PC foiling Mac, or maybe Sony sucks

I like Mac.

It wasn't until after starting school at the Art Institute that I learned the true value of Apple. I learned, I loved, I got a Mac Laptop. Macs are fantastic for a variety of design tasks; design wise, I'd say Mac is the better computer. However, I realize that PCs hold a lot of importance in animation and gaming. Besides, PCs work great with things like my new video camera.

When I first went shopping for a camera, the first question out of my mouth was, "Could you show me what is compatible with a Mac?" The sales clerk clearly had his head up his ass when he pointed me towards what I thought was the camera of my dreams.

Oh happy day, I got a video camera for Christmas. I was thoroughly excited and ready to start taping the world... was. I shot a few "for fun" things (snow, drew's work, etc.) and I attempted to import this videos to my Mactop. In a word, diseaster.

The people at sony include two DVDs with the camera. One includes a highly obnoxious cartoon character that teaches a young fellow (oddly resemblant to paul degeorge) how to properly hold a camera. Fantastic, fast forward. DVD number two is a free program for PC users to import video to their computers. Great, so what does a girl with a Mac do?

On to iMovie!
I open up my trusty iMovie, break out the help screen and follow instructions line by line. What does iMovie do? "No Camera Attached". What? After puzzling about 20 minutes in iMovie, I moved on to try Image Capture which would directly rip the videos from the camera. That doesn't work as the videos are all specially MPG encoded. Yay...

Let's try reading the Sony help manual. Hmmm... all that says is, "Software not available for Mac." Thank you Captain Obvious. Could you please explain how in God's name Mac users are supposed to get your Sony MPG encoded videos into a Mac? No? Ok thanks.

Maybe their website will help. For reasons unbeknownst to me, the site started me in "Sony Germany" and any searching in the toolbar is all directed straight to google. Helpful.

Next idea to try, iMovie FAQs online. Every FAQ covered how to import video cameras involving tapes, not crazy hard drive mpgs (of doom). After searching for 30 minutes I came across a forum where a number of Mac users were having the same/similar problem that I face.

"I am trying to import video from a Sony camcorder. It records in MPEG2 format and is not recognized by iMovie. Can anyone tell me what program I would need to import these video files from the camera? Here is sony's reply to the problem--"The Sony hard drive camcorders use the MPEG 2 image format. The Movie software supplied with these camcorders is designed for Microsoft's Windows only. Currently SONY is not aware of any Macintosh video import and editing applications that support the MPEG 2 format used by our models."

I'd like to pause for a moment and thank Sony for the consideration of Mac users. Of course when I say thank, I mean kick in their tail bone. It is primarily Mac users in the video industry and to exclude that portion of the market is poor planning, bad marketing, and just downright bad form.

The answers on the forum suggested buying a PC. Purchasing expensive software. Buying a DVD burner so that you could burn the MPGS to DVD. This of course would also require to rip the DVD so that I could edit it. Hurray for extremely expensive solutions.

In conclusion, I have a fantastic camera that I cannot use due to poor marketing.
Rossini's words, "Know your market before you sell to them."
Pashley's words, "Do your research."
My words, "Sony, kiss my bum."

Home for the Holidays

Christmas break has been extraordinarily appreciated. With a week in California, nearly a week spent in Minneapolis and one last week to come in Dallas, I've come to the conclusion snow sucks. Cold weather still isn't fun.

I remember the days when I would wake up in Dayton, praying for freezing weather so that I may have one of those rare snow days. Now that I'm older there's just nowhere near as much fun as when I was younger. I have few urges to go diving into a deep pile of snow. Making snow men just means freezing my fingers off. Worst of all there's driving.

I give my brother and his wife all the credit in the world for braving this cold, yet deadly weather condition. Watching them casually point out people who are stuck in the snow or have swerved off seems like a regular pass time to them. Why on Earth would anyone want to live in this frozen tundra?

I remember quite clearly my first car accident. I had just wrapped up my first play at high school over the weekend, and I was driving to school monday morning. During the 45 minute drive to school six inches of snow added onto the foot of snow that had started early in the morning. I was so excited to see sight of my school because I thought I was home free. I pulled into the turn lane and saw car coming rapidly in reverse towards me. I tried to slow down, hit black ice and ended up meeting the car at a lovely 60 degree angle. There's really nothing like the inevitable feeling of sliding on ice knowing your about to hit another car. Why you would want to deal with that, beyond me.

So to Drew and Becky, I salute you. You're far braver than I. I say we start celebrating Christmas in July so that when I come see you it isn't freezing.

Fairy Tale Final

Little Red

11 weeks spent on one work of art.
I couldn't be happier with the turn out.