Flip Camcorder MAC vs PC
A few weeks ago, I reviewed the Flip Camcorder and was really impressed with the easiness of being able to simple record video clips, then "flip" out the USB and connect to the PC. The build in Flip Camcorder software made it extremely easy to edit individual movie clips, cut, add music and then save to your computer or directly upload to YouTube to share online.
I had several requests to try the Flip out with a MAC.
I went to our backyard and recorded two short video clips. The first Problem was evident immediately. My MacBook is thinner than the Flip Camcorder, which makes it impossible to plug it into the USB ports that are located on the side of the MacBook. I had to place the MacBook on my lap and support the Flip Camcorder with my knees. This seemed to be a very unstable connection, since the laptop stopped recognizing the Flip several times.
I finally was able to keep a steady hand/knee and downloaded the Flip For Mac software that came with the camcorder. From the included "Read me Text" :
To use the Flip Video Program with your Macintosh computer:
- Connect the Flip Video Camcorder to an available USB port on your Macintosh.
- Double-click the "FLIPVIDEO" icon on your Desktop. A window should appear that displays the contents of your camcorder.
- Double-click the "Mac Users" folder.
- Double click the "Install Flip Video for Mac" icon. This will open a new folder called "Flip Video Program for Mac", which contains the program files.
- Drag the "Flip Video Program for Mac" folder to your Desktop.
- Double-click the folder to open it, and double-click the "Flip Video for Mac" icon to start the Flip Video Program.
- When the Flip Video Program is started for the first time, a window will appear requesting your acceptance of the license agreement, and the automatic installation of video compatibility software that allows your computer to play your videos. Click the "I Agree" button and wait for the installation to complete. Upon completion, follow the instructions to exit the program and restart it.
- You are now ready to use the Flip Video Program to play back, save, share, edit and make movies of your videos. Please note that the camcorder must remain connected to your computer for you to use the program with your videos.
The next time you want to use the program, you may simply connect your camcorder and then launch the program you have already installed by double-clicking the "Flip Video for Mac" icon. You do not need to install the program each time you want to use it.
After going through all the steps, the software installed easily. I was able to open up the program and immediately saw my two video clips in the window.
Clicked on Make a Movie, where I knew (from playing with it on the PC) I would be able to add the clips together, clip the beginning or end of the clips, add music, etc. I selected both clips, then "Begin".
Unfortunately, once I arrived on the next screen, it seemed pretty empty to me, compared to the PC version. No editing, no music, no combining the clips, merely a "Back" button. Maybe I missed something crucial, but what was very intuitive on the PC, seemed a problem on the MAC.
So I used the "Back" button, since I could do not much else and chose to save the movie to my computer. That went without a hitch. The program created a "My Flip Video Library" folder under my Documents.
Next problem was that it saved the clips as an .avi file. iMovie will not open the .avi file. When I tried to open it through my Quicktime player, it showed only a white screen. So, I went back to the "Read Me Text"
NOTE for Users Running Macintosh Computers with Intel Core Processors: In order to play back videos within the QuickTime Player on Macintosh computers with Intel Core processors, you may need to adjust the QuickTime Player:
- From the Finder menu, choose Go > Applications to open the Applications window. Click once on "QuickTime Player" to select it.
- From the Finder menu, choose File > Get Info or type Command-I to open "QuickTime Player Info".
- In the "General" section, select the checkbox named "Open using Rosetta".
- Close "QuickTime Player Info".
Now, when you double-click the QuickTime Player, it will open with Rosetta and should play back your videos successfully. If you are still having trouble playing back your videos, you may need to install a commercially available Universal video codec, such as DivX Community Codec (www.divx.com). If you install a Universal video code such as DivX, you may then need to go back to "QuickTime Player Info" as above, and deselect the checkbox named "Open using Rosetta".
