[Klutch Photography]

I have a sony handycam (DCR-HC30 NTSC) with TONES of old mini DV cassettes that I want to "bring" into my Macbook pro and make movies with BUT I'm having no luck. It's not even reading the Handycam when I turn it on. This is all new to me, so any suggestions would be helpful
thanks Dina (Klutch photography)

 

[CanadaRAM]

First of all, what cable are you using? On most DV cameras with both Firewire (i.link) cables and USB cables, only the Firewire cable transfers video.

 

[MannyP Design]

Most Handycams had Firewire (until recently, I guess) so I would use iMovie. You might want to try plugging yours in with the USB cord and see if iMovie will recognize it. You can then transfer the videos that way.

Or, check out this page to see what options are available for you: Sony eSupport - DCR-HC30 - Support Information

 

[Guest]

Also just to point out ... iLink is aka firewire (Sony always calls it iLink). That page says it's supported so that's the route I would take as far as connectivity goes.

 

[pm-r]

As CanadaRAM satated, you'll need a Firewre cable with such cameras for any video transfer.

The normally existing USB 1.1 in that era was just too slow for proper fps video transfer, but if I recall correctly, one could use a USB cable to transfer single still 'Photos" if they were saved as such on the camera to a Mac.

PS: don't overlook the capabilities of using 'Image Capture' and its options.

 

[Klutch Photography]

First of all, what cable are you using? On most DV cameras with both Firewire (i.link) cables and USB cables, only the Firewire cable transfers video.

Thank you for the tip...I tried a firewire and it worked!! thank you.