My DV camera(firewire) won't import through iMovie...

Hi there,

I had the same problem, and after some googling managed to find a solution that works for me. In another forum (I forgot which one) someone suggested the following, which strangely does the trick.

-connect your camera. put it in 'play' mode (sometimes also called vcr). start up imovie (hd or 08; both work, but i use HD). go to the blue 'import' screen. it should just say 'camera connected'.
-now comes the trick. don't click import, but instead put your camera in 'record' mode. you should now see whatever it is that your aiming the camera at on your computer screen.
-QUICKLY put your camera back in play mode. again very quickly press the 'play' button, either on the imovie import screen or on your camera. your DV tape will start to play back.
-On my computer, the video now suddenly shows up in imovie! You can now click the 'import' button in imovie, and imovie will start importing the tape in realtime. This is a bit slower than the normal import method, but hey, at least you can now get your video into imovie!

Don't ask me why this works, but it does with my camera and computer. Hope it does the trick for you as well.

best,

Ritske

I forgot to mention that this actually seems to be a common problem. A lot of people have problems importing in the later imovie versions. I have no problems with importing imovie 2 on a very old imac running OS 9; on my own mac running the latest version of leopard, though - problems! Strange, huh? Also, if your computer is recognising your camera, it won't be the firewire cable. try the trick above; it should work.

best,

Ritske

I have had the same problems using a Dual 2Ghz G5, a Mac Mini, and a Macbook. I even tried downgrading to Tiger and running iLife 08 but saw the same issue. Looks like it is an iLife issue (or rather iMovie specifically). The method to switch camera modes, and then switch back, quickly press play and then hit import quickly after that works, but this must be corrected because i import a lot and it is getting old doing this over and over again.
I also tried downloading and using iMovie HD 6 but even it would not import, so both versions of imovie must use the same importing code, which obviously has a problem. This is disappointing to see from Apple. Update for iMovie hopefully coming soon?

I have the exact same Samsung Camcorder & the exact same problem. I will try the trick Chico X suggests but I seem to remember doing that several times already with no success. Here goes. I'll give it a whirl.

Chico X (Ritske),

I don't know how in the world you stumbled upon figuring that out, but it works every time. The Key is to Press Play as soon as you go back to VCR (Playback) Mode on The Camcorder. And I thought I tried EVERYTHING. It's definitely a hassle but it WORKS. And I guess in the end, that's all that matters. I was hesitant when I read your reply & quite honestly did not think it would work. It works perfectly. Thanks very much. They need to put your reply on the Apple site under iMovie for others having this issue in iMovie. 🙂 Thanks again.

Dino

I tried the trick toggling between camera and vcr on my Samsung SC-D382 to get IMovie (08) to recognize the camera. Because the camera actually resets between modes, I still can't get IMovie to work. I tried quickly unplugging the firewire cable which works for about one second before the image freezes in IMovie as it still plays on the camera. Are there any digital camcorders that actually work with IMovie?

Welcome to iMovie Discussions.

"..Are there any digital camcorders that actually work with IMovie?.." ..Every miniDV, Digital-8 and HDV tape-based Sony, Panasonic, JVC and Canon I've ever owned which has had a FireWire connection (..and a Panasonic which records onto a memory chip in AVCHD and outputs via USB..) works for me with iMovie. Every applicable version, from iMovie 2 to iMovie '08.

Note that the earlier versions, like 2 and 4 (least said about 3 the better) were more "forgiving" about timing issues, etc, and each of the later versions has "tightened up" on implementation of the FireWire standard ..giving problems to some people using the latest versions (..like HD 6 and iM'08..) with some of the less mainstream - e.g; Samsung - camcorders.

So, sorry to be so positive, but iMovie works perfectly for me with those camcorders named above, on an old G3 PowerBook, on two G4 PowerBooks, a G5 Tower, and an Intel Mac mini.

Perhaps the more mainstream-ish camera manufacturers may have stuck closer to the full FireWire specs than makers of slightly cheaper, less mainstream models ..just a thought, no offence intended..

P.S: Have you updated to the latest version of iMovie '08? ..That's iMovie 7.1.4, in the right-hand column on this page, and try updating iLife '08 to version 8.3, also available in the right-hand column on that same page.

Thanks David for the response. I had a suspision it was more a Samsung issue as opposed to an IMac issue. Interesntly the IMovie does control fast forward and rewind as well as importing directly from the camcorder when it is in record mode. I'll try an get my hands on a different camcorder.

As an addition to David's email, I tested the Samsung camcorder on an XP machine running VideoWave. Interestingly the software recognized the Samsung on the firewire port and transferred the video without issue. Does anyone know if Final Cut Express solves the problems with camcorders and IMovie 8 listed on this thread as I prefer to work with my IMac.

Thanks

I'm happy to have stumbled onto this thread. I have an older Samsung miniDV camcorder that works flawlessly with both iMovieHD and iMovie 08. The SC-D382 wouldn't talk to iMovie, but works flawlessly with Final Cut Express -- go figure. I will try the switchie-switchie method and see if it works with iMovie 08. But I thought it would be helpful to report the out of the box success with FCE.

Thank you for your solution, this worked fine after a few times trying to get the timing correct. What a relief, I fooled with this for a couple of days off and on, of course. This should not be that difficult, shame on Samsung for not making sure there stuff works correctly, thanks again though.