Look for a conversion software.

Not having a sample file to play with makes answering this difficult.

It's an Apple format and you're wanting to bring it into a PC software. If you cant "see" it in PD then you'll have to see what conversion program you can find.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

Dafydd - you'll see my recent post that I'm having trouble importing files that I can import to my wife's iMac from 8mm via a Sony mini DV camera.

I could go back and get the files from my wife's iMac in .dv file format and convert but I've assumed that every time a file is converted you lose quality (from 8mm to Apple to PD8 versus 8mm to PD.

If my assumption is wrong, let me know!

Andrew - I was using 'MPEG Streamclick' software to convert large files on the Mac to multiple files short files. Check it out at http://www.squared5.com/

MPEG Streamclip is a powerful free video converter, player, editor for Mac and Windows. It can play many movie files, not only MPEGs; it can convert MPEG files between muxed/demuxed formats for authoring; it can encode movies to many formats, including iPod; it can cut, trim and join movies. MPEG Streamclip can also download videos from YouTube and Google by entering the page URL.

You can use MPEG Streamclip to open and play most movie formats including MPEG files or transport streams; edit them with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Trim; set In/Out points and convert them into muxed or demuxed files, or export them to QuickTime, AVI, DV and MPEG-4 files with more than professional quality, so you can easily import them in a DVD authoring tool, and use them with many other applications or devices.

Supported input formats: MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AVR, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2, MPA, AC3, ... PowerDirector 8, PowerDVD10
Sony HDR-CX110 Full HD AVCHD
Panasonic DMC-Z3S camera (AVCHD lite - 720p)
Gateway, i3 cpu, ATI 5650 graphics, 4Gig ram, windows 7

And a Sony DV and a Cannon 8mm to boot.

Hi Andrew -

Dafydd's conversion idea is correct.

I downloaded a (poor quality) sample .dv file from http://www.archive.org/details/DvAnalyzerSampleDvVideoErrorConcealment & converted it with Format Factory (free). This is obviously not ideal!

Another option, but only if you have QuickTime Pro (I think) is to open your .dv file in QT & select Export from the file menu. Options are shown in the screen shot attached.

Cheers - Tony


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You could try VirtualDub MPEG2 or VirtualDubMOD they are both free and very easy to use and should be able to convert your files to mpeg2.

OR (proceed with caution as I have never needed to try this in PD8 )

Frameserve

Frameserving means "serving" the original video (MPEG files and other .AVI formats) frame by frame to an NLE such as PD8 without converting it into a format that PD8 understands first. This technique "tricks" the receiving program (in this case PD8 ) into thinking that it has imported a large file that it knows, but in fact the frames it is calling on are still in the original format (quite possibly a format that PD8 refuses to import). Using this process, PD8 (or you) doesn't have to convert the video file into its own format (and in so doing mess up the audio sync) it simply uses the frames being served to it as though they were already converted.

This method is used extensively by advanced video editing people to preprocess original video material (such as old film stock or VHS tape) before it arrives in an NLE for editing. This is often done using AviSynth and VirtualDub.

If someone has successfully frameserved into PD8 could they please let other members of the forum know.

Regards
Richard Richard

Camera Canon HG21 PAL, PD-Ultra v8.00.2508
PC Asus KFN32-D SLI, Dual Opteron 2216, 4GB ECC Registered, Nvidia Quadro FX5600 Driver v181.20, Vista x64 Ultimate SP2, Plenty of fast HDD Space.

Hugh's suggestion of 'MPEG Streamclick' was spot on. I converted the files into high quality MP4 and PD8 was able to work with them fine. It is an excellent little app.

I admit I was a little suprised that PD8 won't deal with .dv files directly, I think these are what comes straight off of the camera?

Thanks for the help guys!
Andy

Dafydd conversion idea is a nice one.
And you can convert your DV video file to Apple MOV video format and for further editing.
The software I recommend is Aunsoft Video Converter which is powerful in converting DV video to other editable video formats, like MOV, AVI, WMV, MPEG, FLV, MKV, and etc.

If you would like to do some simple editing, this program will satisfy you.

The output vieo is in high quality without the high synchronization of video and audio.

I posted, as did the rest of us, on this thread 7 months ago - no need to resurrect this item I feel.

Dafydd

I'm a little bit late on this post but as it takes me two hours today to find the solution. I'm so happy to share how to do.

Let's me explain.

.dv files are like .mov files (you can rename it, it works) it is apple format. You can play them using quicktime apple. When you try to open it in PD12,13,14 you can see the movie but you get an error message when you try to edit.

Equivalent windows format is DV-AVI type I and type II, nothing in common with AVI windows files. This is what you got when capture from DV in PD12,13,14.

if you use a converter to change from .dv to .avi, you will loose the quality. You go from a Raw file to a compressed file.

PD12,13,14 accepts only windows DV-AVI format.

Now the solution to import .dv file in PD12,13,14 is to convert .DV file to DV-AVI.

DO NOT CONVERT TO AVI file !!!

How to do ? just download this little tools

http://www.videohelp.com/software/Enosoft-DV-Processor

Open ENOSOFT AVI REPAIR Tools(two software has been installed)

Rename the .DV files to .AVI

In File to repair choose your file. Then choose the name for repaired file. Select Create as type1

The file will be convert in DV-AVI with the correct WINDOWS Header.

You will get exact same quality (raw file) and you can edit it in PD12,13,14.

I'm so happy this little tool same my old .DV file !

Hi, all!

There is a workaround if the .dv file cannot be directly imported into PD8, or later versions, right up to PD14. It involves "capturing" the content, through a capture card device, just as you would if copying VHS/Beta/Video-8/Hi-8 analogue content in "real-time". It's not the ideal method, granted, but it's a good standby if compatibility problems between camera, computer and software(such as Power Director) pop up.

Cheers!

Neil.

With the solution I provide, you can use your old .DV files in PD without any conversion.