How do i put a movie from my sony

Question

handy cam on to iMovieHD on my mac

Answer 1

"HandyCam" is Sony's brand name for ALL consumer camcorders regardless of media storage type. More detail on the camcorder type and Macintosh model would have helped - but here goes:

==> MiniDV or Digital8 tape based: All Macs of the last 10 years or so have a firewire 400 port. The only exception is the MacBook Air - no firewire port. If you are using any other Mac, you need 4-pin to 6-pin firewire 400 cable. The 4-pin side of the cable connects to the DV port of the camcorder. The 6-pin side of the cable connects to the Firewire 400 port on the Mac. Camcorder needs to beplugged into working AC power and be in "Play" or "VCR" mode. The Firewire port needs to be active. Check System Preferences: Network: Port Configurations (I think). There needs to be a checkmark in the box next to Firewire. Launch iMovieHD. The blue screen with "Connected to Camcorder" appears. Rewind the tape if necessary; click on "Import".

If the camcorder is a high definition miniDV tape based camcorder, you will need to do a custom install of the "Apple Intermediate Code" from the MacOSX system discs. It is a QuickTime Component. This is what is needed to understand the HDV stream being sent. You do not need this for standard definition DV - only HDV.

USB is used only for transferring stills from the memory card (if your camera has this capability). iMovieHD will not recognized DV coming in over USB.

==> Hard drive or Flash memory based: Connect the camcorder using the USB cable. The hard drive should mount like any other mass storage device. Copy the files from the camcorder to the Mac. You may need to download and install StreamClip

http://www.apple.com/search/downloads/?q...

After the files are translated, you can drag them into the iMovieHD clips pane.

If the camcorder is capturing AVCHD encoded high definition, you MUST be using the current version of iMovieHD08 (or the current version of FinalCut Express or Pro2) and you MUST be using an Intel-chip based Mac. If you are not using an Intel-Mac or the movide editor versions are not the current ones, you will not be able to do anything with that AVCHD encoded video.

==> DVD based camcorder: If your Mac has a drawer loading DVD drive: finalize the disc in the camcorder, take the disc out of the camcorder and put it in the drawer loading disc drive on the Mac. Download and install HandBrake:

http://handbrake.fr/

Rip the DVD to a format iMovieHD likes... .mov, .dv, .MP4 then drag the ripped file into the iMovieHD clips pane.

If your Mac has a slot loading DVD drive: NEVER EVER put a small (8cm) or odd sized disc in the sloat loader. You will break the drive and scratch the disc. You have two options... either get an external drawer loading DVD drive (I like LaCie)

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.h...

then follow the steps for rippin the DVD or get an analog/digital converter... keep reading...

==> VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, Beta (or if you don't want to get an external drawer loader): You need an analog/digital bridge like those from Canopus:

http://desktop.thomsongrassvalley.com/pr...

Use the AV cables that came wioth the camcorder to connect the camcorder to the A/D bridge. Connect the A/D bridge to the computer. Alert: Video quality will not be so good because it is taking a step through analog land.