Using Sony HDR-HC3 HDV Hanycam with iMovie

Please forgive my rookiness... I purchased this video camera and after recording some footage am ready to edit in iMovie. After reading all the posts, I understand I need an iLink cable to transfer video from the camcorder to the computer, correct? I have a USB cable that was supplied with the camcorder, but I believe that's for transferring photos taken with the camcorder.

Phew, if I can get past this cable confusion, I should be golden!

Should I buy a specific iLink cable from Sony or will something else work?

Thanks for helping the camcorder-challenged! Tamara

iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6) Intel Dual Core

Hi Tammol,
welcome to the  board 😉

don't worry... you realized the BIG difference between usb and the other one... that's better then many other posters here ... 😉

iLink is Sony's brand for Firewire (Apple's brand), which is IEE1394.... all the same:
one side looks like this

... 6pin, fits into your Mac...

other side looks like this

4pin, fits into your camera...

you can buy ANY 4/6pin firewire cable... the shorter ones start at 3$, but you can buy a stylish, semi-transparent, goldenized Sony cable for 50$... same function 😉

happy editing!

(pics by en.wikipedia.org//

I agree that the really expensive cables aren't necessary (I'm currently using a moderately-priced GE-brand cable and it works fine), but for me, part of the solution to my being able to use my Sony HDV camcorder with my G5 was replacing the Apple FireWire cable I had used for years with my previous camcorder. The old cable still works with the new camera in DV mode, but not in HDV mode.

You can also get the cables on ebay for around $10.00. I bought one at Best Buy for 35.00 first. Then I found some on ebay. Works just as well.

I am finding problems with audio. I cannot hear the audio when importing and sometimes the audio sounds garbled after I have imported. I am importing in HD.

Has anyone experience in using this camcorder with
iMovie? Were there any difficulties?

Thanks, Bruce

I am finding problems with audio. I cannot hear the audio when importing and sometimes the audio sounds garbled after I have imported. I am importing in HD.

Sometimes, audio may sound slow on HDV clips which took longer than 'real time' to import.

Just Quit from iMovie and restart the program.

Clips should now play at their proper rate, and the audio should sound OK, instead of sounding slowed down.

Great, that seems to fix the problem. Any idea how I can get audio to play during importing/playback through the computer speakers? It comes out of the cam but not the computer speakers. I have tried the various volume settings and made sure the audio tick box is clicked for the frame.

Hello, I am also finding that even though I can import HD and replay it in imovie just fine, when I actually export it to quicktime, the audio is delayed or garbled. It seems I have some sort of audio problem.

Hi, I just got my HC3.

At first, I thought it would be great to transfer in DV now and create DVD, keep the tape in HDV till HD DVD become affordable.

I set HC3 iLink Conv to ON ( HDV --> DV ) and it shown output is DV. However, iMovie cannot import video, no matter I create project at DV wide or 1080i.

Any comments ?

Has anyone experience in using this camcorder with
iMovie? Were there any difficulties?

Thanks, Bruce

OK, using my G5 2.3 GHz with 2.5gig ram I had the same problems, after reading this discussion I added a $30 firewire PCI card and it worked straight away. My new MacBook 2GHz white with 1.25gig ram also works fine both are working in real time. But make sure you have the camera set up correctly as mentioned.

G5 2.3 Mac OS X (10.4.7) HC1 and HC3

G5 2.3 Mac OS X (10.4.7) HC1 and HC3

G5 2.3 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

G5 2.3 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I bought this camera yesterday and of course, cheap (I) Sony didn't supply the Firewire cable. Bought the Firewire-iLink cable at Best Buy plugged it in, iMovieHD opened and imported the content. No issues. 🙂 However, I'm soooo getting FinalCut tomorrow. iMovieHD is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo slow.

Regardless of the comments about HDV made in the September Macworld magazine, I shoot video and burn DVDs at full HDV resolution because if you have a DVD player that supports 720p and an HDTV, you will get a higher-res picture than plain DV. Not true HD, but better than DV. If you're skeptical, you might make a DVD with both DV and HDV clips and compare them. Seeing is believing. And in time, one can redo DVDs in true HD, something not possible with standard DV as Macworld recommends.

I'm very happy with my HDR-HC3, and with the videos I make with it using iMovie or Final Cut Express, and iDVD.

I just purchased my Apple last week. I've been a lifelong PC user but figured it was time to check out what Apple had to offer. I specifically bought the Apple because of it's video editing software. Unfortunately, I have the Sony HDR-HC3 and after trying everything (short of a new firewire card) suggested in this thread, I still can't get iMovie to import. Is the only solution to add a different firewire card??? If so, perhaps it'd just be easier for me to return my Apple and buy a PC instead... I'm not a hardware savvy person and it makes me cringe to think of messing with my brand new purchase.

nollglover, what behavior are you seeing in iMovie? What version of iMovie do you have? What model Mac do you have, and what speed, how much RAM, which version of OS X? Is it new or used/refurbished? In my case I had two problems, I needed a FireWire card (a problem I've only seen in early G5s) and my cable didn't work with HDV, although both my cable and built-in FireWire did work with regular DV.

If you bought a new Mac, it should "just work" out of the box, assuming it has enough RAM. In that case, I'd consider a new cable and double-check your settings. When you create a new iMovie project, you need to create it as a 1080i project, not a DV project, to import the 1080i HDV from the camcorder. You might try creating a DV project and shooting some video as regular DV just to verify that that works.