Mini dv to iMac...Not transferring

[tarquineus]

Trying to transfer my Mini dv tapes to iMac. Got the firewire cable connected to the camera and iMac. iMovie doesn't see the camera. I've got a Sony Handycam (model; DCR-HC32) that sits in a cradle. The cradle has a mini USB, dv, and a/v ports.
The camera's display screen shows STD-USB & USB Stream. I tried both options, nothing. Any help would be great. I'm trying to put together a movie of the kids for the wife's birthday and the clock is ticking. Thanks all.

 

[fa8362]

I'm guessing the version of iMovie you're using is much newer than the camcorder/deck. If you want to spend money, you can buy an ADVC110 or similar device which iMovie will recognize, or you can seek out an older iMovie version that will recognize your camcorder/deck AND work on your iMac. The last Mac operating system that will work with PowerPC software was Snow Leopard. Anything more recent and it won't work.

 

[Surfmavs]

Have you connected the FW cable directly to the camera? probably the cradle is not daisy-chaining the camera...
After you power-on your camera, you have to set the camera in "playback" mode and connect the FW to the iMac, so iMovie detects the right signal.
After that the device must show up in the capture screen on iMovie...

Good Luck!