What miniDV camcorder or other device will my Macbook Pro recognize to I can transfer miniDV tapes? I have tried a Sony DCR TR19 camcord using both USB to USB and S video to USB and cannot get the Macbook Pro to recognize there is a device connected. Is there something I need to download on my Macbook? Will a different miniDV device work? Thanks. --Dave
The ideal way to import video from a MiniDV camcorder would be using FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 – and as iLink on some Sony camcorders). That lets you import the digital video from the tape without having to go through a digital to analog to digital conversion (which will probably lose some quality).
Unfortunately it is almost impossible to attach FireWire peripherals to a modern Mac. Apple ditched built-in Firewire ports more than 10 years ago, never built a Thunderbolt 3 to FireWire adapter – and a few months ago, discontinued their Thunderbolt 1 to FireWire adapter. For their part, while dock vendors built FireWIre into several TB 1 & 2 docks, I don't think there are any TB 3 & 4 docks with FireWIre interfaces.
Many MiniDV camcorders have USB ports, but those USB ports are only for transferring still photos and low-quality videos, NOT for transferring full-quality, full-length videos.
So what people end up doing is getting an video digitizer and feeding the RCA or S-Video analog video output from their camcorder into the digitizer.
An example of a video digitizer would be this:
The ideal way to import video from a MiniDV camcorder would be using FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 – and as iLink on some Sony camcorders). That lets you import the digital video from the tape without having to go through a digital to analog to digital conversion (which will probably lose some quality).
Unfortunately it is almost impossible to attach FireWire peripherals to a modern Mac. Apple ditched built-in Firewire ports more than 10 years ago, never built a Thunderbolt 3 to FireWire adapter – and a few months ago, discontinued their Thunderbolt 1 to FireWire adapter. For their part, while dock vendors built FireWIre into several TB 1 & 2 docks, I don't think there are any TB 3 & 4 docks with FireWIre interfaces.
Many MiniDV camcorders have USB ports, but those USB ports are only for transferring still photos and low-quality videos, NOT for transferring full-quality, full-length videos.
So what people end up doing is getting an video digitizer and feeding the RCA or S-Video analog video output from their camcorder into the digitizer.
An example of a video digitizer would be this:
MiniDV device compatible with Macbook pro
