Re: Video From Cell Phones

How do I capture video from cellphones? I'm now starting to get calls to edit video from cell phones but have never
done that before and not sure if I can safely do it with my system.

My system:

FCP 6.0.5
OS 10.4.11
Mpeg Streamclip 1.9.1
QT 7.6.4

Thanks,

Tom

If it is short enough and you have good broadband, you should be able to email it to yourself.

Trig

Most cell phones record in some variation of MPEG-4. Since you're using an older version FCP, you'll need to convert the video files to an editable format that works natively in FCP. You should be able to use Compressor, QuickTime Pro or MPEG Streamclip to convert the files to ProRes for use in FCP.

-DH

DH,

Thanks for the info but I'm wondering how do I get the video off of the cell phones and into my Mac.

Tom

Connect the cell phone to your Mac with a USB cable. Copy the video file from the phone's DCIM folder to your Mac's hard drive. Or as Trig suggested, email it to yourself if the file is small enough.

-DH

I'm looking at my Samsung phone now and do not see a DCIM folder. Does that folder exist even if there is no video?

Tom

If your phone is a Samsung and when you connnect to your Mac , there must be a plug-in folder showed on your mac? Even if there is no video in it.
And if you do record your videos in your phone, you could copy it out from your phone to your mac.
Then use some converter apps to convert them into normal formats , like mp4 or mov .