Q: What is the best miniDV camcorder to buy to export miniDV tapes to Macbook pro?

Sounds like you are connecting with USB??

Only works for stills not video tape.

You will require a firewire cable usually a 4 to 6 pin.

If your mac has a firewire 400 socket then the above cable is correct.

Newer Macs have an 800 socket so you will require a 4 to 9 pin cable.

The latest Macs may not have 800 but Thunderbolt in which case you can get an 800 to thunderbolt converter and plug the cable into that.

Firewire is also called iLink or IEEE1394.

Al

What brand of firewire cable is in use?

Some don't work!!

Do you see the camera in the System Profiler?

Al

Hi

May be You find something of interest in my notes regarding this (and iMovie - but it is General)

NO CAMERA or A/D-box

Cable

• Are You sure that You are using the FireWire Cable - USB-Cable will not work for miniDV tape Cameras

FireWire - Sure not using the accompany USB-Cable but bought a 4-pin to 6-pin (or 9-pin) FW one ?

• Test another FW-Cable very often the problem maker.

Camera

• Test Your Camera on another Mac so that DV-in still works OK

• Toggle in iMovie pref. Play-back via Camera (on <-> off some times)

• Some Cameras has a Menu where You must select DV-out to get it to work

• Camera connected to "charger" (mains adaptor) - not just on battery

• Camera set in Playback mode - NOT Recording mode

Does Your Camera work on another Mac ?

Sorry to say it is to easy to turn the 6-pin end of the FW-cable 180 deg wrong.

This is lethal to the A/D-chip in the Camera = needs an expensive repair.

(Hard to find out - else than import/export to another Mac ceased to work

everything else is OK e.g. recording and playback to TV)

A/D-box

• Is the dip-switches set right ?

• Set to same standard as recorded/editing e.g. NTSC 29.97fps or PAL 25fps

• Try resetting it

Connections

• Daisy Chaining most often doesn’t work (some unique cases - it’s the only way that work (some Canon Cameras ?))

Try to avoid connecting Camera <--> external HD <--> Mac but import directly to the Mac then move

the Movie project to dedicated external hard disk.

• FireWire-port - Can be re-setted by - Turn off Mac and disconnecting Mac from Mains/Power for 20-30 minutes

External device’s (hard disk’s)

• Should be FireWire as USB/USB2 performs badly and so does Airport or Net-work connected ones too.

• MUST BE - Mac OS Extended formatted - UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange - DO NOT WORK for video due to 4Gb barrier.

Mac

• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk ? Please specify the amount of free space.

(Other hard disks don't count)

I go for a minimum of 25Gb free space for 4x3 SD Video - and my guess is 5 times more for 16x9 HD ones

after material is imported and edited. No Camera or A/D-box

• GarageBands fix - Close iMovie, Open GarageBand, Play some notes, Close GB and iMove can now be OK

• Does Your Mac have a FireWire Port

• White MacBooks - don't

• MacBook-Air - don't

if not then a few Mac’s has a PCM-CIA slot and there are FW-Cards that makes a FW-port this way

else - NO SOLUTION

Only option as I get it is either

• Use another Mac to Capture material (to an external USB2 - Mac OS Extended formatted hard disk - or -

• Change to another Camera that can be used with Your Mac (no there are no miniDV tape Cameras that can)

• If Your Mac-Book has a PCM-CIA Card place - then there are FW-port-Cards and then

You can import via this - but I've not seen this on more modern Macs. My PowerBook G4

has one and this FW-Card-port works greatly.

SoftWare

• Delete iMovie pref. file may help sometimes. I rather start a new account, log into this and have a re-try.

• Any strange Plug-ins into QuickTime as Perian etc ? Remove and try again.

• FileVault is off ? (hopefully)

• Screen Saver - OFF

• Energy Saver - OFF

Using WHAT versions ? .

• Mac OS - X.5.4 ?

• QuickTime version ? (This is the heart in both iMovie and FinalCut)

• iMovie’08 (7.1.?), 09 or 11 ?

• iMovie HD 6 (6.0.4/3) ?

Other ways to import Your miniDV tape

• Use another Camera. There where tape play-back stations from SONY

but they costed about 2-4 times a normal miniDV Camera.

• If Your Camera works on another Mac. Make an iMovie movie project here and move it

over to Your Mac via an external hard disk.

