Is it possible to connect my Sony DCR-HC30 camcorder to my (pretty new) MacBook Pro?

Some additional suggestions:

1. Try it more than a few times, sometimes it can take 2-4 attempts to get iMovie to recognize a camera for the first time.

2. Always get the power adapter for your camera out of the bag. Hook it to the wall outlet, then plug your camera into that. Don't run it off the battery.

3. With the camera plugged into the wall, in DV playback mode. Hit play and just let it play video out continuously, then reboot the Mac. As soon as you see the desktop, launch iMovie. Go to File Menu > Import from Camera and see if the Capture window opens with your video playing through.

4. Make sure iPhoto doesn't try to launch itself automatically when it detects your camera has been connected to the Mac. Sometimes it tries to steal the videos off of a camera and 'blocks' iMovie from seeing the camera when it's attached. So make sure iPhoto hasn't interecepted your camera and is not running at all when you launch iMovie

No guarantees, but some things to try

Last thing that might be involved is the cable going from the camera to the Mac. If you can find, beg, borrow or steal a second firewire cable to test it. That's the only other thing that might come into play with an unrecognized FireWire based camera.

I had the exact same problem and have spent the better part of the morning searching for a solution... Then suddenly it worked!

What I did:

1. Restarted my mac about a trillion times... with camcorder on, connected and playing in play/edit mode for the last couple billion 🙂

2. I started poking around with the Apple System Profiler... I have no idea what I was doing... but it was open and I looked at it (it's found under applications - utilities - system profiler)... I noticed that no devices could be found under firewire

3. I'm pretty sure I had the tape running and iMovie open when I started toggling the A/V-DV OUT function on the camera

4. I may have tapped my toes twice or shifted my weight in my chair... maybe wiggled my nose... and thought happy thoughts... (which I think was the key... because we know macs never have problems 😝)

5. Then all of a sudden it popped open on iMovie

Hope you have luck too!

Unfortunately I think it does take a number of restarts, some more than others. But tickling that FireWire bus and getting it to take notice of the device can be cumbersome. But I think most folks have had good luck after that first time it recognizes the device. So if you have the time and the patience and are willing to keep rebooting the machine, eventually it will latch onto it and you'll be good to go.

The DCR HC 30 has analogue to digital passthrough capability.With A/V set to DV OUT passthrough mode is set

If you want to transfer camcorder tape to your Mac, as you describe above , you must set A/V to OFF.

If you have any analogue material that you want to get on your Mac (VHS home movies.. Hi8 etc) then use passthrough mode.