Using Sony HDR-HC3 HDV Hanycam with iMovie

Bruce,
I don't have much experience as I just purchased the camera today, but I have hooked it up to my g4 powerbook and g3 imac successfully. So far so good. Seems like an excellent camera, but not really good in low light conditions. Haven't tried the night mode yet.

i just got this camera and was successful in editing some footage using iMovie.. no problems as long as you have a lot of memory... on my powerbook g4 the 512 didn't cut it... i upped to 2gbs and haven't had problems since...

I have that cameras big brother the Sony HDV HVR-A1 and it will burn up a LOT of disk space and you will want to make sure you have at least 2 gigs of RAM.

Editing in Final Cut is a LOT faster as it keeps the footage in native HDV instead of converting it to Apple's Intermediate Codec (what iMovie edits HDV footage in)
--
Daniel C. Slagle
Keeper of the "Unofficial" iMovie FAQ
http:// iMovie.danslagle.com

I just got my HDR-HC3 today. iMovie 6.01 will make the camera stop, rewind, etc., but a new project in 10180i won't see or import video I shot in HDV. Final Cut Express HD 3 won't even recognize the camera. I'm using a standard FireWire cable, not an "iLink" cable from Sony. Those of you who got this to work, what did you do differently from a conventional DV camera? I'd really appreciate any pointers.

VERY common problem for newcomers to Sony HDV - go into the camera menu and make sure "convert HDV > DV" is set to "off"

should solve the problem - been there, done that

Thanks, Thomas,

Unless you're talking about a similar menu in a different location, I've done that, too. I went to the playback menu, standard set, i.LINK conv, and it is set to off. I still get no sound or video transferred. I also went to the VCR HDV/DV menu and specified HDV (even though, according to the documentation, Auto should work for both DV and HDV if the computer supports both). I've tried various combinations of when to start iMovie, when to turn on the camera, when to attach the FireWire cable, but continue to get the same result: I can make the camera play, rewind, etc., but it will not transfer clips.

One important question: what model camera do you have? Maybe the HDR-HC3 is particularly idiosyncratic and needs some additional settings or special procedure other HDV camcorders don't, since it works so easily for some folks and not at all for others.

Since standard DV video capture in both iMovie and FCE have worked flawlessly for me before, including with this camera, it just seemed logical it was some camera setting. It turns out it's not the camera or its settings after all.

I tried importing HDV from the HC3 into iMovie on my wife's iMac G5 and, even though it doesn't have enough RAM to really support HD, it worked! I went back to my G5 tower and disconnected every FireWire and USB device except the keyboard/mouse, deleted my preferences, restarted, and it made no difference. Final Cut Express has the same problem, that it will recognize the camera and make it play the video but won't transfer any data, so it seems there's something in my system that's screwing up the video capture for HDV (but not standard DV) in any application. I wonder if it's a QuickTime problem, or a conflict with some driver...

I've noticed an interesting trend: the people having trouble transferring data from the Sony HDR-HC3 in HDV mode all appear to use a dual G5 tower. Everyone who's successful use something else.

What am I doing wrong ?
I just purchased the HC3e (PAL). I just can't seem to get it recognized by iMovie.
I tried replugging in/out and turning the Camcorder on/off. My previous Sony DPC-1 (7 yrs old) digital camera worked just fine with iMovie before.

Is there a special trick to plugging in the HC3 ?

Thanks for your time.

I had a heck of a time. Besides unplugging firewire to the camera try
- Starting a new project or two (camera connected/not connected)
- Restarting imovie with the (camera connected/not connected)

I am still not exactly sure what I did to make it work.
--
Daniel C. Slagle
Keeper of the "Unofficial" iMovie FAQ
http:// iMovie.danslagle.com

Here's what works for me on my wife's 1.6 GHz G5 iMac (768 MB RAM):

- Start a new project in iMovie by clicking the 1080i project button
- Turn on the camcorder and set it to Play/Edit
- Make sure it's NOT set to convert HDV to DV
- Make sure "VCR HDV/DV" is set to HDV
- Then plug in the FireWire cable
- The camera should now appear in the camera list, and you should be able to select it and control it via iMovie's buttons

Importing can be slow. When I import to a FireWire drive on my G5 tower from the iMac via ethernet, it imports at 1/4, maybe 1/8 speed, although the camera itself moves along at actual speed. For this reason I import only a clip or two at a time. It no doubt goes much faster when the drive is local to the Mac.

Hope this helps.

If it's any help, and you've already managed to import some video, try either copying that already-imported clip to a new project, or be prepared to import your new material to an old project:

..Having some pre-existing video already in a project before you try importing more seems to "kick start" everything into accepting new video from the camera. (..I don't have an HC 3, but do use an HC1 and/or FX1; similar cameras..)

It's useful to create a 'template' project, which is empty except for one short (unrelated) clip, and to use that to import all your new material, I've found.

I agree that most of the problematic machines appear to be G5 towers ..and also G5 iMacs. But now that my G5 has "got to know" my cameras (.."G5 this is HC1; HC1 this is G5"..) I have no further trouble with recognition. So far..

I upgraded, I must say, to a quad G5 with 4GB of RAM, as I'd tried importing HDV on my Mac mini and it was -v-e-r-y- -s-l-o-w-. I also import to a separate, dedicated fast hard disc in the G5 tower, so that the disc is completely unaffected by any "housekeeping" (..jotting down temporary items..) disc access which the computer may want to run on its main 'system' hard disc while using iMovie.

P.S: With the quad and 4GB RAM, HDV imports into iMovie in 'real time'.

I have a Sony HDR-HC1. On my old G4 Mac it would only import at 1/8 speed and would skip parts of clips. I got a new iMac intel and it imports HD in real time and works beautifully.

I would like to join this conversation by asking how you plan on recording your finished ImovieHD. Will you be recording it on tape via the HDR-HC3.
I assume there no way to burn it on a HD DVD, and that even if you did you could not play it because HD DVD players are not affordable as of yet.

I also have just purchased the HDR-HC3, and I am wondering whether to use it in HD or DV mode. Reading all the problems everyone is having I am enclined to use it in DV mode for the time being.

please let me have your opinion. Thanks