(HAS TO BE   Mac OS Extended   formatted - USB/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange WILL NOT DO)

(Should be a FireWire one - USB/USB2 performs badly)

from LKN 1935.

Hi Bengt W, I tried it all, but nothing worked. Your answer has been helpful insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos) to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before. Thank you. LKN 1935

from Karsten.

in addition to Bengt's excellent '9 yards of advice' ..

camera set to 'Play' , not rec/computer/etc.?

camera not on battery, but power-line?

did your Mac 'recognize' this camera before...?

a technical check.

connect camera, on, playback, fw-connected...

click on the Blue Apple, upper left of your screen ..

choose 'About . . / More . .

under Firewire.. what do you read . . ?

More

• FileVault - Secure that it’s turned off

• Network storage - DOESN’T WORK

• Where did You store/capture/import Your project ?

External USB hard disk = Bad Choice / FireWire = Good

If so it has to be Mac OS Extended formatted

----> UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange is NOT Working for VIDEO !

mbolander

Thanks for all your suggestions. What I learned is that I had a software problem. I had something called "Nikon Transfer" on my Mac that was recognizing my Canon camcorder as a still camera and was preventing iMovie from working properly. After un-installing Nikon Transfer and doing a reboot, everything worked great.

I never liked the Nikon Transfer software anyway--I guess I'll get a cheap card reader and use that to transfer photos in the future.

No Camera or bad import

• USB hard disk

• Network storage

• File Vault is on

jiggaman15dg wrote

if you have adobe cs3 or 4 and have the adobe bridge on close that

or no firewire will work

see if that helps

DJ1249 wrote

The problem was the external backup hard drive that is connected, you need to disconnect the external drive before the mac can see the video camera.

MaryBoog wrote

Maybe your problems is solved in the meantime, but for all others this might help as I had the same problem, also have the Sony HDR-HC7, but the 7e (Europe, PAL). I found this link today and it works perfectly

//support.sony-europe.com/tutorials/dime/videotransfer/vtransfer.aspx site=odw_en_GB&sec=DVH&m=HDR-HC7E

What I exactly did.- put camera in play mode - open guide - choose connection guide - choose comp./printer (where to transfer movie to) - select connection.- i-link (on my camera) but equal to firewire - OK - choose HDV - choose NO for conversion of i.link.

Settings are shown then (VCR HDV/DV.- HDV and i.link-conv..- OFF), press OK, OK, END.

Switch camera off. Connect firewire cable to camera & Mac. Switch camera on, in play/edit mode.

Open i-movie, choose import from camera. On screen below the camera connection is shown.- DV (HDV). Now you can import, automatically or manually.

This worked perfectly for me. Took me 2 days to find out. Could not find any clear thread explaining what I had to do on the camera and the manual was not clear either.

Yours Bengt W

Millershua wrote:

Rocketfish RF-AP309.  No it doesn't show up at all, even when connected via USB.  It is a PV-GS15

That brand has been reported as not working by a few FC users.

Try another brand.

Al

To capture video from a miniDV camcorder you have to connect the camera via FireWire.  USB is only for transferring still images (from a miniDV camcorder).

If your Mac only has FW800 ports, I recommend this 4-pin to 9-pin cable from monoprice.com   I have these in various lengths and they have worked with every camcorder & Mac that I ever had.  Do not use any FW "plug adapter" to change the plug on the end of a cable.  Also make sure your camcorder is the **ONLY** Firewire device plugged into your Mac.

If your Mac has a Thunderbolt port instead of FW 800 then you will also need the Apple Thunderbolt-Firewire adapter.

Beyond that, try this procedure:

1. Shut down your Mac; turn off your camcorder; disconnect the camcorder from your Mac.
2. Restart your Mac.
3. Start up FCE; if you get an error message that it can't find a Firewire camera, ignore the error message
4. In FCE, select the DV-NTSC Easy Setup; create a new sequence; save the (blank) FCE project.
5. Close FCE
6. Turn your camcorder on, insert a pre-recorded tape into your camcorder, then turn your camcorder off.
   
7. Connect your camcorder to your Mac via Firewire
8. Turn on your camcorder in VTR mode, aka playback mode  (not camera mode)
9. Restart FCE
10. At this point, FCE should recognize your camcorder

I have been using a Sony DSR-11 for years to digitize miniDV tapes for family and friends. It's a stand-alone device so you don't have to mess with an actual camcorder. It makes the whole process simple! ;)