Sony DCR-SX60: Importing & Editing – what works and what doesn’t…

Recently, the School of Education purchased the Sony DCR-SX60 camcorder for faculty to use in their instruction. As we have seen increased popularity of this product, we have noted several ways that allow for successful importing and editing of footage. Please take the time to review the summary of our findings by operating system:

MAC 10.6 Snow Leopard:

• camcorder saves video as mpg (mpg2)
• mounts as USB drive and one can drag/copy mpg video directly off of camcorder onto a computer; however, when using this method the video will not play using Quicktime 10 or 7, but VLC will successfully play the video.

iMovie 08 & 09:

• recognizes camcorder for importing video directly from camera.  During import, it converts it to .mov files and stores it in the iMove events folder.
• video editing and sharing all worked fine, and the resulting .m4v video plays in everything on Mac.

iMovie HD6:

• will not recognize the camcorder, and fails to import mpg videos that were directly copied on to the hard drive from the camcorder. If one really wants to use iMovie HD6, the solution would be to import-export the video through iMovie 09!

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PC Windows Vista:

• camcorder saves video as mpg (mpg2)
• mounts as USB drive and one can drag/copy mpg video directly off of camcorder onto a computer; plays in VLC and in Windows Media Player (might require additional codec)

Windows Movie Maker:

• editing with Windows Movie Maker:  Does not import correctly into Movie Maker (audio only)
• camera Import with Movie Maker:  Movie Maker does not recognize the camcorder for importing!
• Note: to edit with Windows Movie Maker, use a converter (like Any Video Converter) to convert mpg2 to avi and then work from the .avi file.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8:

• editing and playing worked well in Sony Vegas, Vegas successfully imports and edits the mpg2 files from the drag & drop method.
• camcorder import with Sony Vegas Studio:  Vegas will not recognize the Camcorder for importing! To import, drag/copy mpg video directly off of camcorder onto computer before importing to Sony Vegas.

Adobe Premiere Elements 8:

• plays and imports successfully with Premiere Elements 8!

For a step-by-step video tutorial on how to import files from the Sony DCR-SX60 on a Mac, check out our IC Quicktip. If you like check out the Sony DCR-SX60 or additional equipment for instructional use at Indiana University, go to the SoE Instructional Technology Equipment Loan website.

Viewing and Importing video clips taken with the JVC Everio HD camcorder (available from TTL)

 

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.

Checking out Equipment / Technology

Q:  I need to borrow a digital camcorder or some other technology?

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ANSWER:   Our office does not loan or checkout technology.  However, there are several resources on campus for faculty to check things out:

• Teaching Technology Lab (TTL)
  • Location: School of Education, room 2010
  • See the links above for equipment information, hours, and policies.
     
• Media & Reserve Services
  • Location: Herman B Wells Library, E044
  • See the links above for equipment information, hours, and policies.
• Educational Technology Services (ETS)
  • Location: School of Education, room 2040
  • See the links above for equipment information, hours, and policies.