Section 11.2. Transferring Footage to the Camcorder or VCR


11.2. Transferring Footage to the Camcorder or VCR

The actual steps of transferring the project from iMovie back to the camcorder are fairly simple. The results are almost always satisfying , especially if you've had to look at your footage in its relatively coarse Mac rendition for hours or days. Finally, you get to see your masterpiece at full digital quality. Most people are particularly thrilled by the professional look of iMovie's transitions and titles when they see it on the actual TV (or camcorder LCD panel).

In early iMovie versions, you had to begin the transfer process by sending your finished movie to a DV camcorder as a first step. Now, however, a new possibility awaits: You can play the finished movie directly from the Mac to a VCR, using the camcorder only as a passthrough adapter that doesn't actually record anything. The following discussions cover both methods .

11.2.1. First to DV Tape, Then to VCR

If you'd like your finished movie on DV tape, preserving 100 percent of its original quality, proceed like this:

  1. Insert a blank cassette into your camcorder.

    Confirm that the tape is unlocked (see page 284), and this is important that it's cued up to a part of the tape you're willing to record over.

    This may sound like an obvious step, but complacency on this point has led camcorder owners to the accidental erasure of many a precious piece of footage. Sooner or later, everyone finds out: A camcorder has no Undo command.

  2. Put the camcorder into VTR or VCR mode (refer back to Figure 2-1).

    Confirm that its FireWire cable is plugged into your Mac. Unless you're willing to risk running out of battery power in midtransfer, plug your camcorder into a power outlet, too.

    Open your iMovie project on the Mac, if it isn't already open .

  3. Choose File Share (Shift- -E, a keystroke designation that's left over from iMovie 3, when this command was called Export).

    The Share dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 11-2.

    Figure 11-2. The Share dialog box lets you specify whether you're sending your finished movie to a tape, QuickTime movie, DVD, Bluetooth phone, Palm organizer, or whatever.
    (Technically, this type of box, which slides down from the iMovie title bar, is known as a sheet.)


  4. At the top of the dialog box, click Videocamera. Change the "seconds of black" numbers in the dialog box, if necessary.

    The "seconds of black" numbers specify how many seconds of blackness you want to appear on the tape before the movie begins or after it ends; three or four seconds is about right. Without a black "preroll," the movie would begin instantly. Your audience would be deprived of the customary " settle down and start paying attention" moment that precedes every TV show, movie, and commercial throughout the world. And without a moment of blackness at the end, the mood created by your movie might be shattered too soon.

    You can also take this opportunity to turn on "Share selected clips only," if you like. This feature lets you split up a long movie into smaller chunks by preselecting only the clips you want before you invoke the Share command. (See page 485 for tips on troubleshooting this feature.)

  5. Click Share.

    If your project contains certain special effects, iMovie takes this opportunity to say "Your movie contains still, slow motion, and/or reverse clips which need to be rendered for export to iDVD or tape." In that case, click "Render and Proceed." You're instructing iMovie to generate smoother, more professional looking versions of these scenesnot the quick-and-dirty, temporary ones it's been showing you during editing.

    Either way, after a moment, iMovie commands the camcorder to begin recording, and then begins pumping your finished video over the FireWire cable to the tape, from the very beginning of the movie (Figure 11-3). (There's no way to begin playing from the middle of your movie.)

    While this process is taking place, you might want to open the LCD panel on the camcorder so that you can watch the transfer and listen to the audio. iMovie plays the movie simultaneously in its Monitor window, but the camcorder screen's quality is generally superior .

    Figure 11-3. While iMovie sends your finished production back to the camcorder from whence it came, a progress bar shows how much longer you have to wait. Also, you see the playhead ride along your Movie Track to show where you are in the transfer.
    You can interrupt the transfer process at any time by clicking Stop. The camcorder stops automatically, having recorded your movie up to the part where you stopped .


    When the transfer is complete, the camcorder automatically stops recording. Your finished production is now safely on DV tape.


Tip: After the transfer is complete, drag the Camera/Edit switch on your iMovie screen (at the left edge of the screen, just below the Monitor) to its Camera position. Doing so puts iMovie into "I'm controlling your camcorder now" mode. Click Rewind, then Play to watch your newly transferred production.

At this point, you can connect your camcorder to a VCR for transfer to a standard VHS cassette (or any other non-DV format). Connect the camcorder to the Audio and Video input jacks on the VCR. These jacks were once found exclusively on the backs of VCRs, but appear on the front panels of many recent VCR models for convenience at times like this.

Make sure that the VHS tape is blank and not protected by its erase tab. If you're smart, you'll label it, too now, before you even record it, so that you won't forget. Put it into the VCR and cue it up to the right spot. Cue up the camcorder, too.

Finally, put your camcorder into VCR or VTR mode, start the VCR recording, and then press Play on the camcorder. If your TV is on, you can watch the footage as it plays into your VCR. Press Stop on both the camcorder and VCR when the transfer is complete.

11.2.2. From Mac Directly to VCR

If your aim is to get your movie onto VHS tape, you don't have to transfer it to your camcorder first. Hook the camcorder to the Mac via the FireWire cable, if it isn't already, and then hook the VCR to the camcorder as described above.

The trick here is to turn on the "Play DV project video through to DV camera" option in the iMovie Preferences Playback dialog box, as described on page 97.

Press Record on your VCR, then play your movie from the beginning (or from whatever spot you like). iMovie sends the full-quality video through the camcorder and into the connected VCR.

When you reach the end of playback, hit Stop on the VCR.


Tip: If you have an analog-to-DV converter box like those described on page 117, use precisely the same steps. The converter replaces the camcorder in the setup described here.

Of course, this technique bypasses the Export dialog box shown in Figure 11-2, and with it the ability to "lay down" some nice blackness before and after the footage. If you really want those bookends , just add black clips to the movie itself (page 140).



iMovie HD & iDVD 5. The Missing Manual
iMovie HD & iDVD 5: The Missing Manual
ISBN: 0596100337
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 209
Authors: David Pogue

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