TRANSFERRING OLD MINI DV TAPES

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TRANSFERRING OLD MINI DV TAPES

I have a pile of valuable Mini DV and HDV tapes to transfer using the original Sony Z1 camera as player.

The El Capitan system on my late 2011 MacBookpro did not recognise this camera using iMovie and Final Cut Pro X via a firewire to 9 pin plug.

I managed to get an expert to downgrade the laptop to 10.6.8 which I think is Snow Lion

I tried again tonight and iMovie and the Mac still does not recognise the camera.

I have also tried using three leads connecting together to finally end up in the thunderbolt socket on my iMac 2019 with Monterey to no avail.

There are numerous Youtube videos of people succeeding but I cannot work out why I fail on this . Any ideas please. It used to be so easy on my old tower Mac.

MacBook Pro 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Dec 13, 2022 2:26 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 15, 2022 3:41 PM in response to gascoyneone

You need the following adapters & cable

1 Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter - [if you have a USB-C port on the Mac]

2 Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter

3 FireWire 800 Cable - 4 Pin Male to 9 Pin Male - to connect the camera to the Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter

connect the camera to the Mac using the above cables

playback the tape on the camera

Use Quicktime Player to capture the video, its quicker easier than using editing applications Open QuickTime Player application on the Mac

Move the mouse over the QuickTime Player window to reveal the control panel

Click on the down arrow in the control panel and

select the DV camera for video

select the DV camera for sound source

Check for sound on the level meter

set quality to maximum

Click on red button to start recording

Click on the black button to stop recording

Save the video file

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Answer 2

faith185

Community Specialist

Dec 15, 2022 2:15 PM in response to gascoyneone

Hi gascoyneone,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. Since this issue is directly addressed in If iMovie doesn't recognize or control your camera or camcorder, we'd recommend starting with the guidance there. It sounds like the 'DV and HDV cameras' section may be particularly helpful.

The camera compatibility articles below may be helpful as well as your camera may be incompatible .

iMovie for macOS supported cameras

Al the best.

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TRANSFERRING OLD MINI DV TAPES

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