iMovie and iDVD can't accept HALF-SIZED FRAMES

[NoisyCricket]

Hi Guys,

Well the image below should explain everything better. In any case, my friend gave me a few miniDV tapes (of her honeymoon! eeeeek! First question ko siyempre: May X-Rated ba dito???) and she wanted me to burn them on DVD.

So having successfully captured my own miniDV movies, I thought I would just fire up iDVD5 and do the OneStep DVD capture thing.

Failed.

iMovie. Failed also.

Following error came out: Camera is sending half sized frames, which iMovie can't accept.. (read error message below).

So basically, how do I convert this clip (I assume its a 320x240 or something like that), into the format iMovie HD / iDVD5 can accept, which is 720x480?

Thanks..

NC

[NoisyCricket]

Needless to say that the footage has already been recorded, in 90 mins LP mode, PAL, so I can't change the settings / format that its already been recorded in - so suggestion above won't apply.

Ideas and suggestions welcome!

[hoho]

Originally posted by NoisyCricket
Needless to say that the footage has already been recorded, in 90 mins LP mode, PAL, so I can't change the settings / format that its already been recorded in - so suggestion above won't apply.

Ideas and suggestions welcome!

My question is, is your camera a PAL format camera, or an NTSC format camera? That could account for the problem. If you see cases like this, and are having problems, I suggest borrowing your friend's camcorder and using that.

Of course, if you're already using your friend's camcorder, then this is a moot point. :P

H

[NoisyCricket]

I'm using my Sony DCRHC40 camera (which records in both PAL and NTSC (but NTSC by default), but my friend's camera records in PAL.

Nonetheless, even though her miniDV tape was recorded in PAL, the video still shows up on my HC40. On the blue screen, the "Pal" text shows up.

I can try asking her if I can borrow her digivideo cam. Maybe that would work. But if her tape plays on my camera, shouldn't that be enough? (assuming it was the PAL format that is the problem.. if as Apple says, its really the 320x240 res issue, then I need to resize video...)

[hoho]

The tape playing on your camera may not be enough. It actually depends a lot on how the tape was recorded by the source camera. Do you happen to know what brand/model her camcorder is?

Unfortunately, iMovie only supports DV streams. You may want to look into FinalCut Pro HD... but that's an expensive solution for a single project.

H

[Wingmac]

Just a guess.

Is there a way for you to change the setting of your project to PAL.

I think I encountered it before when it ask for a format of the video in iMovie.

Your camera can recognize a PAL format video because it's multi-system (NTSC/PAL), but the program or project may be configured to recognize NTSC only.


[Edited on 3-23-2005 by Wingmac]

[NoisyCricket]

let me see.. well you can specify whether you want your output to be encoded in PAL or NTSC.. but so far nothing about what format it should be able to read..