Macbook Pro wont find Panasonic NV-DS60

Question

Level 1

9 points

Macbook Pro wont find Panasonic NV-DS60

I'm trying to get video off of my Panasonic miniDV camcorder onto my Mac. I have the 6point to 4 point firewire cable.

iMovie isn't detecting it. And it's not showing up on the System Profiler either.

Any ideas?

Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jan 19, 2011 5:45 AM

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Answer 1

Bogam Author

Level 1

9 points

Jan 19, 2011 5:12 PM in response to Alchroma

Cheers for the quick response.

I would try some other equipment, but I don't have any! The only other Firewire product I have is my Apogee Duo and that plugs into my 9 point port.

Do you think i should try/buy a 4 point to 9 point cable?

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Answer 2

Alchroma

Level 7

23,918 points

Jan 20, 2011 12:01 AM in response to Bogam

Do you think i should try/buy a 4 point to 9 point cable?

If the 400 port on the Mac is not working then maybe!!
Could simply be a bad 400 cable.

You work through the components until you find the culprit.

Al

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Answer 3

Annie159

Level 1

0 points

Mar 7, 2011 5:58 AM in response to Alchroma

I have the same problem with this camera using a brand new FireWire 9 pin bilingual to 4 pin cable. The Mac is just not recognising it. I wonder if it's because the camera is obviously aimed at use with a PC and has a circular socket marked 'TO PC'. I only bought this camera secondhand in order to transfer the tapes, as my original Canon MV3i has occasional problems with tape transfer and has slightly chewed a few for me.
I am able to transfer the tapes from the Panasonic via AV connectors to the unit attached to my TV but the resulting DVDs are Video_TS format which I am unable to transfer to iMovie to edit.
Can anybody help?
Annie

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Answer 4

Alchroma

Level 7

23,918 points

Mar 9, 2011 2:52 AM in response to Annie159

Some users have reported 800 9 pin ports on some Macs not working right out of the box.
Might be worth double checking it.

To connect to a Mac it should be as easy as connecting the cable, start camera switched to VCR mode and open iMovie then capture.

Al

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Answer 5

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Mar 9, 2011 6:22 AM in response to Annie159

For an unknown reason, there seem to be a fair number of cases where the 9 pin to 4 pin firewire cables just do not work correctly with digital cams.

If you can, try the camera with a mac that has a fw400 (6pin) connection.
• Does it work?
If yes, the camera is ok

Try your computer with a fw800 hard drive.
• Does it work?
If yes, the port is ok.

This leaves the cable.

If you can, order a cable from Granite Digital. I believe they make the best firewire cables out there. If they don't work, the problem is elsewhere.

Good luck.

x

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Answer 6

Elfchris

Level 1

0 points

Jun 29, 2011 6:01 PM in response to Bogam

Hi All,

I have it working. I thought I'd let you all know because I went searching for an answer and couldn't find one anywhere.

As you are all used to when you plug a DV camerainto the Firewire port iMovie just loads and your ready to import. I did the same and nothing happened so I assumed it wasn't finding the camera. After much searching I was about to give up when I decided to load iMovie and manually try the import. To my surprise the camera was there and I was able to import as per normal. It's currently importing as I am typing this.

So plug the camera in, turn it on, open iMovie, go to import from Camera and you should see it there ready to go.

I'm using a MacBook Pro with running 10.6.7

Cheers,

Chris

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Answer 7

Alchroma

Level 7

23,918 points

Jan 19, 2011 5:57 AM in response to Bogam

That should work fine.

Double check that the cable and ports are working. eg connect to other equipment to trouble shoot.

Al

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