No support for .DV files?

[Ken Berry]

I am resurrecting this thread just to report that I finally obtained a .dv format file from someone who uses a Mac to edit her digital video. I can now confirm that simply changing the extension to either .avi or .mov does not work. I also tried opening the files in Adobe Premiere Pro. Given Adobe's antecedents in the Apple/Mac world, I thought it might actually support the .dv format, but it did not.

The Quicktime player will open a .dv file, which is not surprising since it is made by Apple. I also happen to have Quicktime Pro 7, and using its Export function, you can convert a .dv file to an .avi which will then open in VS and other editing programs. VS10 shows the converted file as having used the Cinepak Codec by Radius. However, while it appears to be uncompressed avi, I cannot say that I am impressed by the quality of the conversion. There is noticeable pixelation in two parts of what is only a 30 second clip when played in WMP, though it seems to be less in the smaller VS10 preview window. The original plays well and with no observable pixelation in Quicktime player.

Quicktime Pro will also allow you to export to some other formats, though essentially these are limited to mpeg-4, 3G, i-Pod and Macromedia Flash Video.