Seeing as how the camcorder section doesn't allow authoring questions (I assume that is what I am trying to do) and a search came up with nothing on the subject, my simple question is, once I have transferred a miniDV tape onto my Mac G4 harddrive (resulting in a file of about 10GB) what Mac based program do I use to compress this down to 4GB (for use on a DVD-R)? The only compression program I have is DVD2OneX, but this requires a Video_TS file to compress, and the miniDV is in (I believe) .mov form. Any replies would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
I don't use a Mac for my video editing, but I still may be able to help. (I'm still in love with windows, maybee I'll change). Anywayz, how did you capture your media? Was it via USB 2.0, Firewire (i-link), or what? Also, what software did you use to capture this media with, or did you even use software at all? Getting this info will determine whether or not I can help you out. Hope I can.
Ok, here are a few alternatives. If your wanting to burn your raw footage onto a Data DVD, then I recommend exporting your footage from iMovie into the MPEG-2 Layer format. MPEG-2 should naturally compress your video down to a smaller, more managable size. If this is not possible, or you want to actually make a DVD-Video, then use a DVD burning app (Imovie), import your .mov footage into the application, and as soon as it has been imported, immediately export the footage into an image file (save as Disc Image). Saving as a "Disc image" will give you the necessary Video TS and Audio TS folders needed for compression in DVD2OneX. Just load the "TS" folders into DVD2OneX, configure your settings, and your all set. Hope this helps.
Now that there exists some problems about the .mov video format,which is supported by Quick Time ,Why don't you try to convert this format to other video format at first ,and then compress it .Mybe your problems can be solved. I can recommend a video/audio converter software ,which is very powerful and simple to use ,that isXilisoft Video Converter 3.1,it supports converting video files between DVD, VCD, SVCD, MOV, RM, AVI, MPEG, WMV, 3GP, h264 etc. You can have a try
