Importing from Sony TRV33E to IMovie

You need to connect via Firewire to import movies from this camera. The USB connection is only for still photos that you may have taken with the camera. Are you using Firewire?

The general steps are:
Plug in the camera to wall power (not battery power)
Attach firewire cable.
Open iMovie. The camera should be recognized. If it is not, wait one minute and click the camera icon.

I too have the same problem. I connected my Sony trv33e (powered by the wall socket) to imac firewire 800 port via firewire 400 (4 pin) to firewire 800 cable and put it to vcr mode. But on the camcorder screen, the blue screen is displaying the status message "DV IN" intermittenly. Normally if I connect it to my PC firewire400 port, the "DV IN" status remain displayed. I also check the system profiler on iMac, but it does not showing anything on firewire, other than "speed 800mbps". iMovie did not detect my camcorder.

Do you think it's the problem with the cable or iMac does not support trv33e? Have you personally succeeded transferring movie from sony trv33e to imac?

Hi

Some Cameras has a menu of their own and here one has to set output to DV !

My SONY TRV-900e and DCR-PC330e - has to be set so.

Else my list on this

*NO CAMERA or A/D-box*

Cable
• Sure that You use the FireWire - USB will not work for miniDV tape Cameras
FireWire - Sure not using the accompany USB-Cable but bought a 4-pin to 6-pin FW one ?
• Test another FW-Cable very often the problem maker.

Camera
• Test Your Camera on another Mac so that DV-in still works OK
• Toogle in iMovie pref. Play-back via Camera (on<->off some times)
• Some Cameras has a Menu where You must select DV-out to get it to work
• Camera connected to "charger" (mains adaptor) - not just on battery

Does Your Camera work on another Mac ?
Sorry to say it is to easy to turn the 6-pin end of the FW-cable 180 deg wrong.
This is lethal to the A/D-chip in the Camera = needs an expensive repair.
(Hard to find out - else than import/export to another Mac ceased to work
everything else is OK eg recording and playback to TV)

Connections
• Daisy Chaining most often doesn’t work (some unique cases - it’s the only way that work (some Canon Cameras ?))
Try to avoid connecting Camera <--> external HD <--> Mac but import directly to the Mac then move
the Movie project to dedicated external hard disk.

Mac
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk ? Please specify the amount of free space.
(Other hard disks don't count)
I go for a minmum of 25Gb free space for 4x3 SD Video - and my guess is 5 times more for 16x9 HD ones
after material is imported and edited.

SoftWare
• Delete iMovie pref file may help sometimes. I rather start a new account, log into this and have a re-try.
• Any strange Plug-ins into QuickTime as Perian etc ? Remove and try again.
• FileVault is off ? (hopefully)

Using WHAT versions ? .
• Mac OS - X.5.4 ?
• QuickTime version ? (This is the heart in both iMovie and FinalCut)
• iMovie 8 (7.1.?) ?
• iMovie HD 6 (6.0.4/3) ?

*Other ways to import Your miniDV tape*
• Use another Camera. There where tape play-back stations from SONY
but they costed about 2-4 times a normal miniDV Camera.
• If Your Camera works on another Mac. Make an iMovie movie project here and move it
over to Your Mac via an external hard disk.
(HAS TO BE Mac OS Extended formatted - USB/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange WILL NOT DO)
(Should be a FireWire one - USB/USB2 performs badly)


from LKN 1935.
Hi Bengt W, I tried it all, but nothing worked. Your answer has been helpfull insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos) to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before. Thank you. LKN 1935


from Karsten.
in addition to Bengt's excellent '9 yards of advice' .. 😉

camera set to 'Play' , not rec/computer/etc.?
camera not on battery, but power-line?
did your Mac 'recognize' this camera before...?

a technical check.
connect camera, on, playback, fw-connected...
click on the Blue Apple, upper left of your screen ..
choose 'About../More..
under Firewire.. what do you read..?

More
• FileVault - Secure that it’s turned off
• Network storage - DOESN’T WORK
• Where did You store/capture/import Your project ?
External USB hard disk = Bad Choise / FireWire = Good
If so it has to be Mac OS Extended formatted
----> UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange is NOT Working for VIDEO !

mbolander
Thanks for all your suggestions. What I learned is that I had a software problem. I had something called "Nikon Transfer" on my Mac that was recognizing my Canon camcorder as a still camera and was preventing iMovie from working properly. After uninstalling Nikon Transfer and doing a reboot, everything worked great.

I never liked the Nikon Transfer software anyway--I guess I'll get a cheap card reader and use that to transfer photos in the future.

*No Camera or bad import*
• USB hard disk
• Network storage
• File Vault is on

jiggaman15dg wrote

if you have adobe cs3 or 4 and have the adobe bridge on close that
or no firewire will work
see if that halps

DJ1249 wrote

The problem was the external backup hard drive that is connected, you need to disconect the external drive before the mac can see the video camera.

