Need help recording from an old Sony Video camera

[Clint1583]

Hoping someone can help me. People at Best Buy and a local electronics shop couldn't. I have the new 15" model MBP which has the HDMI, USB and Thunderbolt ports and I would like to be able to record/download (I have an external Apple SuperDrive) some of my old Digital 8 video movies from my 15 year old Sony camcorder.

The problem is the only cable connections this old Sony has is either DV in/out cable, S-Video and the old 3 color RCA cables. None of these will of course plug into the new MBP. I tried plugging the DV (IEEE-1394 cable) cable using a USB adapter but the computer won't recognize the camcorder.

Has anyone ever attempted this? I'm just trying to save these old video's on a DVD before the old Sony camera no longer works. Thanks for any tips.

 

[priitv8]

What you call DV cable is actually a standard FireWire interface (i.Link was just Sony's trade name for FW). So you need Apple's ThunderBolt to FireWire adapter. That one comes with FW800 connector, so you also need a FW cable that has small 4-pin FW400 connector on one end (to camera) and ideally a FW800 connector (square) on the other. If you already have such a cable, but with FW400 connector (D-shaped) on computer end, then just FW400-to-FW800 adapter.

 

[Clint1583]

Thanks for the help. I'll give it a try and hope for the best.

 

[priitv8]

For starters, Sony camera needs to be in PLAYER mode for video capture! After you connect the camera, you shall see it in System Information under FireWire devices, as shown on 1st attachment.
If it does, it will also show up in iMovie (or other capture program) in the Import view, as shown on 2nd attachment.
PS I had the impression that it should also work as direct external camera while in CAMERA mode, but in my quick test (10.9 Maverics and DCR-TRV110E), that's not the case.

 

[Clint1583]

Thanks for all the help. I have the Sony DCR-TRV120 which is almost the same camera as you. Followed your directions exactly but the camera won't show up like you show on my MBP like in your screen capture photo. Wires all seem to be connected properly to the Thunderbolt plug and the camera is in the VTR or "play" mode. This all worked easily on my old Dell laptop. I'll keep playing with it, seems like I'm close but nothing yet!

 

[priitv8]

Could you also post what you get in System Info under the Thunderbolt section, while you have the FireWire adapter and camera (in Playback mode) connected?

 

[Clint1583]

Blank! nothing at all. All the Firewire cable and Apple Firewire adapter are also brand new.

 

[priitv8]

Blank! nothing at all. All the Firewire cable and Apple Firewire adapter are also brand new.

That's disturbing!
Even without anything connected to TB ports, you shall see similar picture, as on my 1st attachment. So you shall see the TB controller on MBP's motherboard and the available ports (2 in case of my rMBP).
When you connect just the TB-to-FW adapter (even without FW cable and camera), you are effectively connecting a FW controller chip to your Mac's MoBo via PCIe interface. So you shall see the Adapter connected to one of the TB controller's ports, as evident on 2nd attachment.
If you don't even see TB device in System Info, then you need to have TB hardware or driver checked. If you see TB controller and ports, but no FW Adapter connected, then get the adapter changed for a working one.
PS You could also check the output from this command in Terminal app (the command line), which in my case lists the following:

