Less than a class ago , flash- or voiceless - disk establish camcorders were virtually unusable on the Mac due to the lack of software support . But subsequent release ofFinal Cut Studio 2and iMovie ’ 08 introduce support for most tapeless camcorders . I thought the trouble — compatibility progeny , bugs , and so forth — was over . Alas , as I ’ve drop the retiring week testing some newly released tapeless camcorders , I ’ve learned I was amiss : Mac compatibility progeny persist .
Two out of the three camcorder I ’ve tested so far — theSanyo Xacti HD1000and thePanasonic HDC - HS9 — aren’t working as they should . The Xacti HD1000 put down video as .MP4 file onto an Coyote State card , but when playing back the footage on my 2.66GHz Mac Pro , the video recording appears as a green box .
Sanyo enjoin it was familiar with the trouble and explained that the latest version of QuickTime introduced playback issues with the Xacti HD1000 ’s picture ; however , the Indian file function properly when using QuickTime 7.1.1 . I retested the camcorder using QuickTime 7.1.1 , and the video play back properly . Reverting to an older version of QuickTime is n’t an idealistic root , however , and Sanyo officials say they ’re working with Apple to get everything fixed .
Playing back footage from the Sanyo Xacti HD1000 resulted in a green screen.
play back footage from the Sanyo Xacti HD1000 lead in a green screen .
Panasonic receipt the trouble and said it ’s working with Apple to get the progeny resolved . Panasonic was n’t clear on why the HDC - HS9 is n’t working properly with the Mac , but I suspect the problem is once again related to the latest version of QuickTime .
Apple has been tweaking QuickTime a set latterly — there have been seven update to the multimedia software since the iPhone ’s June 2007 release — and this is n’t the first meter we ’ve seen compatibility problems arise . Take the QuickTime 7.4 outlet , which caused compatibility problems with Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro that were resolved by QuickTime 7.4.1 .
It ’s difficult blaming either the camcorder makers or Apple for the incompatibility topic . All the camcorder makers can do is make certain that their hardware works with the software program that ’s available at the metre of sacking . As for Apple , even a company that large ca n’t be expected to ensure that every software program update knead seamlessly with every art object of third - political party computer hardware right out of the gate . The best you could hope for is that when problems do arise , the companies recognise them promptly and influence quickly to crush any germ . That QuickTime - After Effects problem I mentioned above , for example , got ironed out in about two calendar week ’ metre .
On a brighter note , since we ’re talking about software issue rather than computer hardware , that means they can be prepare , hopefully rather rather than subsequently . Personally , I find tapeless camcorders to be very convenient in countenance me to skip the dull capturing process I ’d have put up with when using tape recording . But since Apple is relatively new to the tapeless prospect , I ’m going to stick with using my trustyCanon GL1MiniDV camcorder until the kinks become less frequent .
