Sample workflows

Handling unsupported SD/HD camcorders

A wide range of Hard Drive based or SD-card based camcorders are poorly handled on the Mac. While things have improved with the release of iMovie 08, there are still lots of situations where camcorders . If your camcorder is not recognized by your Mac, there are good chances that VideoPier can do the magic for you.

Importing files: bypass the iMovie import limitations

iMovie 08 has added support new types of cameras that were previously not recognized on the Mac. However, iMovie08 will only let you add these video files to your library when the camera is connected to the Mac. If you have MPEG2 files on your hard disk, iMovie won't open them, won't accept any drag and drop, whatsoever. This is rather strange, but hey, this is the Apple way; So, if you have copied files from your camcorder to your disk, and want to access them now, VideoPier is the solution.

Working with HD: capture in native format, edit in H264

When you work with HD material, iMovie will force you to acquire and manage your data using AIC: the Apple Intermediate Codec. This Apple specific codec produces huge files (40Mb/second of video). This can be rather unpractical because of the shear size of the files.

With VideoPier, you can organize and visualize your files in their native format and convert only those files that you will use when editing. You can also convert the files in a more compressed format such as H264 for your editing.

Working with HDV in Final Cut Express using VideoPier HD

When you work with HDV material, Final Cut Express will force you to acquire and manage your data using AIC: the Apple Intermediate Codec. This Apple specific codec produces huge files (40Mb/second of video). This can be rather unpractical because of the shear size of the files. The situation is different if you own Final Cut Pro, because Apple ships a specific HDV codec with this high end version of the Final Cut family.

With VideoPier HD, you can work differently and choose to keep the original material in its original format. Simply capture HDV using the built-in capture functionality of VideoPier HD. You will end up with MPEG-2 files and VideoPier HD will let you organize them in events and view them. When you are ready to edit, export the clips of interest using the Final Cut export option of VideoPier HD. This will produce clips in a format that Final Cut Express can edit, and produce an XML file take makes it very easy to import those clips in Final Cut.