Trying to capture from Sony HDR-HC1 but iMovie 11 does not recognize the camera. Are there any workarounds?

There's a chance that you can try resetting the PRAM on the Mac, and force it to account for all the peripheral interfaces it's managing. Try this:

Resetting PRAM and NVRAM

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.

After the reset is complete, shut down the Mac again. Connect your camera to the Mac. Connec thte camera to the power adapter that came with your camera and plug that into the wall. If you have any external hard drives connected on the USB or Firewire connectors on your Mac also disconnect those. Make sure your camera is set to Playback or VCR mode, and turn it on.

Start your Mac, then launch iMovie and attempt to import directly from your camera.

nyrichard,

I have the same problem.

I have it connected via FireWire. When I check in system profiler the camera does not show up.

Grmmmppphhh... what do I do now?

DesignDrone wrote:

... in system profiler the camera does not show up. ...

very little options left:

check connection, aka use a diff. cable.

test cable and cam on diff. computer to check, if it's the Macs fault.

most important: cam NOT operated on battery only, power-line is essentiell.

high chance, the fw-ports on cam are fried ... 😟

Is this the first time that you are trying this camera with iMovie?

You may well know this already; if so appologies.

This camcorder can down convert the recorded HDV to DV. Do you know if the camcorder is set to iLink conversion ON or OFF. If the conversion is ON and you have recorded in HDV then the output through the firewire will be DV.If you have recorded in HDV and you want to output in HDV then you have to select ILink conversion to OFF.Also the setting of VCR HDV/DV on your camcorder can affect the ability of iMovie seeing your camcorder.

If you do have to make any changes to the camcorder settings be sure to do them before connecting the firewire cable or iMovie will not recognise these changes.

So...... What format was the camcorder recording in...HDV or DV ?

Is iLINK conversion ON or OFF ?

What is VCR HDV/DV set at..AUTO,DV or HDV?

Down-converting is not a bad idea. In the sense that ANY signal coming in that can be digitized is better than NO signal at all. It's a compromise to be sure. But if you can get iMovie to recognize it at least once, there's a chance you can switch to the Higher Rez/HD video signal later, once things seem to be communicating with one another.

All,

Thanks for your comments.

It turns out to be a fried port on the camera, so you were right, Karsten. In the end, we borrowed a compatible miniDV deck to capture the video.

DesignDrone wrote:

… fried port on the camera, so you were right, Karsten. ...

sad news.

good you found a solution to import your tapes.

call me 'Cassandra' ... 😉