Editors are often asked to edit a large variety of formats. And with all the different codecs that camera manufactures are using these days it is getting harder for an editor to support them all. VideoPier is a little application that looks to try and support one of the more frustrating formats out there, the consumer MPEG based cameras. Now I’m sure most of us hope we are working on projects that are of a higher level of production value than a JVC Everio but with reality shows and today’s producer deciding they want to shoot a little behind the scenes then use that footage in the final edit (yes, that did happen) a tool like VideoPier could be handy in your toolbox. From the VideoPier website:

  • detect your camcorder and let you visualize all clips.
  • copy files from your camcorder to your hard drive in their original format.
  • import clips that have been already been copied to disk.
  • create events for the imported clips (events are organized by year like in iMovie 08).
  • visualize your clips, including their date.
  • multi-clip playback in the embedded player or in full screen.
  • export to any Quicktime format, to DV for iMovie 06, to the iPod/iPhone and Apple TV. In addition, VideoPier will keep track of the exported file so you can always retrieve it later.
  • export to iMovie 08

Now, they only mention iMovie 08 but if you can get to “any Quicktime fomat” then you can get into Final Cut Pro or Avid. At $49 VideoPier could save a headache. This was posted on July 29 and it’s available $20 less today only MacZot. You lucky day if you’re struggling with this kind of footage right now.