buddyisdeath

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Nov 18, 2013
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So I'm doing a project for school and it requires filming and editing. At my school they have macs with iMovie. At home I have a pc with Sony Vegas 12. To get the videos from the mac to my pc, this is what I do.
First, I import the video into iMovie on the mac because it can auto detect the files/movie clips from the sd card.
Then I right click on the place in iMovie where are the clips are and I click "show in finder" or something similar. Then I plug in a flash drive and I transfer the video files.
When I get home I loaded them on to my hard drive but here's the problem. When I go into Sony Vegas and I drag in the video file to the tracks only the audio comes up, there is no video track and in the properties dialogue space thing it says that the video details are unavailable.
Extra Notes: The raw footage is in ACVHD and when I import it to iMovie it becomes .MOV.
When I try to open it in quicktime on my pc there is no video either.
When I look at one of the clips in windows explorer and look at the details tab in the properties, none of the video info is there.
Any help is appreciated.
 
Solution


Hey, I've found the solution and it was right in front of my face. I plugged in the flash drive with all the source files in it and the autorun window came up and I had an option to "import pictures and video" I gave it a shot and I have all the clips. Thanks so much for your time...
I'm guessing the source file, though it shows up in iMovie as a .MOV file, has not been transcoded properly into a .MOV file yet. I suggest that instead of importing the files into iMovie first that you copy the actual source files to your flash drive instead of opening in finder and then copying the files. I realize that will take a little more work but it may solve the problem. Have you tried copying the source files from the SD card to your flash drive?
 

buddyisdeath

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Nov 18, 2013
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Thanks for the reply,
I will try to copy the source files and then find the path for the clips that way. I will reply if that solves the problem

thanks
 

buddyisdeath

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Nov 18, 2013
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Ok, so I've copied the source files and plugged in my flash drive. I have now encountered another problem. For some reason a clip that I filmed was not in the directory: PRIVATE\AVCHD\BDMV\STREAM like every other clip was. Thinking back, I realized that when I was filming that clip I had difficulty playing it back on the camcorder. I had to go to a weird playback place in order to view it. It was not sorted by date like all the other clips were. This clip was imported when I used iMovie which is part of the reason I used iMovie.
 
I've never imported clips from an SD card into iMovie, which I do have, as I usually copy them to a second drive on my Mac. I was about to say it may be something iMovie is doing but a closer read of your post suggests the problem existed before iMovie came into play. Am I correct in this? Did you view the clip on the camcorder before you imported the clip with iMovie? If not, then I will have to run a test to see if something strange happens when a clip is imported into iMovie and then the card is reinserted in the camcorder. What happens if you copy or move the clip back into the STREAM folder?
 

buddyisdeath

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Nov 18, 2013
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Yes, my initial problem was that I was not able to find one of the clips because it was not in the same directory as the other AVCHD clips in Finder. I asked a friend and he told me to just use iMovie to import because it would automatically detect all the AVCHD clips. It was able to detect the clip that I could not find. I checked every file on the SD card but could not find the missing clip. I did view the clip on the camcorder before I imported to iMovie but it was not sorted by date like all the other clips. I had to go to "Index Selection" then "Gallery" then "Scene List" on the camcorder. It would then show a list of clips and I viewed the missing clip there. Do you mean copying or moving the clip from the iMovie imports into the STREAM folder? I'm not sure that would work because when I imported to iMovie it reduces the resolution so it is easier to edit and playback. I'm not too sure about this but I think iMovie uses their own "modified format" similar to how sony vegas uses .sfk files (or something like that).
 
You might be right. I haven't had a chance to test out importing clips from an SD card into iMovie yet. I'm sure you wouldn't have time to do this at school but the only other thing I can think of at the moment is after you import the clips into iMovie is export the clips in a different format but that could take some time to do. I'm not sure why Vegas would have a problem with .MOV clips. Do the clips that were in the STREAM folder work in Vegas?
 

buddyisdeath

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Nov 18, 2013
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The clips that are in the STREAM folder are all AVCHD format and work fine with sony vegas.
 

buddyisdeath

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Nov 18, 2013
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10,520


Hey, I've found the solution and it was right in front of my face. I plugged in the flash drive with all the source files in it and the autorun window came up and I had an option to "import pictures and video" I gave it a shot and I have all the clips. Thanks so much for your time and help.
 
Solution


I'm glad you solved it. I'm sure that's quite a relief. Don't feel like I did much but am always glad to help.