client has camera that records to disk. can I import that to FCP?

I've never been in this situation before. I've only ever used mini-dv tapes. Can I take one of those mini disks and put it in my imac and have final cut read it?

Best bet I would guess is to use a A to D video converter. Also analog to DV passthrough on a camera will make it capture-a-ble.

Disc recorder out to analog in of camera, and then FW out on second camera to Mac.

Is there no way I can just pop the mini DVD disk in to my imac and some how capture it that way? I mean eventually if someone comes to me with DVD's of their home video's and wants me to edit them I should know how to capture and edit that kind of footage. Any suggestions?

Also what about imovie? Will that capture from the DVD drive?

Can I put the mini DVD in my imac? or does it have to be transfered to regular sized dvd first?

Never, ever insert a mini DVD in your imac, unless you need a good excuse to buy a new computer (-:

The problem with consumer handycams is that they all have their own little way of recording video into the weirdest formats and file structures, many of them not being compatible with your editing system. That's why such cams often come with their own free "editing software". Not because they want to give you something extra, just because it's probably the only software that can read this particular video structure (and most of the times even this software doesn't work). So what to do if you really need to get this kind of footage into a serious editing system ?

- First and above all check if the camera has a FireWire port (also called i-link on some cameras). If it has such a connector, connect the camera via FireWire to your computer, see if the camera is recognized by your computer, play the mini DVD in the camera and use FCP, FCE or iMovie to capture the footage into an editable format to your system.

Unfortunately many of the cheap handycams do not have a FireWire port, only USB, or they have some kind of i-link but use a data transfer protocol that is not compatible with your hard- and software.

- In this case you can either load the mini DVDs onto your imac (using an external tray-loading DVD reader), or you can connect the handycam via USB to your computer and put the handycam in computer or transfer mode (or whatever they call it in the manual of this particular camera).

In both cases you pray that your computer will recognize the DVD-structure of this camera and it will show the DVD on your desktop. If the DVD does not show on your desktop, or if the content is blank, no panic yet. This can mean that the DVD has not been finalized after shooting the video. In this case you first will have to finalize the DVD in the camera, then try again.

- If the DVD appears on your desktop, and you can see the DVD folders when you open it... halleluja !!! Well, not quite... now you will have to convert the video content of the DVD to an editable format. To do this you can use MPEG Streamclip, as Steve suggested.

- If the DVD does not appear on your desktop and if you have no other way of connecting the cam to your computer sucessfully, then you can try the last resort: connect the analog output from the DVD camera to the analog input of your mini DV camera, then connect your mini DVcam to your computer via FireWire and use the mini DVDcam as an A/D converter. You will lose some video quality this way, but I doubt if this is even relevant given the fact that you start with this kind of footage.

Best wishes,

Ronny

I just want to re-emphasize what Ronny said: NEVER put a mini disc into a slot loading DVD drive!!!!

One the disc has been finalized in-camera, you can use an external, tray loading DVD drive connected to your iMac. Then, using MPEG Streamclip (freeware) and the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component from Apple ($19.99), you can convert the DVD's VOB files into an editable format.

Or, as Jeff suggested, you can play the finalized disc in a standard DVD player and use an AD converter (analog-to-digital) to capture into iMovie.

-DH