Import old .MOD files into iMovie '08
 

I have a JVC Everio GZ-MG50U 30GB HDD camcorder. When the camcorder records to disk, it creates both a .MOI and a .MOD file. The .MOD file contains all of the video data. Since iMovie HD did not support these files, I always copied them manually from my camcorder to my external hard drive for storage. The problem is, I only ever copied the .MOD files because that is all that is needed to replay the video. Apparently, iMovie '08 requires these .MOI files (which I no longer have) to be able to import the videos I manually copied off of the camcorder. Does anyone know a way around this? Is there any way to generate the .MOI files? Alternatively, is there any way to trick iMovie into importing the files?

Apparently MPEGStreamclip (here) will convert these files to something iMovie will import (such as a DV stream). Hopefully it doesn't need the .MOI file.

iMovie '08 will import the files directly from my camcorder with no conversion necessary. However, the files that I downloaded to hard drive before installing iMovie '08 aren't selectable from the import dialog box. So the format is not the issue. In fact this is a big part of the reason that I got iLife '08 - the compatibility with .MOD files.

Before iMovie '08, I used MPEG-Streamclip to convert to DV before importing to iMovie HD. But now, I don't have to do that (provided that I import directly from my camcorder). If it can import directly from the camcorder, then it should be able to import the movies from the external hard drive as well. The lack of .MOI files seems to be getting in the way, however.

I tried copying the .MOD files back to the camcorder in order to have iMovie '08 recognize them, but that didn't work either. I may have to contact JVC and see if there is any way to re-generate the .MOI files (I would assume there is, since they just contain data, not video). Is .MOI a proprietary file format? It's not a text file, as I've already tried to open it with vi.

I thought you were talking about those old Amiga sound files composed of tiny sound loop "instruments".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOD_(file_format)

In the same wikipedia article, the JVC Everio MOD format is referred to in the section "Other MOD formats".

I've found a bit more info on the .MOI file format. It appears that the JVC Everio camcorders use the file to time and date stamp the movies as well as provide some additional information that the camcorder uses to playback the movies. Some people have attempted to reverse engineer the .MOI file format, but I'm not sure there is enough information yet to reconstruct the file well enough to fool iMovie '08. Any thoughts?

I remember reading that you can just rename an existing .MOI so that it matches the name of your .MOD file and place them together in the same folder. Then iMovie supposedly will import your movie, but will recognize only the first so many minutes specified by .MOI file. If it was for a 10 minute movie, but your actual video is actually 12 minutes long you'll lose the last 2 minutes. I don't know what happens if you use a 15 minute .MOI file for that 12 minute video.

I've tried that trick, and as long as the .MOI is for a file that is longer than the .MOD file you want to import, you get everything just fine. The problem is that the date and time stamps are included in the .MOI file. So if I use a random .MOI file to import the movie, I get a random date and time stamp for my video clip in iMovie '08. This might seem like a trivial problem, but I really would like to have all of my videos organized by date since I have >160GB of video clips (several hundred clips). I may have to use this trick, but modify the date and time fields of the .MOI file using hexedit and the information gleaned from the reverse engineering of the .MOI file format posted above. I'll keep updating this thread in case anyone else is also faced with this issue.

Hi

Has anyone found a solution yet to the above?

I will receive my copy of iLife 08 tomorrow and can't wait to catalogue my video collection with the all new iMovie.

Having used iMovie 06 in combination with Mpeg Streamclip for the last 2 years, I also have been ditching my .MOI files whilst keeping the .MOD files from my Panasonic sdr-s100. I created an automator script which would automatically change the .MOD extensions to .MPG and change the filenames to the date and time the clips were recorded. This helped greatly for organizing the clips. I was really hoping that iMovie 08 would simply import my .MPG files (originally .MOD files) without the .MOI being present and use the clips' "date modified" info as timestamps.

Once I receive my copy of iLife 08 I will post my own experiences/attempts.

