The reason the Wolves are inconsistant is because they are a bunch of misaligned parts, never quite meshing into a cohesive, well oiled unit. Basketball is a game that requires team chemestry. Throw in an odd-ball or some one with a loose screw, and the entire team can come crashing down. With the exception of drafting Kevin Garnett in 1996, Kevin McHale hasn’t done anything productive to help the team build that much needed cohesiveness.

Don’t get me wrong, McHale was a great basketball player. He just doesn’t know when to step aside as a GM and admit his mistakes. Between the Joe Smith salary cap fiasco, trading fan favorite Wally Szczerbiak, and firing Flip Saunders, I just can’t get excited to watch the TimberPuppies anymore.

Until the team that McHale has put together can perform as a team instead of a bunch of mashed together parts, a .500 season is about what can be expected, no matter the coach he puts on the floor.

I think the time has come for Kevin McHale to step aside and let someone else run the show. If he waits too long, there won’t be too many of the 16,000 T-Puppy fans left to care.

It’s a different type of animal when compared to a typical digital camcorder. For those that are having problems getting the video into your computer, here’s what I found out.

First off, I’m on a Mac and use Final Cut Express HD to edit my movies. Final Cut won’t read the Everio directly because it uses USB2 and not Firewire (oversight #1), and as many over at Gadget Review have already figured out, the video downloaded from the Everio is formated as .MOD (the same as MPEG-2) and not .MOV. (oversight #2). There is a way around these issues, and thankfully it doesn’t cost much money.

First, plug in the camcorder into an open USB2 slot, turn it on to mount the drive on your computer, and open up the correct folder (SD_VIDEO) from within the mounted drive titled EVERIO_HDD. To convert the video to a readable QuickTime format you’ll need a thrid party converter. Try MPEG Streamclip video converter from Squared5. (Side note: I also had some software titled Capty MPEG Edit EX for Everio come with the camera, but have had mixed results.)

Depending upon what, if any, plug-ins you have on QuickTime, you may need to purchase the MPEG-2 QuickTime converter. I didn’t have this already, so I had to spend the $20 to find out if this would work or not.

Once the .MOD video is converted over to QuickTime you can then import the new file into FCE (I assume FCP would work as well) and iMovie. I tried iMovie HD (6.0.2) and it seemed to work just fine, albeit with a very slow import.

The Pros:

• Ability to purchase a hard drive camcorder, such as the JVC Everio, and use it with a Mac.

Cons:

• Video quality seems to take a slight hit with the conversion
• Extra steps involved with importing video. If time is money to you do not buy this camera
• No direct capture, especially with Final Cut Express. (See above)
• Importing into iMovie is slow
• You’ll use up a ton of DVDs and/or hard drive space archiving your raw video

I’ll play with it some more before deciding if I should keep it. The big thing for me are the extra steps and time needed to import the video. This may be the deal breaker, in my mind.

Why JVC didn’t make this a FireWire capable product or use a more popular video format is beyond me. I assume that their research indicates that most Windows users (and purchasers of their products?) are not interested in video editing.

It would seem to me that the users of the Everio brand of camcorders are only interested in one thing. Dumping raw video to DVD. For that, the JVC Everio fits the bill perfectly.

I hope this helps others when deciding to purchase a Hard Disk Camcorder such as the Everio.

Later Days!

[UPDATED]

I took it back to Sam’s Club. With all of the trad-offs concerning speed and FinalCut compatability, it just wasn’t worth the asking price. I have my eye on a Panasonic that should do the trick.

Hey all!

Welcome to the sorta first installement of Life in the sticks. Musings of a city boy gone country.

If I was to go back and look for it, I know that there is an old Blogger blog somewhere taking up electrons. My point? I’ve tried this before, and I don’t have a very good track record to boot.

We’re going to change all of that…I promise.

“What’s with that title?”, you ask. I’ve come to the conclusion that I am not meant to be a country bumpkin. Since we moved the family out to the sticks six years ago, I’ve made due for the sake of unity. I’ll write about that in another post.

So what’s expected this time around? How about my thoughts on running my own Internet business consultancy from home, or maybe my three sons, or the two dogs, or life in general. I can say with certainty that you won’t read about my inlaws here. There’s the slight chance they may be reading! Naw…

Anyways, I’ll keep on writing, and you keep coming back. That’s sounds like a good arrangement. Until then, Later Days!
Chris