iMovie '11 does not import from Sony DCR-TRV20E

Please give your entire system configuration, computer, drives, how everything's connected. Is the camera recognized in System Profiler?

Hi

You use the FirwWire Cable ? USB does not work !

Connect Mains/Power adaptor to Camera (not only on battery)

Camera set into Play/VCR mode ?

In some Cameras - the Camera menu has to be set to DV-out.

Yours Bengt W

Hi

I think it should work - but

Other alternatives are
• QuickTime Pro
• FinalCut Express or Pro

But first cheque my list

*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.
• FireWire-port - Can be re-setted by - Turn off Mac and disconnecting Mac from Mains/Power for 20-30 minutes

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

That older tape camera was supported and I would think it still is. I have ran in to so few Sony's that are NOT supported that have a 4 pin firewire port, at least with older versions of iMovie.

That camera came out in what 2000?

Hi Stef,

I have the same camera - Sony DCR-TRV20E (the PAL version). As I purchased a new high definition Sony HDR-SR7 in February 2008, which records AVCHD to a hard drive, I hadn't used the DV tape camcorder with the newer versions of iMovie ('08, '09 and '11).

After seeing your original post today, I thought I should try importing some tape footage from the TRV20E. I'm very pleased to report that the import worked flawlessly! iMovie instantly recognised the camera and was able to control it - play, fast forward and rewind etc.

I appreciate that you may have followed Bengt's excellent advice, but just to reiterate, make sure that you follow these steps:

1. Launch iMovie and wait for it to be up and running;

2. Connect a FireWire 400 cable to the camera and to the Mac's FW port. Alternatively, you can connect the FW cable to an external FW hard drive that is connected to the Mac - I do this as my MacBook Pro has a FW 800 port only, while the hard drive has both FW 400 and 800. So, I use a 6 pin FW 400 cable with a mini connector on one end (for the camera) and a standard FW 400 connector on the other end. If you wish to connect directly to the Mac, and it has only a FW 800 port, you will need an adapter or a 9 pin to 6 pin cable, given that the camera uses FW 400. The Apple Store has this type of cable, but I'm not sure if it is available with the mini connector on the 6 pin end (FW 400);

3. Ensure that the camera is connected via mains power, not battery. Switch on the camera to the playback position. After a few seconds the camera should be recognised by iMovie and the Import screen should appear.

Note that I didn't have to set any Menu options in the camera, but upon checking after the import (approx. 20 minutes), I noticed that the item A/V⇒DV OUT was set to OFF - I think this is only set to ON when connecting composite cables from the camera to other devices (such as a TV). Composite cables use 3 RCA connectors - Yellow for video and Red and White for audio - with a mini plug on one end for input to the camera.

Hope this helps Stef. Rest assured that the Sony DCR-TRV20E does indeed work with iMovie '11. However, your setup may be different to mine (see my specs below), although you appear to be running Snow Leopard 10.6.5 as I am.

John

Dear All,

I would like to add some request for help on this if I may.

I have just splashed out on a Sony HD camcorder, HDR-CX115.

I ahve followed precisely the steps set out in the following link: http://www.sonydigital-link.com/tutorials/dime/imovietransfer/imovie.aspx?site=o dwenGB&f=CAM&m=HDR-CX115E

All works fine and the disk image appears on the desktop

BUT: when I open imovie and try to import from camera, it opens isight and the drop down list of potential sources only contains isight and not my sony.

Others on this forum have suggested opening imovie before connecting the camera. Tried it. Made no difference.

I even upgraded from imovie 09 to 11 to see if that helped. Not at all!

Anyone able to help me here?

Nick

Hi Nick,

One option to try is to insert the Memory Stick (or memory card) into a USB card reader. Often when iMovie won't recognise the camera it will be able to read from a connected card reader. If you don't have a card reader, they are relatively cheap and obtainable in most electronics or department stores. My understanding is that your camera model uses Sony's proprietary Memory Stick Pro Duo card - so get a reader that supports that card (most support virtually all cards nowadays).

PS If my suggestion doesn't work, you may get additional responses to your question if you start a fresh topic, rather than appending to this one, which deals with the Sony tape camcorder DCR-TRV20E (one of the models I have).

John

Message was edited by: John Cogdell - added PS

Dear John,
Thank yo for this. Don't you just hate it when you have to (or may have to) go out a buy yet another gizmo in order to make something work which should work anyway?!

According to the link I posted, the wretched thing should work direct.

I'll start a new thread and see if anyone else has this issue.

Thanks for your advice.

nick

Nick - here's a link to Apple's article re iMovie '11 Supported Cameras.
http://help.apple.com/imovie/cameras/en/index.html?lang=en_US

I notice that the PAL version, model number Sony HDR-CX115E is listed under the PAL heading. However, I didn't see any mention of HDR-CX115 in the NTSC section. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that an NTSC model won't work with iMovie '11. Not sure whether you are in PAL or NTSC country though. Given the UK Sony site you linked to, I guess you are in PAL country (as I am). Also, the camera instructions on that site are for the CX115E model.

Bear in mind that card readers are generally quite cheap. Many users here seem to prefer using a reader rather than having to connect their camera, whether the camera works with iMovie or not. I use a reader to download photos from a Memory Stick, but have to connect the camcorder directly as it's a hard drive model (see my info below).

John

Message was edited by: John Cogdell

Hi Nick,

I've recently also bought the HDR-CX115E but have been using the built-in card-reader in my iMac to import videos to iMovie.

This goes with what John Codgell has also suggested.

I'm not sure if you're tried this yet as whether it has fixed the problem?

This however has been somewhat partially successful for me when it comes to high-definition footage as it can't see the high-definition format on the memory disk i.e. doesn't reckognise the formats *.mts or *.m2ts files.

Have you had such a problem at all or can anyone else shed some light on this pls?

Note: using latest iMovie 11 vers 9.0.2. I've read some of the other reviews, and links posted but feel I might be either overlooking something small (hopefully) or the compatibility with iMovie is not as straightforward as I expected.

Message was edited by: PlainSight2020

This however has been somewhat partially successful for me when it comes to high-definition footage as it can't see the high-definition format on the memory disk i.e. doesn't reckognise the formats *.mts or *.m2ts files.

If you have Standard Definition (MPEG-2) clips on the memory card these have to be deleted before iMovie will recognise the High Definition (AVCHD) clips. See this Apple article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1793

The article is from a link from this Apple site (where your camera is listed as supported by iMovie):
http://help.apple.com/imovie/cameras/en/index.html?lang=en_US

John

Hi John,

Thanks - I have seen that before although in this case I am fairly certain that no SD MPEG-2 files were on the disk.

Tell you what though, I will test this again just to be totally sure and report my findings.

Thanks again.