transfer video from sony hd handycam to macbook pro

Have you read the SONY manual? Perhaps you need a driver or application from SONY.

I have been on the Sony website and they do not have drivers for Macs

Which cable are you using to connect it, and to which port?

I am using the cable that come with the video camera, it connects to my USB port. It will download the photos but when it trys to download the videos - it give me a message box with all the video files listed on the camera and says that they are not compatable files.

I know from my own experience that I had to use a Firewire cable to download video. But this was when I had my old Powerbook G4. Since moving to a MBP in 2009 I still use the same firewire cable without issue.

This video may be useful - http://support.apple.com/kb/VI104

Check the supported cameras list first. It might also be worth checking the format that your camera is storing the videos as.

You may want to check this too:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3720

You might need to update to a newer version of OS X.

"You might need to update to a newer version of OS X."

You don't really think she is running 10.1.x do you?

No, but since she doesn't state what version she's on and the article I linked to specifically mentions a minimum version that is required... It's worth pointing out.

I am on Lion 10.7.4 and had no problem downloading movies until I upgraded to Lion...

Just bought a new cable and it worked!

Hey! Excellent news!

Have fun!

Wouldn't you know. The obvious. Great for solving it yourself.

Hi Beverly, I have the same issue! What kind of cable did you buy to resolve the problem? Does your handycam sit on a cradle, THEN plugs from there into your Mac's USB port?

My MacBook Pro doesn't have a Firewire port. Did you buy and adapter? The guys at the computer store said they didn't have the correct one and after they tried downloading their movies, it didn't transfer correctly.