Let’s say you or your students used one of the new JVC Everio HD camcorders available from the Teaching Technology Lab in the School of Education, you’ve copied the file to your hard drive but your computer does not play the file at all or correctly (i.e., no sound). What’s going on?
Answer:
JVC uses a proprietary file format called MOD (a mpeg-2 variation) that cannot be played correctly with the standard media players on a PC or Mac. In order for convert the file to a more common format that is viewable (mp4, mpeg, mpeg2, avi, mov, etc.), you EITHER need to use the proprietary video editing software that comes on a CD with the camcorder (PowerDirector) OR use a different video editing software, such as iMovie ’08 or Sony Vegas Video.
1. Connect the camcorder to your MAC or PC using the USB.
2. Open the flip screen of camcorder and select Playback on PC (even when on a Mac).
3. Your computer should recognize the camcorder as a new hard drive.
4. Look for the SD_Video folder to find your video clips in MOD format.
5. Import the file(s) to the video editing software.
After you have imported and edited the clips, you need to export or render them into the desired format.
In our tests, this process was simpler on the Mac with iMovie. Check out this YouTube video for more information:
Note: For faculty and associate instructors, feel free to stop by Instructional Consulting for more details or help with this issue.
Q: I need to borrow a digital camcorder or some other technology?