FireWire to 2009 MacBook??

Question

Level 1

8 points

FireWire to 2009 MacBook??

Hello,

I have a 2009 unibody MacBook and am trying to transfer some old home videos from a Canon camcorder with miniDV tapes. The camera has a 4-pin FireWire port, a S-Video port, as well as an A/V output. I understand my Mac doesn't have a FireWire port, only MiniDisplay, Ethernet, and USB, and I was wondering if there were any adapters I could get to plug the fire wire into the MiniDisplay port, as I understand it doesn't work with USB. Alternatively, can you use a S-Video or A/V port to connect to iMovie to edit videos? I am kind of lost here with all the different ports and different kinds of technology and would appreciate any help here.

MacBook, iOS 10.2.1

Posted on Mar 11, 2017 5:27 PM

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Answer 1

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Mar 11, 2017 8:07 PM in response to drwhoxenon27

It seems possible, just double check that both Macs have the same iMovie versions otherwise you may have incompatibilities if you have an older OS & older iMovie on the 2009 Macbook.

The iMovie menu will state the version or use File > Get Info on the Application in Finder.

I think the FW400 to FW800 to Thunderbolt should work. Just consider that that Air may have no other ports available to save the media onto as you capture, so it may be a multistep process if the Air has limited space on the internal disk. Good luck with it 🙂

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Answer 2

tjk

Level 9

51,202 points

Mar 11, 2017 7:15 PM in response to drwhoxenon27

drwhoxenon27 wrote:

I understand my Mac doesn't have a FireWire port, only MiniDisplay, Ethernet, and USB, and I was wondering if there were any adapters I could get to plug the fire wire into the MiniDisplay port

No, they are two different protocols, so they can't "talk" to each other via an adapter.

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Answer 3

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Mar 11, 2017 6:00 PM in response to drwhoxenon27

Double check the model via the app at Mactracker.ca. It will show 'this Mac' & confirm which version you have. I suspect a 'unibody' version is the late 09 model that has no Firewire.

I can't see any ports that are convertible on that model so you are probably out of luck. You might need to use a different Mac to capture from Firewire, sorry.

Converting to S-Video is a terrible idea - the quality is probably unbearable & not natively supported in iMove etc, so you would have multiple layers of conversion to deal with. USB 2 was never reliable enough to support streamed video like Firewire (despite being capable of faster transfer speeds).

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Answer 4

drwhoxenon27 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 11, 2017 7:15 PM in response to Drew Reece

Thanks to everyone who responded, yes it is the model without the fire wire port. Since there seems to be no way to move the movies this way, I think I have figured out a bit of a roundabout way that should work: get a 4 pin to 800 fire wire adapter, connect that to a fire wire 800 to thunderbolt adapter which I will plug into my friends mac book air. After importing to iMovie that way, I'll transfer the movies to my MacBook using an external hard drive. Does this sound like it will work?

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Answer 5

tjk

Level 9

51,202 points

Mar 11, 2017 7:11 PM in response to drwhoxenon27

Hi,

The Early and Mid 2009 MB models have FireWire. The Late 2009 models do not. Are you sure you don't have FW?

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Answer 6

drwhoxenon27 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 12, 2017 6:29 AM in response to Drew Reece

Yeah, both Macs are running the latest versions of iMovie and Mac OS Sierra so I don't think there should be an issue there. Thanks for all the advice!

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