Yours Bengt W

Thanks for the long reply.

I just bought my imac 27, intel core 2 duo, with 1 tb hdd and 4 gb ram, mac os x 10.6.4, iLife 09, quicktime x 10. All the settings of the softwares are as per manufacturer default, as i haven't installing any plugins, nor changing any settings yet.

I still have 700- ish gb free hdd. I have successfully connected and transferring video from my trv33e to windows laptop before, via firewire 400 port. I use the same fw cable when trying to connect it to my new imac. Of course, I used firewire 400 to firewire 800 converter as my imac only comes with fw800.

I have enabled fw on my sony, as i kept the same setting when i used it for windows laptop. Unfortunately i dont have other mac to test my camera. I unplugged my backup hdd, use wall power (not battery) for my camera.

With all those things, My imac still cannot see my camera. I have checked the system profile and nothing shown on the firewire.

Hylman wrote:
.. I have checked the system profile and nothing shown on the firewire.

that is bad news..

you tried the 'firewire tango'? plug-off Mac from power-line for 10-15min, .. launch Mac, then switch cam on/play, OR, power-up cam/to play, THEN launch your Mac..

last tests:
• try a diff. cable
• try a diff. Mac, … -store?

.. it could be, the fw-chip in the cam was 'fried'... 😟

Good news is I can confirm that the FW chip in my cam is still working as I have been successful transferring video from the cam to my Windows laptop (through FW400).

Bad news is I still cannot get my iMac to detect my camera at all even after your "firewire tango" solution... The screen on my cam keep showing "DV IN" for about 0.5sec before vanished and reappear again after 1sec (intermittent).

Hylman wrote:
Good news is I can confirm that the FW chip in my cam is still working as I have been successful transferring video from the cam to my Windows laptop (through FW400)....

so, ... Mac doesn't show fw-device in SysProfiler, although device (and cable) fully functional.

last test: is the fw-port of your Mac 'fried'? you need another fw-device (e.g. harddrive) to test it ..

just to exclude the 'weird': you know the difference btw. usb and firewire ... ? no offense meant 😉

Hahaha... Of course I know the difference between usb and firewire. I also know the difference between intel i3, i5 or i7 if that helps.... 🙂

The thing is that I am not sure if my fw400 to fw800 converter works or not. I bought it for $5 from ebay.. Hahaha.. I just don't want to spent a lot of money only to know that trv33 cannot run on imac. The fact that the cam screen showing intermittent message of "DV IN" is a bit suspicious. When I connect it to windows laptop, this message is constantly showing that message, which means "constant" connection.

Why do you suspect my fw800 port on mac fried? What could possibly cause that? In the sysprofile, it says something like speed=800mbps... So, doesn't it mean the port is working?

Hylman wrote:
Why do you suspect my fw800 port on mac fried? ..

just to scare you, making some Angst .. 🙂
no, that was logic conclusion ..
and, I actually missed the magic word ..

... I am not sure if my fw400 to fw800 converter works or not....

we noticed some posts here, that 'converters' don't do their job as intended .. what I read, a mini-fw<<>>fw800 cable does the job better.. hear-say ..

BTW - Did You try to re-set the FW-port on Your iMac ?

This is done by
• Turn off Your Mac
• Disconnect it from mains - really - UN-Plugg it from wall ! !
• Let it be for 10 to 30 minutes (I go for 30)

• Now re-connect and start-up
• Test if Your Camera comes up in profile

Yours Bengt W

Tried this as well. Still no luck. Is it correct for me to assume that my iMac fw800 port works well since the firewire bus appears in the system profile (with message: "maximum speed = 800Mbps")? I don't have any other FW devices that I can test with.

Last straw !

Someone on forum - got it working by taking a close look on in what connector
he/she put the FW-800 plug

He/she put it into the ethernet port - and of cause it didn't work.

I know - it's far fetched but anyhow - it is mentioned.

Result - I would bring Mac into Apple Store to get them to sort it out.

Yours Bengt W

Yeah... read about that on the net as well. I can confirm I connected to the firewire port and not the ethernet (I turned around my imac everytime I plug my FW cable).

I guess I'll try buying another converter before go to apple store.

Thank you all for your help.

Just bought the second fw800 to 400 cable. Still no good. Same issue. So frustating. Is Sony trv33 supported by the new imac? I read a comment about people wish to buy this converter on apple online store, and he said that trv33e cannot be recognised by imav. Is this true? How can i find out if my fw port on my imac works or not without having to test it with other fw gadgets?

I would bring Camera and Cables into Apple Store and have them test on another Mac.

Yours Bengt W