Priits-MacBook-Pro:~ priit$ [B]ioreg | grep -i thunderbolt[/B]
    | | | |       |     +-o AppleThunderboltHAL  <class AppleThunderboltHAL, id 0x100000263, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1312 ms), retain 9>
    | | | |       |       +-o AppleThunderboltNHIType2  <class AppleThunderboltNHIType2, id 0x100000274, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1312 ms), retain 10>
    | | | |       |         +-o IOThunderboltController  <class IOThunderboltController, id 0x100000275, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1312 ms), retain 17>
    | | | |       |           +-o IOThunderboltLocalNode  <class IOThunderboltLocalNode, id 0x10000027c, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (10 ms), retain 7>
    | | | |       |           | +-o AppleThunderboltIPService  <class AppleThunderboltIPService, id 0x1000002f8, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1 ms), retain 9>
    | | | |       |           |   +-o AppleThunderboltIPPort  <class AppleThunderboltIPPort, id 0x1000002f9, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1 ms), retain 7>
    | | | |       |           |   +-o AppleThunderboltIPPort  <class AppleThunderboltIPPort, id 0x1000002fc, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1 ms), retain 7>
    | | | |       |           +-o IOThunderboltPort@5  <class IOThunderboltPort, id 0x10000027d, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1298 ms), retain 8>
    | | | |       |             +-o IOThunderboltSwitchType2  <class IOThunderboltSwitchType2, id 0x10000027e, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (260 ms), retain 21>
    | | | |       |               +-o IOThunderboltPort@1  <class IOThunderboltPort, id 0x1000002bb, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (150 ms), retain 8>
    | | | |       |               +-o IOThunderboltPort@2  <class IOThunderboltPort, id 0x1000002bc, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (31 ms), retain 7>
    | | | |       |               +-o IOThunderboltPort@3  <class IOThunderboltPort, id 0x1000002bd, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (140 ms), retain 8>
    | | | |       |               +-o IOThunderboltPort@4  <class IOThunderboltPort, id 0x1000002be, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (31 ms), retain 7>
    | | | |       |               +-o IOThunderboltPort@6  <class IOThunderboltPort, id 0x1000002bf, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (31 ms), retain 7>
    | | | |       |               | +-o AppleThunderboltPCIDownAdapter  <class AppleThunderboltPCIDownAdapter, id 0x1000002ca, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 5>
    | | | |       |               +-o IOThunderboltPort@7  <class IOThunderboltPort, id 0x1000002c0, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (31 ms), retain 7>
    | | | |       |               | +-o AppleThunderboltPCIDownAdapter  <class AppleThunderboltPCIDownAdapter, id 0x1000002cc, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 5>
    | | | |       |               +-o IOThunderboltPort@8  <class IOThunderboltPort, id 0x1000002c1, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (31 ms), retain 7>
    | | | |       |               | +-o AppleThunderboltPCIDownAdapter  <class AppleThunderboltPCIDownAdapter, id 0x1000002cb, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 5>
    | | | |       |               +-o IOThunderboltPort@9  <class IOThunderboltPort, id 0x1000002c2, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (32 ms), retain 7>
    | | | |       |               | +-o AppleThunderboltPCIDownAdapter  <class AppleThunderboltPCIDownAdapter, id 0x1000002cf, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 5>
    | | | |       |               +-o IOThunderboltPort@B  <class IOThunderboltPort, id 0x1000002c3, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (31 ms), retain 7>
    | | | |       |               | +-o AppleThunderboltDPInAdapter  <class AppleThunderboltDPInAdapter, id 0x1000002cd, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 5>
    | | | |       |               +-o IOThunderboltPort@C  <class IOThunderboltPort, id 0x1000002c4, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (31 ms), retain 7>
    | | | |       |                 +-o AppleThunderboltDPInAdapter  <class AppleThunderboltDPInAdapter, id 0x1000002ce, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 5>
Priits-MacBook-Pro:~ priit$

 

[Clint1583]

My device tree showing Thunderbolt comes up just like yours it's just that nothing is shown being connected to it. Reading around on different sites I've seen that many people have had the same problem. Some people say that the video from my old Sony needs to be converted before my MBP will recognize it.

 

[priitv8]

My device tree showing Thunderbolt comes up just like yours it's just that nothing is shown being connected to it.

Do you see ThunderBolt ports as not connected in System Information? If so, then either the FW adapter or cable or Camcorder itself are at fault. If you can see the Apple FW Adapter connected in System Info, then one can assume, the adapter's ThunderBolt side is OK.

Some people say that the video from my old Sony needs to be converted before my MBP will recognize it.

How is this relevant? You need to get the video onto your Mac's hard drive to begin with. This operation is in essence just a simple file copy. Once on the Mac, you can convert or edit it to your liking.
As I've understood so far, you are unable to copy the movie file from camcorder to Mac, because camera is not recognised on FW bus?

 

[Clint1583]

The Apple Firewire adapter does show up under the Thunderbolt device so maybe it's just the Firewire cable itself that's bad. I'll try buying a new cable and see if that hopefully does the trick. Thanks again for the on-going help.