I followed the instructions, but got stuck, when trying to find the "QuickTime Player Info". Maybe it s not my night tonight, but that option was simply not there. When using the Command-I function I got the Apple Quicktime Inspector. Under Preferences I found a general tab, but nowhere a checkbox with "Open using Rosetta" So I am pretty much stuck.
I guess I could go use a conversion program, such as Zamzar.com to convert the . avi to a .mov file and then edit in iMovie…. BUT it was supposed to be intuitive, easy and FAST.
Maybe it is user error on my part…
So, I plugged the Flip camcorder into my desktop PC and a couple of minutes later, the clips were downloaded from the camcorder to the Flip software, put together, music added and saved as a .wmv file to my computer.
Another few moments later, I uploaded to my Flickr account and then embedded the code into this post. The entire process did not take more than 5 minutes on the PC.
Flickr/langwitches
Linkedin/langwitches
Twitter/langwitches
YouTube/langwitches
Del.icio.us/langwitches
Blog/Langwitches
May 21st, 2008 at 12:26 am
Wow! Thank you so much Silvia! This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for - there’s no way the Flip would work for our environment. I’m just imagining have a whole class of kids anxiously trying to balance those cameras and their laptops to import movies. Yikes!
Sadly, this may be the first time I’ve ever seen anything so much more complicated on the Mac than on Windows… What a disappointment…
May 21st, 2008 at 12:45 am
Silvia, many thanks for this great blog post. I bought a flip a while ago and it has spent time in my top drawer…time to take it out and have some fun.
May 21st, 2008 at 6:32 am
Great post, when I got my Flip as an add on, there is a little cord, that allows about 6 inches of leeway so the flip can just be steady on a table.
It was a little clunky on my imac, haven’t tried my intel macbook yet. These descriptions are great.
I liked the option to email the video to another teacher, it was great! People, keep adding tips here!
Cheryl
May 21st, 2008 at 7:46 am
@Kim
Yes, I am disappointed too. We are receiving a few more Flip Cams for school in a few days. This time the 60 minute ones (compared to the 30 min (older) versions) I have right now. Maybe they will already have made an improvement.
@Julie
Please share your ideas and experiences using the FlipCam with us
@Cheryl I double checked ALL that came with our FlipCams and we only received AV cables to connect to a TV with ours. I am wondering/hoping that these will be included with the 60 minute FlipCams that we just ordered.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:31 am
Do you have Quicktime Pro? It opens and converts .avi files and many other formats. http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/
May 24th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Are you kidding? This should not be this difficult, right? I am glad you went through the process and not me (seriously). I brought home a new Mac from our school (we have a new cart of Macs) and thought about how I could use the Flip (which I use quite a bit with my PC), but now I need to think it through.
I appreciate all the work you did and the sharing out, too.
Kevin
PS — sorry for so (many ) parenthesis. It must be one of those nights.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
[...] Langwitches tutorial on Flip. Blogged with the Flock Browser [...]
May 27th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Hi-
I have had a flip video for about a year and I have used it on both PC and Mac, but more on Mac. I have an older iBook so it is not an issue to balance it while connected. Also, last summer I took several videos and used iMovie to make a little movie. I don’t remember having any issues with it, but it was a while ago. If you want me to try it again and let you know what I did, I can.
The movie used 2 or 3 videos and music.
Kim
May 28th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
@JasonR
I do have QuickTime Pro and the .avi file did not open for me. It only showed a white screen while playing. I finally installed a Codec to be able to view the .avi movie in Quicktime. Now all I have to do is export the .avi fiel to something that iMovie will recognize
@Kevin
I am determined to figure out how to use the Flip Camcorder with my Macbook, since it will be most likely be my computer when I am traveling. It is too bad, that in this case, MAC is more complicated than PC.
@Kim G.
I finally went to the store today an bought an extension for the USB connection. (see photo here) Now it can lay flat on the table.
I am still researching the problems that I was having and found the following on the FlipVideo Support Site:
On the same site it also noted that:
May 28th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
I do not have iLife ‘08 and i used iMovie instead of the non-existent Make Movie Mix feature, so that explains why I was able to do it and others not! I guess we have to wait for pure digital and Apple to work it out. In the meantime, I will not upgrade to iLife ‘08!
