My Macbook Pro does not recognize Sony Handycam with mini DVDs

I have the very first Sony DVD cam that came out a few years ago and it is not compatible with a Mac. I forget what web page I found, but I found a list of compatible camera for the Mac and ended up getting another camera. Sorry.

No, there is no way to use that camera with your Mac. iMovie is compatible with camcorders designed to the MiniDV standard. Any camcorder built to that standard will work. Sony makes another non-standard format camcorder dubbed "MicroMV". Those are also incompatible with Macs. They can only be used with Sony software on a Windows PC.

I have 2-Sony Camcorders and 1- Canon and they work very well with all my Macs. Are you sure it doesn't have a 4-pin iLink(IEEE 1394) port? You will need a 6 to 4 pin firewire cable.

It's not that Sony Handycams with the Mini DVD's don't work with the Mac, it's that Macs accept only video cams that use Firewire and not USB connections. iMovie requires a Handycam with at least a 4pin (iLink) or 6pin (Firewire) connection. Digital cameras are accepted on the Mac because they work through iPhoto and Image Capture which both only need USB connections.

I checked Sony's website, only the Mini DV, HD DVD cams have the iLink (Firewire) hookup. Only Windows machines deal with the lower end USB cams, the software Windows would use is Pinnacle Studio. iMovie on the Mac is an HD recording software where as most USB Windows software is not.


23 Apple ACD /PowerMac G5 Dual 2.3Ghz Mac OS X (10.4)

Actually, it's more than just a USB vs. Firewire issue. It's an issue with video encoding. Sony MicroMV camcorders have Firewire connectivity but do not work with Macs because it uses a proprietary MPEG-2 variant to encode the movies. Their HD camcorders also use MPEG-2 encoding, so those are unsupported as well.

iMovie does not import MPEG-2 from camcorders regardless of connection type. When selecting a camcorder for use with a Mac, it must have a Firewire port and record in a supported format.

From Apple's iMovie spec page:

Not only does iMovie HD 6 support a vast array of digital camcorders — from standard DV models to solid-state MPEG-4 video cams to state-of-the-art HDV camcorders — but it also supports a wide variety of video formats. That includes DV, DV Widescreen, iSight, MPEG-4 (Simple Profile), and HDV (720p & 1080i).

15" MacBook Pro 2.33 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)