Using Sony HDR-HC3 HDV Hanycam with iMovie

Thanks to all of you for the many responses to my ??

I will try all these tricks (religiously) and let you know if I get anywhere with it.

Should this really be that difficult though ?

I wish Sony or Apple could get their act together.

Thanks again

Thanks to all of you for the many responses to my ??

I will try all these tricks (religiously) and let you know if I get anywhere with it.

Should this really be that difficult though ?

I wish Sony or Apple could get their act together.

Thanks again

If you use it only in DV mode, then you might as well have bought a miniDV or Digital-8 camcorder.

If you import the HDV footage into iMovie and edit it, you can then export it back to the camcorder - after editing - and play it, from the camcorder, in high-definition, straight into a high-def TV ..no need for DVDs.

When hi-def DVD burners do eventually arrive, and HD compatibility is added to iDVD, you'll then be able to re-import your edited tape(s) and burn to DVD, using iDVD, if you want to.

Of course, it may be a while before anyone buys HD/Blu-ray DVD players to play your DVDs!

But edited HDV, played from a camcorder back to an HDTV, looks great!

Well you can burn HD-DVD disks with DVD Studio Pro.
For $500 you can get a player I think that is "pretty" affordable.

Disclaimer: I could benefit from you clicking this link if you actually buy it

Rick,
I've noticed you mentioned the problem with dual G5 tower and the Sony HC3. I had the exact same problem. The HC3 would import without a problem on my Powerbook but would not import, even though I could control the camera, on my dual G5 tower. Like you, I tried all the usual fixes.

I began thinking that it was a problem with the built in firewire on the dual G5 becasue I've had problems with it with other devices - hard drives, isight, MacTV. I finally got a separate firewire 800 card and installed it into the computer so I could use my exernal hard drive that had both a 400 and 800 connection. It worked without a problem.

Back to the HC3 issue, I decided to try one last thing and connected the HC3 to the 400 port on my hard drive that was connected to the firewire 800 card. Magically, everything worked fine and it imported video in real time.

Clearly, there is an issue with the built in firewire on the dual G5 towers. If this is unclear or if you have questions about it, please feel free to email me at <bwieties@mac.com>

Best regards
Bill

Dual G5 Mac OS X (10.4)

This was my discovery as well....could not get camera to send the data but I COULD CONTROL IT AND OFTEN IMOVIE WOULD CRASH. When I switched to my extra firewire drive which is connected to an internal firewire 800 card I could import properly but only if the camcorder was playing the movie when I connect the cable. There is a definate bug here with timings. I entered a trouble report with both Apple and Sony and hopefully they will address this incompatible annoyance.

I've exactly the same problems.
On HC3,in record mode,I set video to HDV1080i , NOT set to convert HDV to DV ,"VCR HDV/DV" is set to HDV .
After I connected HC3 with imovieHD 6.0.2, it shows that HC3 is connected. But When I turn HC3 to record mode, nothing (including video or audio) appear on imovie. When I turn HC3 to play mode , it shows the HC3 is connected. I can control HC3 with imovie button , but nothing appears on imovie.

When I turn my HC3 to DV mode, everything is OK.

I don't have another firewire PCI card , so I can't use another firewire 400 port to test.

SO...What problem do you think we meet ??

I have use my mac mini with imovieHD 6.0.1 and it works !!
It seems the powermac g5 built-in firewire do not mix with Sony HC3.
I'll buy another firewire card instead of powermac g5 firewire.

I'm using mine in HDV mode. Even if I can't make a true HD DVD now, I can do so later. Since I already had a DV camcorder that worked fine, HD was my purpose in getting this camera. Going to standard DVD does give better quality from HDV than DV does, even if it's not reaching 100% of its potential. I think the difference in standard DVDs is definitely worth it, and I can remake the DVDs to a higher standard later.

Success! Adding the LaCie FireWie 800 card and plugging the camera into the LaCie FireWire drive (as the drive was designed) didn't work for me, but my local Mac dealer (Computize) found the solution: I have the FireWire drive connected to the FireWire 800 card, and the camera connected to a FireWire 400 card that came with my Nikon slide scanner. The dealer's Apple FireWire camcorder cable worked, but my Apple cable doesn't for some reason. Fortunately, the LaCie "i.LINK" cable that came with the drive does work. At the shop, it also worked to plug the drive into the G5's FW800 port, but when I tried that at home it didn't, probably because of a conflict with my other FireWire devices. In some tests it only worked when the HDV camera was specifically selected in iMovie (rather than the iSight), but as it's set up now, iMovie accepts the HC3 camera by default. It seems odd that one would need to add two additional FireWire cards, but to be able to use this camera is worth it--for a consumer camcorder, the picture quality is absolutely awesome.

Percho,
I was interested to see you have no problems with the HDR-HC1 and iMovie, but I see you are in the US. Over her in the UK I get great pictures by slow sound or out of sync sound. Case of Apple getting all fine at home, but forgetting that we all don't live in America!

Have you downloaded the latest Software Update to iMovie which is described by Apple thus:

"This update to iMovie HD 6.0.0 addresses issues with Ken Burns rendering performance, scrubber bar editing performance, theme image quality, PAL audio, and displaying iLife Sound Effects automatically in its iLife Media Browser. It also improves overall stability and addresses a number of other minor issues."

..?

The updates are at the bottom right of this page.

I too just purchased HC3, connected to firewire (which is same as ilink) 400 on front of tower and had no problems importing in real time.

PowerMac G5, Dual 2.7, 8gig Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Rod, I see you have a dual 2.7. This is consistent with my observation that the Macs that seem to have trouble are the earliest G5 towers, when the top of the line was the dual 2GHz (like mine). Later G5 towers and other models tend to just work as advertised.

A tip on using the HC3: I like to film wild birds in the back yard, but the HC3 auto-focuses on the fence in the back yard, not the birds and bird feeder in the middle of the picture. Spot focus sometimes works, and tends to work better if I tap the LCD screen just right of the point I actually want to focus on. Maybe because I'm using full zoom, the camera thinks I'm filming something far away. The only reliable way I've found to focus on something against a busy background is with manual focus. It's hard to enjoy that super sharp image when your subject is blurred. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy your HC3 as much as I do.

Hi Bruce,

As far as you still need this information: I bought that Sony HDR-HC3 camcorder today, after testing the camcorder with my PB and iMovie.
The tests were positive; no problem importing clips. I studied first this forum of course (-:

succes, Gerard.