I just called up Panasonic in the hope they might give me some other options. Unfortunately there is not much info he could give me apart from making sure that in the future I hang on to the entire folder structure in the video folder (SD-Video) on the sd card.

I emailed JVC a week ago (5 business days) to see if they have an in-house utility for rebuilding .MOI files (which I suspect they do from development). They promise on their website to get back to you within 5 business days. I guess they are a little slower than promised, or they have no intention of replying.

From a few of my experiments, it would appear that iMovie '08 also uses the .MOI files to generate the video thumbnail images at appropriate intervals. This means that modifying a generic .MOI file with the appropriate date and time for a .MOD file is only part of the battle. iMovie '08 won't generate the appropriate sequence of thumbnail images without the rest of the information in the .MOI file. I'll keep fishing around for more info...

I have sent this issue to Apple Feedback + also started a similar thread on Apple's discussions forums to see if there is any more help out there

See here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread....22836&tstart=0

This is the reply that I finally got back from JVC support:

Which just shows that I didn't go high enough up the food chain in order to get a decent answer. The .MOI files are not just a thumbnail image, since they increase in size with increased length of the associated .MOD video clip. And also, there is definitely a way to generate those .MOI files in software, since they must have had some software tool to confirm compatibility with the SDVideo specification. However, this is a generic tech support response, so I shouldn't have expected any more from them. I'm not willing to shell out $1000 for the SDVideo spec - anyone else?

What a crap reply from JVC. Panasonic told me the same though...

I did a little experiment the other day. I took an new .MOI file and an old .MOD file and modified the .MOI file in a hex editor so that the date and time matched that of the old .MOD file. I copied the two files to my JVC camcorder, disconnected, allowed it to repair its directory structure, and then reconnected the camera to my MacBook. It worked, iMovie imported the clip just fine with the correct date and time. It would appear that iMovie does not use all of the information in the .MOI file, only some bits and pieces. However, this wasn't an extensive investigation and there still may be some hazards associated with trying to "trick" iMovie.

Hi all

We found a solution! :) Forget .MOI files, you don't need them anymore. See method here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....tart=0#5323948

Let me know if it works for you.

RafDam,

You and I have been at this for a while now, so I am thrilled to hear that this solution works. However, you will have to pardon my cautious optimism. A few questions for you:

1. Does the audio play properly after importing with this method? .MOD has the dolby audio muxed in while .MPG usually doesn't have muxed dolby audio, so I am concerned that iMovie might be misled.
2. Does iMovie grab the date and time stamps from the modification date of the file? The JVC camcorders do not write to the original date, but only to the modification date, so I want to be sure that the date and time listed correctly.
3. Are the thumbnails generated just fine? You can "zoom in" and "zoom out" on the thumbnails (ie. 1s, 2s ... 30s thumbnails)?

If these three criteria are met, then I am sold on this solution!

One thing that would be nice is if it worked with a USB hard drive. Has anyone tried this? I have almost 200GB of video clips that have no .MOI files, and I only have a 1GB USB stick, so you can imagine that I would rather do 1 transfer with my USB connected external hard drive than ~200 transfers with my USB stick! Maybe I'm asking for too much though :p

PS. Normally I don't post the same thing on both forums, but just in case you are no longer checking the Apple Discussions page, I posted it here as well.

I was able to answer my own questions by doing a couple of experiments. I will summarize for the benefits of anyone else who might be facing the same problem that RafDam and I have encountered. In response to my questions above:

1. The audio is imported perfectly. iMovie doesn't seem to mind that the audio in the .MPG file is muxed Dolby audio.
2. iMovie grabs the date and time stamps from the modification date of the file. I'm not sure what it does when both the creation date and modification date are present, but my files only have a modification date and iMovie used that.
3. The thumbnails are generated just as if the video files were being downloaded off of my video camera.

This solution is not just limited to SD cards and USB sticks. It also works with USB connected external drives. I haven't checked to see if this solution will work over firewire.

