Importing Video from Canon HV30 HDV

Wrong camera for your computer as you probably can't install iLife 08. Tell us more about your G5. 2.0 dual processor is required.
Take it back.

Your machine can't install iLife 08 (iMovie 7 and the rest) so you'll have to go through lots of hoops to get your camera files to work with iMovie 6.
Not worth the trouble (IMHO) and you should take the camera back and exchange it for a Standard Definition DV "tape" version.
Check the camera manual to see if it allows SD recording. Then you could use the new toy while you save for a newer machine.

Why is iMovie HD 6 cannot import video from a HDV source like Canon DV30 HDV ?

Does that mean if I purchase a iMac now, after I download iMovie HD6, it cannot import video from the Canon HV 30 HDV ?

Why is it the iMovie called HD 6, when it can only capture SD clips from the tape ?

Can someone be kind enough to confirm that

a) iMovie HD 6 cannot import from HDV tapes ?

b) iMovie HD 6 can only import form SD tapes ?

a) iMovie HD 6 cannot import from HDV tapes ?

Yes it can, via firewire, but not necessarily in real time.

As you will see from the dropdown menu when you start a new project you get a choice of formats:

DV (which is standard 4:3 ratio) and DV Widescreen, which is 16:9 ratio. Both run at 13GB per hour.

HDV 1080i, which runs at 52GB per hour

HDV 720p, which runs at 34GB per hour

b) iMovie HD 6 can only import form SD tapes ?

No, see above, but not from Hard Disk camcorders, only from tape.

Thank you Klaus1 for your response.

But what you meant by "not necessarily in real time" ?

Does that mean that when using HDV tapes, we cannot see the video and press "record" when we want to record and press "pause" when we do not want that section of the the video.

To rephrase the question, does that mean that when importing HDV tapes, we cannot view the section of video that we want to import ? If cannot view then, how do we select the section of video that we want to import ?

No, Real Time means that 10 minutes of video will import in 10 minutes, not longer.

To what extent High Definition video will import in real time depends on how powerful your Mac is, and how much free space on your hard disk.

Making the iMovie window as small as possible during import (i.e. about quarter usual size) can speed things up!

But you cannot import in less than real time!

Also, HD 6 will import both HDV and SD tapes. Lot's of pros record HDV right to SD video tapes. Day to day recording in HDV is just fine on SD tapes. The Canon HV20/30 users forum is a great forum to migrate to to learn about your camera and Mac software: http://www.hv20.com/
Make sure you post back here with your success stories.

Your 24" iMac should be fast enough to import in real time.

On slower machines (..because the hi-def video has to be converted to a different format during import - converted to Apple's Intermediate Codec, but it'll look exactly the same as the original..) the imported video on the computer screen lags behind the video playing on the camcorder.

Pressing Pause or Stop on the camcorder - or on iMovie's "Import" button - will halt the video playback, but - again, on a slow machine - the import will continue on the computer's screen until it catches up to the point at which the camcorder's video playback stopped.