URGENT HELP! cannot import movie from my handcam!

desert-of-seth said:

Hi all!

I have to import a movie from my sony digital handycam through firewire to a mac computer but the computer doesn't recognize the cam.(and the power cable is connected) what should i do now??

thanks in advance

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Open iMovie and see what happens.

desert-of-seth said:

absolutely nothing happens in imovie

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The camera is turned on right?

desert-of-seth said:

well,i dont know,there are only the choices: "vtr","off",camera" and "memory"

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I think you set it to VTR so it plays whats on the tape. Then you can import into iMovie.

desert-of-seth said:

should i start playing a clip?

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You can play the tape so it is visible in iMovie or you can press 'import' which will play the tape and import to imovie. The play and stop controls in iMovie will control your camera. Just import what you need then press stop. You can edit it once its imported.

Sometimes on older (by older it can be as new as 1 year) cameras the firewire port gets faulty and no longer likes to connect to computers.

Its a very annoying little bug about firewire ports.. we deal with it all the time. Best choice is to find another firewire cam and see if it conencts and is recognized by the computer. If not than its the computer, if it is, than its your camera. Im not sure which one I would root for...

try a different camera, &ct.

Yes, I believe with my old Sony Digital8 camcorder you had to set it to VCR and then press "play" or something to get it to appear in iMovie/FCP. I would not freak out to bad at this point, this process has always been finicky in my experiences, just keep trying for now, try unplugging it, plugging it back in, turning it on/off, unplugging it, restarting the computer, restarting imovie, turning it back on, ect. I agree, if possible definitely try hooking up a different FW camcorder, that could rule the computer out completely ) or maybe ) but imho this process is still not particularly fool-proof.

I'm having the same problem

I'm having the same problem with mine.

Sometimes iMovie will recognize the Handycam (model dcr-hc42, about 2 years old) and other times it won't. Actually, most of the time, it won't. And sometimes, the connection will die in the middle of importing video.

Repeatedly plugging it in, turning it on, turning it off, and then unplugging it, seems to work occasionally.

I've been connecting through that plastic docking station, but i see there is a port labeled A/V on the camera itself. I guess my next step is to see if I can somehow connect directly from the camera, in case the problem is on the docking station