iMovie does not see my mini DV camcorder

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iMovie does not see my mini DV camcorder

When I have the camcorder connected to the computer and I click on the apple symbol at the top left of screen and select "About this Mac" and then click on the FireWire tab, it gives me this message;

FireWire Bus:

Warning: Unable to list FireWire devices.

Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec

I'm using a Canon Optura 50 camcorder via a Rocketfish FireWire 800 cable. Running the latest version OSX and iMovie.

I used this camcorder on my old Mac with a firewire 400 cable and it worked fine. Not sure what the problem is.

Hoping for an answer.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 21, 2013 12:10 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 21, 2013 1:44 PM in response to douga64

Could be a bad cable. You can rule this out if your camera will work on a different Mac with this cable.

Other possibilities...

1) Camera must be plugged in to AC power (not batteries only).

2) Camera usually should be set to PLAY mode (but check your manual)

iMovie should sense your camera and display an import screen. If it does not, you can use FILE/IMPORT FROM CAMERA.

Inexpensive Firewire cables are available here.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10301&cs_id=1 030104

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Answer 2

douga64 Author

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Jan 25, 2013 2:33 PM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks AppleMan1958. It was a bad cable. I paid $30.00 for a RocketFish cable at Best Buy, which was bad. Bought a new cable for $5.00 from the website you suggested and it worked perfectly. 🙂

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