If you’ve got a flash memory camcorder and a Macintosh you may be having some problems transferring your video to your computer. Flash memory camcorders have a lot of advantages, quick access time, fast downloading, and they’re light and small. They’re pretty easy to use and come with software that makes it quick and painless to transfer to your computer. Unfortunately, they don’t always come with software that is Mac compatible. Some times they’re not recognized by iMovie either so things aren’t quite as automatic as you might be used to on a Mac. Lets take a look at some trick you can use to make things work.
If the camera is recognized by iMovie, the once the card or video camera is connected it’s simply a matter of using the import function. If your camera isn’t recognized by iTunes then you can get the video from your camcorder to your computer via USB cable or you can take the card out of your camera and use a card reader to get it into your Mac. They’re fairly inexpensive and you don’t have to worry about cables getting in the way.
Once the files are in your computer they’re probably not .mov quicktime files or they would be recognized by IMovie. If they’re not .mov files they’re probably .MOD files a video format that Macs don’t typically use. A high definition camcorder like the Canon Vixia uses the AVC/H.264 format. If that’s the case their are several free conversion programs out there. iSquint is one that will convert files to be played on an iPod, but better for your purposes would be ffMpegXX. Your drag your video files (of almost any type) onto the program and it will convert to almost any other type. If you want the highest quality then use Full DV (digital video). The .MOD files are compressed so you don’t want to convert them to another compressed format.
It’s probably not as easy as the usual iTunes way of importing video, but it’s not too much harder. Still, if it sounds like too much trouble then look for a camera that you know will work with your computer. The Apple website should also be able to tell you what digital camcorder will work with your Mac.