Connecting Digital Camcorder to Mac Studio

Is this it? The Vixia HF G70?

https://www.usa.canon.com/shop/p/vixia-hf-g70?color=Black&type=New

This camcorder has "dual SD card slots" and "USB Type-C for Livestreaming with UVC". Mac Studios have front-panel SDXC card slots, so I assume that you can transfer recorded video that way. I think that UVC stands for USB Video Class – a standard used by many Webcams, though not necessarily designed only for Webcams.

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Page 76 of the camera's user manual says that you can connect the camcorder to a computer using a USB cable, and use it as a web camera (with compatible software). Although this camcorder can record 4K video to memory cards, the Web cam function uses Motion JPEG at a resolution of 1920x1080 or 1280x720 (i.e., HDTV resolutions) and a frame rate of 30 frames per second or less. "Audio is not output."

I don't know if a Mac would be willing to accept Motion JPEG input at 1920x1080 or 1280x720 resolution at 30 Hz, as though the Vixia HF G70 were a dedicated Webcam.

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Page 99 of the camera's user manual says that it has a HDMI output terminal for connection to an external monitor. The Mac Studio's HDMI port is also an output port; so you couldn't run a HDMI-to-HDMI cable to the Mac and pull in video from the camcorder that way. There may be specialized USB-C or Thunderbolt HDMI capture "cards" that you can get – if so, I would think that the B&H Photo Video and Adorama sites would be places to look for them.

Aside: It looks like these things vary widely in price and probably also in video quality. There's a $35 device which accepts up to 4K @ 30 Hz, but outputs it as 1080p @ 60 Hz over USB-C. Then there's a BlackMagic box that uses Thunderbolt 3, captures 4K video, and costs $1055!

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?q=HDMI%20capture%20card&sts=ma

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To get to the manual,

• Click on the link to the Canon product description page (above)
• Go down to near the bottom of the page and click on "View All Support"
• Under "Downloads", click on "Manuals"
• The list will include a link for the "HF G70 Instruction Manual"

There is nothing you can do. Your Mac is not a video capture device. The data rates and amount of buffer RAM are too large.

You capture the data on the digital camcorder, then -NOT- in real-time, you transfer the files produced to your Mac.

sheppard_ae wrote:

I was able to do this with a previous machine, 2013 model mac pro by using a blackmagic mini converter. Anything like that which would work with this new model mac??

You would need to check the specifications for the converter you have in mind – or check with its retailer, or its manufacturer. Looks like BlackMagic has three Thunderbolt-3-based "UltraStudio" converters: a Mini, 4K Mini, and rack-mount 4K Extreme 3. (I suspect that if you have to know how much the last one costs, you are not in their target market!)

BlackMagic's description page says that their UltraStudio line "Supports Macs with Thunderbolt 3," suggesting that "For streaming use OBS, Wirecast, Livestream Producer." I am not familiar with any of those products, and simply am passing this along in case you find it useful.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/ultrastudio