Macbook pro crashing when accessing HF10

[loosingpatience]

Ugh, I am so on my last string with this computer!!
This is my first mac, a macbook pro, that I bought specifically for downloading and editing my AVCHD video from my Canon HF10.
However, I have only been able to successfully do this 2 times in the just over a month that i have owned it!

I connect the camera and **sometimes** it says "camera detected" and then **sometimes** it says "generating thumbnails" but it keeps getting stuck there This has happened no less than 50 times.

I have spoken to apple at length and they can't seem to make it work consistently.

It worked once after doing an app reset (deleting the com.apple.imovie7.plist file and then restarting holding down shift/control/option before starting up). But since that time even that isn't working

The camera works PERFECTLY with my PC so I don't think it is the camera. I finally broke down and downloaded my video to the PC and plan to try to get it to my mac via my airport... but obviously that is not going to cut it for the long term.
I am so loosing patience.
Anyone else have this issue?
Any ideas what it could be or how I can fix it... I really want to love this mac, but this is sooooo frustrating!!!

Should I get Imagemixer SE 3 for mac to get the info off of my camera?


Thank you so much for your help.

 

[NRose8989]

It sounds stupid but i had the same problem...

Which USB port are you connecting your camera to?

I MBP freezes up as well when i use the left USB port next to the magsafe..

Try using the other port when you connect your camcorder.

 

[Courtaj]

This may strike you as a stupid question, too, but since you don't mention what version of iMovie you're using, check that you have 7.1.2 at least. If you've got an earlier version, run an update.

In addition, make a disk image of the SD card on your desktop before opening iMovie, then disconnect the camera, open iMovie, mount the disk image and see whether that works. That way you'll be testing whether the Mac-to-HF100 connection is the source of the problem.

Andrew.