How do I view movies on my Mac that were made on my SONY Handycam (DCR-DVD105)?

Question

Movies are recorded on 3" disks--don't get me started on the slot drive v. 3" disk problem--and the formats available are 'video' and 'VR'. It seems that when I format the disk in VR, the disk is recognizable by my Mac, but only still photos appear in Finder. Movies on the same disk are available through the Handycam itself, but not on the computer. Further, when I format the disk in 'video' mode, my computer recognizes it as a blank disk. Can anyone help me??? Many thanks. AK pete

Answer 1

I would imagine there has to be some type of conversion program on an Apple link to help you on this. Best is go to your Apple dealer he must know all.

Answer 2

SRK is incorrect. Apple Macintoshes support DVDs just as well as any other platform. You just need the correct utilities and tools to deal with the miniDVDs used by these poor excuses of "technology" masquerading as "camcorders"..

As you have found, you should not put a miniDVD in a slot loading optical drive. This is true of ANY computer hardware manufacturer. You will break the drive and scratch the disc.

To get to the video onto the computer, you can:

1) Get a drawer loading DVD optical drive. I like LaCie http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.h... but any firewire external drive indicating Mac support should be just fine. Download and install HandBrake http://handbrake.fr/ and rip the video.

2) Using the AV cables that came with the camcorder, use a Canopus Analog/Digital bridge http://canopus.com/products/videoconvers... and import into iMovie.

This is not an issue with the Mac - it is a problem caused by the poor design and implementation of DVD based camcorders. Transfer of this highly compressed video will result in poor video quality - whether on Windows or Macintosh OS. In my opinion, the manufacturers should recall ALL DVD based camcorders, refund the money and recycle the DVD camcorders into something much more useful... like a paperweight.

Answer 3

Mac does not support DVD ...

so, there are softwares available through which u can view the DVD content on ur Mac,