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[rotho]

Hello,

Is it possible to import .dv video files (which comes from a miniDV video camcorder) in JRiver ?

Apparently, the .dv file extension is not accepted by JRiver ?

I would not like to convert these files, because I have a lot of them and I want to keep them intact for archiving purpose, but I would also like to be able to play them in JRiver.

Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions...

[jmone]

They are normally called DV-AVI and have an extension of AVI.  They import and play just fine in MC.

[rotho]

Thanks for the tip :  I tried to rename my .dv files in .avi files and they now import and play perfectly in JRiver 

I get these .dv files when I import them from my miniDV camcorder with iMovie on my Mac.

Is this file extension only known on the Mac platform ?
Could the .dv file extension be added to the file formats accepted by JRiver ?

[MrC]

Until it is added:

   http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=68567.msg462341#msg462341

[jmone]

Thanks for the tip :  I tried to rename my .dv files in .avi files and they now import and play perfectly in JRiver 

I get these .dv files when I import them from my miniDV camcorder with iMovie on my Mac.

Is this file extension only known on the Mac platform ?
Could the .dv file extension be added to the file formats accepted by JRiver ?

Yup it seems that Apps on the Windows platform tend to pack the stream into AVI containers (as it uses the MS provide DV-AVI DLL), while on Mac you could store the raw DV Stream (with a DV extension) or pack it into AVI or MOV containers according to what your SW editing package support (there should be an option).

More on DV here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV

It is good news the files just play by changing the extension from DV to AVI and as MrC points out in the post above you can add this extension to be recognised in MC manually.  If there are enough Mac users with DV extension files, I'm sure JR would look at adding it in MC as a default file type.

[rotho]

I tried MrC's excellent suggestion : I made a custom file extension for .dv files (yet another powerful JRiver feature that I was not aware of ...  ) and now I can import and play them perfectly, without having to rename them with the .avi extension.

Thanks a lot, everybody, for your prompt and useful advice. 

[MrC]

I've got a load of .dv files, capturing all my old Hi-8 movies.  I don't plan on importing them into MC, as they are just raw footage, to be used for archival and export purposes.  But anyone who is old, and has old equipment, and old (boring) movies, and a Mac will likely import via iMovie.

[jmone]

I've got my original High-8 Tapes as well.  Given they are analogue and predate DV, I'm surprised they are captured and stored as a DV stream (unless you did that old trick of using your a Camcorder as a bridge between analogue devices and a PC's Firewire card).

[MrC]

I had originally tried capturing on the PC via a Canopus capture device.  It sorta sucked.

When I got my Macbook, I was amazed when I plugged in the Firewire cable, open iMovie and pressed Capture (or something like that).  It was so danged easy.

Off topic cautionary Note: For anyone who does this w/IMovie, don't edit directly in iMovie withing converting from the DV format.  For fast previewing, iMovie renders by tossing 1/2 the fields, so pristine DV is degraded horribly.  There are tricks to avoid this problem.

[jmone]

ahhh my Hi-8 did not have a firewire / 1394 connector so capture had to be done by S-Video to a capture card *shudder*  . 

[MrC]

Yeah, that's what sucked;  the S-Video capture just looked bad.  The old Sony I had shortly thereafter gave up the ghost (their well-known capacitor failure problem), so I bought (refurbished) one of the last available Hi-8's manufactured with Firewire out for just this purpose.  Great purchase.  It made short work of the DV capture.  Highly recommended way to go.