To summarize the solution (paraphrasing RafDam from the Apple Discussions forum):

1. Create a folder called MP_Root in the root directory of your USB hard drive, USB stick, or SD card.
2. Inside this folder create another folder called 101PNV01.
3. Rename the extensions of all your .MOD files to .MPG and copy them inside the 101PNV01 folder. iMovie will not even recognize the USB drive as a "camcorder" unless you do this step. Can easily use an Automator workflow to do this!
4. Restart iMovie08. It will now detect a new camera and import all clips using the date created/modified info as timestamps for perfect cataloging!

Sorry for cross posting...

I also tried to use my USB drive instead of a stick/sd card, but iMovie does not recognize it as a camera for some reason even though I put the MP_Root in the root directory of my drive as it should be. Saying that, there is other stuff on my USB drive. Does this matter? Was yours a 'clean' drive? Unfortunately I can not try this out right now as I first would need to buy a new drive to copy this stuff onto :( The drive is formatted as HFS+ journaled btw.

I never thought of file format, but that may have something to do with it. The drive that I tried this with is formatted FAT32, because also I need it to use it with Windows computers at work. Also, I wiped the drive clean and then created MP_Root in the root directory. So nothing else was on the drive except for MP_Root > 101PNV01 > {movies}.

At first blush, it makes sense that it wouldn't work on an HFS+ formatted drive. Why would you ever expect to find a video device that stores its files in an HFS+ format? I guess since you are stuck for a solution at the moment, you might as well continue using the SD card, since you have already shown that to work.

Does it still work on your drive if you put other stuff on it? Would be interesting for me to know...

I'm not sure... I won't be able to check until tonight.

There's no real rush as I will be away on holiday for 5 days from tomorrow.

Thanks in advance!

It doesn't seem to matter if there are other files in the root along side the MP_Root folder. I've successfully imported all of my old .MOD files into iMovie 08 now using this technique with no problems thus far.

As I work my way back in time through our video archives, I am now faced with the problem of importing .VOB files. Before I got my external hard drive, I would burn the video I got from my JVC camcorder to DVD for storage. Since there was no loss in conversion (.MOD files are MPEG-2 just like .VOB), I figured I would just archive the video as .VOB that way it is playable in a DVD player. Now, I'm regretting that decision as I would like to import that video into iMovie 08 so that my entire library of family video clips is cataloged in one location.

Any one know how to fool iMovie 08 in this regard? The same trick with the MP_Root > 101PVN001 folder structure and .MPG file extension doesn't work with .VOB files (the audio gets dropped). It's probably a difference between muxed and demuxed audio, and what iMovie is expecting.

On the off chance that someone other than myself will also find this information useful, I have found two different ways of importing .VOB files into iMovie '08. The first (and my preference) is to load the the .VOB file into MPEG-Streamclip (load all the files in that particular stream) and fix any timecode breaks. Then select "Convert to MPEG..." and save the file in the 101PVN001 folder (from the method mentioned above). Then change the extension from .MPEG to .MPG and open iMovie '08. iMovie will recognize the "camera", generate a thumbnail for that clip, and import the clip if you so choose.

The second method is to burn your .VOB files to a disc image using Toast (or similar program). Then mount the disc image and launch iMovie '08. iMovie '08 should recognize the disc image as a "camera", etc. I have had mixed success with this method. Some clips within the some of my .VOB files do not appear to import correctly.

RafDam,

I'm not sure if you're still tuning in, but to answer a query of yours in a previous post, the MP_Root > 101PVN001 trick works with HFS+ formatted external drives as well. It only works over USB mind you, and not Firewire, but it works.

imovie hd
 

Do you or anyone else know if I can edit a non HD iMovie on iMovie HD?
Thanks in anticipation.
Benny.

Just drag the movie into the Clip section. It will be converted for editing. Be prepared to wait a bit for the conversion.