Basic driver question... I think.

[calebjohnston]

I have a friend that needs help connecting a digital video camcorder to his mac. It's a powerbook, 10.4 blahblah, latest revision. He has the camera, and the USB cord for from the camera to the USB port on his powerbook.

What does he need to do now to get the video to his powerbook?

Some kind of driver needed?

It's a Canon NTSC ZR65MC.

EDIT

I just read more, and realized that you need to use a firewire to connect the camera to the powerbook. However, the camera doesn't have a firewire sign anywhere near a port (or at all). If it doesn't have a firewire port, what can he do?

 

[reh]

According to Canon, it has a "Special 4-pin connector (based on IEEE 1394)" that they're calling a "DV Terminal."

 

[GilGrissom]

Wouldn't surprise me if it is FireWire...some strange unique plug or not.

Surely iMovie will then take over the hard work once the firewire cable is in?

 

[yellow]

The FW cables for DV Cams look like this:

 

[GilGrissom]

Isn't that just a normal 4-pin (to 6-pin) FireWire cable? I have and use one with a JVC mini-DV Camcorder.

I thought it was describing a unique one. But that would make sense, that's a much more normal cable.

 

[calebjohnston]

The FW cables for DV Cams look like this:

Ah, yes. I sent him that picture and explained what you guys said. Apparently that is what he needs to get.

iMovie will pick up the camera after he gets that cord? (The camera make and model is in the OP)

 

[GilGrissom]

iMovie will pick up the camera after he gets that cord? (The camera make and model is in the OP)

Should do, it's a firewire capture device.

All the firewire camcorders I plug into my mac using the cable given in the picture are picked up by iMovie which will let you record whats on the camera media onto your mac...it should just take it from there as soon as you plug in and open iMovie. Just select image capture and not edit on the little slider in iMovie just below the main big screen and above the timeline at the bottom.

Hope this helps.

 

[mrichmon]

I just read more, and realized that you need to use a firewire to connect the camera to the powerbook. However, the camera doesn't have a firewire sign anywhere near a port (or at all). If it doesn't have a firewire port, what can he do?

It doesn't have a firewire symbol near the port because it is not a firewire port. The four pin connector that looks like this is an iLink port. iLink is Sony's implementation of the firewire standard. But because the iLink port doesn't carry the power connections required by the firewire standard, and the port is not the same shape as the connectors defined by the firewire standard the port on your camera cannot be labeled with the firewire symbol.

As others have said, you just need to get an iLink to firewire cable, or an iLink to firewire adapter that can be used with a normal firewire to firewire cable.