Exporting Movie to Sony DCR-TRV50 Problem

New FW cable. Plug the camera in to the wall.
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D aniel C. Slagle
Keeper of the "Unofficial" iMovie FAQ http:// iMovie.danslagle.com

Have you exported to this camera before? If not, you may need to know that Sony 'disable' the DV Import facility on their cameras in the UK so that they are not treated by Customs & Excise or VAT as VCRs.

In fact they CAN take feed from iMovie but first you have to get the camera 'Enabled' (about £50 from Jessops as I remember). BE AWARE that doing this works a treat but it invalidates the warranty on your camera, so you need to keep the Enabler and 'disable' DV Import if you have to send it back for any reason.

I did all this on my TRV120 and it worked fine from then on, after a slight initial problem getting iMovie 2 to recognise the new type of source.

I think you have checked with trying to use it - if it is not possible to write back to the camera whatever way you try, then it is the DV Enabler you need. Maybe Sony disable it on US versions as well as UK versions?

Go into your nearest camera experts and ask them about a 'DV Enabler' for Sony camcorders. Hopefully they have the gizmo you need.

Be very careful before you pay out for any "DV enabler" fix.

I am also having this export problem on a Sony DV (DCR-TRV33E) camera. It worked fine until last week on iMovie4 and Panther so I know it isn't a disabled machine.

Then I updated to Tiger then iLife6. I then did all the software updates.

Now the camera still exports to iMovie fine but when I try importing the finished project back to camera it says "camera disconnected".
I stress I had NO problem exporting from the computer to my camera until the Tiger/I-life updates. I exported hours of footage back to this camera using iLife4 only last week before the upgrade (luckily!).

I've tried all the usual Firewire hints and tips (with 3 different cables). I've disconnected/reconnected, I've shut down, restarted, fixed permissions several times, tried numerous import/export combinations and still the computer (emac - loads of spare memory) refuses to export back to camera. I've also removed all connections (hard drive and printer) from the computer, shut down, pulled the power, waited 30 minutes, restarted, repaired permissions (they were fine) , etc. and retried with everything apart from mouse/keyboard and camera connected, all to no avail.
(I have never had Final Cut Pro on this machine so that isn't the problem either!). I have no third party Quicktime software installed.
I'm convinced it's some bug introduced by the quicktime update in ILife6 or the latest Tiger version. By the way everything else is working perfectly although iMovie has crashed a couple of times after the camera "not connected' message has appeared. (Report sent to Apple).
It is really frustrating situation so any help gratefully received.