Thanks!
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:14 am
I have a Mac Pro 2.66Ghz w/5GB Ram ( Quad Core Intel Processor ). I can and do run Window XP Pro on the Mac also ( the best of both worlds you might say ). This Flip Ultra couldn’t be any easier!
Running Mac OS X 10.5.3,
Step 1) Plug in Flip Ultra via USB extension cord.
Step 2) Save Flip video’s to Computer. ( Then delete all from Flip if you want ).
Now your DONE with anything to do with the Flip Camera!
Step 3) Open iMovie and “Import Video/Movie….”
Step 4) Navigate to ” My Flip Video Library ” in your Documents folder.
Now IMPORT! Now you can do WAY more in iMovie with these clips.
So to recap,… Save to computer, and Import to iMovie. Done!
p.s. I also have QT Pro but iMovie is still the bomb!
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:19 am
As a techie-ubergeek (if there is such a word! LOL) I’m happier receiving a tech gadget than a bouquet of flowers. I purchased the Flip when it first came out (I’m a PC girl), then my husband purchased the Flip Ultra before doing some traveling in New Zealand, and since I recently purchased a Mac (WHY did I wait so long?LOL) I just purchased the Flip Mino. Why? Because it supports BOTH PCs and Macs. It arrived yesterday, is a third the size of the other Flips and though I have yet to run it thru its trials, I’m impressed.
So if you want to bypass all the ‘jumping thru hoops’ to get the other Flips to work seamlessly with a Mac I would suggest going out and getting the Flip Mino.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:30 am
@jeff
I have tried to save the videos to the computer and then open them through iMovie, but it did not recognize them. What version of iMovie are you working ‘06 or ‘08?
@Nancy
Thank you for the tip with Flip Mino. I might consider that one for my next personal purchase.
August 3rd, 2008 at 2:42 am
I had the same issues opening my .avi flip videos in Imovie.
solution: Download ffmpegX (free). Drop your avi (flip videos)and convert to DV format. Then you can import into Imovie!!
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 am
Hello,
Yeah, it sucks that Movie Mixer still isn’t a part of the Mac software - it’s a real pain! I did some investigation and figured out how to use iMovie (bundled with my mac) to make the movie and then get it back into the Flip Video for Mac software so I could use its really cool encoding settings (rather than experiment exporting by hand from iMovie).
Here’s a summary, grabbed from my blog post about the Flip: http://jaybyjayfresh.com/2008/09/22/a-weekend-with-a-flip/
1) Save the video files from Flip to the computer - they’ll be saved as AVI’s
2) Create a new iMovie project, add your clips and make your movie
3) When it comes to exporting the finished video, export as a Quicktime File and choose the 3ivx codec (this is installed the first time you run “Flip Video for Mac”), 30 frames per second and 640×480 resolution - other settings seem fine on their defaults
4) After iMovie has finished exporting, plug in the Flip and look in its “DCIM” folder for the existing videos, which will be called something like “VID0000x.AVI”; rename your movie so it is the next in sequence and copy it across to the Flip
5) Now, when you open up “Flip Video for Mac”, your movie will be treated just like any other on the Flip
Hope that helps,
J.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:56 am
Oh, and I should say that I didn’t have any problems importing the .avi files into iMovie.
September 28th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Thank you so much! I own a flip camera and I could not get it to import on my mac for anything. Your step-by-step instructions were perfect.
I love using the flip in my classroom because I can let the students use it and not really worry about it. (unlike my personal video camera)We have our first field trip coming up, and I can’t wait to take it along and let some of the students film our experience.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:14 am
@melissa No problem! I am also loving my Flip the more I use it.
December 14th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Flip camera camcorder files can be opened to the proper format by downloading Perian, the Swiss Army Knife for Mac Quicktime at their website. http://www.perian.org/