As part of the Panasonic CES 2009 blogger program I got a Panasonic SDR-SW20 video camera to try.
After shooting the video, I had no idea how to get any video editing program to recognize the files.
The manual doesn't help at all since it's geared to a PC user.
Quick answer:
If you copy the files to your computer and try to get them into iMovie, there's no way I can see to do it.You wouldn't know that based on a Google search. Here's a sampling of one page of search results:
But if you, plug the SD card in the USB slot, THEN open iMovie 08 on a Mac, it sees the movies. Importing them is easy.
macosxhints.com - Convert Panasonic SDR-S10 MOD moviesWith all this talk about conversion, I went down the path prior to figuring out the simple solution above.
Problem: Connecting the Panasonic SDR-S10 camcorder via USB works fine on the Mac, but you can't use the MOD files in QuickTime Player or in iMovie HD by ...
Thanks Jexus, I just brought the panasonic sdr h250 and having the same issue with .mod’s on mac. ffmpegx works great but if you have lots of ...
How To Convert .MOD Video Files To MPEG-2 On Mac And PCs - Robin ...
MOD video files on your Mac simply rename them as .MPG or . .... such as the JVC Everio, and the Panasonic D-Snap SD-card camcorders, suffer from a ...
Convert Panasonic Mod - convert Panasonic Mod for your player
To convert Panasonic Mod for your players, you can use Mod video conversion ...
I ended up using Handbrake which converts the MOD files to Mac compatible format. It uses .mv4 iTunes format by default.
LOST VIDEOS
One other issue I had with the camera is that a bunch of videos I shot were missing. I played them back on the camera, but when I went to import them, they were not there. At the same time the camera displayed a message, Check Card.
A recovered the missing video files with a nice utility called Card Raider.
This utility has saved me many times. Even when I deleted files off a memory card by mistake.
Once I recovered the files, CardRaider saves them as .MPG but QuickTime doesn't recognize them, I ran them thorough Handbrake and opened them up in QuickTime.
I combined them, exported as .mov and opened up in Final Cut Pro. You could probably export from Handbrake to mov but I didn't figure that out.
Here's the video I rescued: The Carol and Steve Show - January Cold.
One more tip:
It is suggested that prior to shooting video with a new SD card, you format the card with the camera. I just did that.
Greg Harper says, "If you just put a new card into the camera first it should automatically add the proper folders. If you put the card into a pc first then it may not get the proper folders"
Do you have any experience with the Panasonic SDR-SW20. I'd love to hear your comments.