High definition is here. Camcorders that record high definition use the HDV Tape format or AVCHD format on hard drives and flash drives. If you're interested in High Definition video, you'll need to capture it with Apple's iMovie that comes with iLife. The new iMovie captures "Full Size" high definition video (1920 x 1080 resolution). It also can capture HD in "Large Size" (960 x 540 resolution). This clever Large Size lets you capture video that you can view on most displays. 960 x 540 fits on a standard XGA (1024 x 768) projector too. It has about 50% more pixels than standard definition (720 x 480 resolution) and takes up about 50% more disk space. It looks great.
As you might expect, HD Video takes more disk space to store and faster hardware to display. It also takes more time to process.
iMovie stores high definition video in the Apple Intermediate Codec format. This format has very little compression and works great for playback - especially when playing video backwards. Unfortunately, the Apple Intermediate Codec is not supported by QuickTime for Windows - so you'll need a Macintosh to view this video.
iMovie version 8 requires an Intel-based Mac, Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0GHz or faster), or iMac G5 (1.9GHz or faster). An Intel based Mac is required to capture AVCHD video.
The following HD example was shot with an HDV camcorder, and then reformatted as a QuickTime movie using TD Video. This video is 640 x 360 pixels in resolution and was compressed with Apple's H.264 compressor.
The first high definition camcorders used miniDV tape to store high definition video in the MPEG2 format. These HDV high definition camcorders usually also capture standard definition video in the standard DV format. They transfer video to your Macintosh using FireWire.
You'll want to use the latest version of iMovie to capture HDV video. You can capture standard definition from these camcorders with TD Video directly. You can capture high definition video from these cameras using Apple's iMovie version 7 or newer software. iMovie 7 came with iLife 08, iMovie 8 came with iLife 09 and iMovie 9 came with iLife 11, so the version numbering is somewhat confusing. TD Video can import video clips from these three versions of iMovie. iMovie 9 from iLife 11 is preferred.
If you have shopped for a camcorder recently - you have noticed lots of hard drive and flash drive video camcorders. In fact, there's not much selection out there for miniDV camcorders anymore. These hard drive and flash drive camcorders record standard definition and high definition video. Hard drive and flash drive camcorders usually transfer video to your Macintosh using their USB2 ports. They don't support live capture of video at a game. TD Video can import their clips after they are captured by iMovie.
Standard definition is usually recorded in the MPEG2 format. iMovie installs some software that QuickTime uses to display MPEG2 video. MPEG2 video plays back very nicely with this software installed. You'll need to install iLife 08 or iLife 09 on all the Macs that you want to watch MPEG2 video on. MPEG2 is not supported by QuickTime for Windows and will not work with TD Video Viewer for Windows.
High definition is in the AVCHD format. You'll need an Intel based Mac to capture this. iMovie will actually store it in the Apple Intermediate Codec format. Because of this format conversion, capturing high definition video from a hard drive or flash drive camcorder takes much longer than you might expect. Capturing 45 minutes of AVCHD video on a 2.66 gigahertz Intel core Duo processor based MacBook Pro can take 50 minutes. The new quad-core Macs reduce this time significantly.
Click here to see Apple's list of camcorders supported by iMovie 11.