohelp.com.

[Bongo Prophet]

18. Sounds like a (lack of) codec problem. Here are some links.

Quicktime will play most formats, but you will often need to download extra codecs for wmv, mpeg 2, divx, xvid, etc. So many codecs, it can be confusing. But once you have these, it is all easy - same with a pc, if you don't have a codec, it won't work.

More info needed if this is not the problem - but it sounds like you are coming in via usb, indicating a camera capture. Many of these use mpeg2, a codec for which apple charges $20. Screw that. Plenty of free tools and codecs are available, and now is a good time to pick up a few, and avoid those WTF moments. Once they are in your library/quicktime folder, it's all good from there on out.

http://www.divx.com <--this will play those great divx downloaded movies. One of the best quality codecs out there.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx <--This will play wmv files in quicktime or browser...

MPEG Streamclip is a powerful high-quality video converter, player, editor for MPEG, QuickTime, transport streams, iPod. And now it is a DivX editor and encoding machine, and even a stream and YouTube downloader.

You can use MPEG Streamclip to: open most movie formats including MPEG files or transport streams; play them at full screen; edit them with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Trim; set In/Out points and convert them into muxed or demuxed files, or export them to QuickTime, AVI, DV and MPEG-4 files with more than professional quality, so you can easily import them in Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Toast 6, 7, 8, and use them with many other applications or devices.
Supported input formats: MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AUD, AVR, VDR, PVR, TP0, TOD, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2, MPA, AC3, ...
http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

Moggie had good links - vlan is a must, as it will play most anything, and ffmpegx is a great front end gui for the ffmpeg transcoder.


Also, you should not have to use the keyboard's usb port - apple keyboards have a passthrough, with two ports - but it's often better to use the ones with power on the back or sides, depending on which imac you have...

Hope this helped - let us know, okay?