Sony Handycam DVD 308 and Mac?

Question

My mac desktop is not importing movies with my handycam MiniDVD 308

Answer 1

You have two options to get that video.

1) If you have a drawer loading DVD drive on you Mac (like the tower use), get the DVD out of the camcorder and put it in the drawer loading optical drive in the computer. You will need to rip the video using HandBrake or MacTheRipper.

http://handbrake.fr/

http://www.mactheripper.org/

DO NOT put a miniDVD in a slot loading optical drive. You will break the drive and scratch the disc. iMacs and the laptops use slot loaders. If you have an external drive like those from LaCie - and it is a drawer loading drive, follow the drwaer loading instructions, above.

If you have only a slot loading drive, you will need to invest in a Canopus analog/digital bridge that connects to the computer using a Firewire port on the computer - with a firewire cable.

You cannot transfer the video from that DVD based camcorder using USB.

If you recently got the camcorder, I would strongly suggest you return it for a full refund - and get a miniDV tape based camcorder. The tapes have a longer record time than the DVDs you are using, the tapes have a better shelf life than the DVDs you are using and the tapes provide significantly better video quality that the DVDs you are using... and MiniDV (DV=digital video) compresses the video a lot less than the DVD storage method - and you can easily transfer over firewire using the DV port on the miniDV tape based camcorder.

This is not the Mac's fault. The same issues will come from trying to transfer using Windows. This is the camcorders fault and the manufacturers should recall all the DVD based camcorders out there. It started as a good idea but very poorly implemented.

Alert: Video pulled from a DVD based camcorder will not be very good.