Sony Camcorder and MAC?

Question

I have a Sony Camcorder and when I plug the USB in the MAC it doesn't even register or download! What can I do to get the videos on my MAC from the SONY?

Answer 1

Go 2 apple.com and go 2 the help place of the site and call customer service! they will help you!

Answer 2

Check with Sony support for Apple compatibility issues. See the link below>>>

Answer 3

First, MAC is "Media Access Control. "Mac" is a nickname for the computers manufactured by Apple.

You did not tell us WHICH Sony camcorder.

If it is a miniDV tape based camcorder, video transfer using USB will not work. You need to use a firewire cable to connect the DV port on the camcorder to the firewire400 port on the Mac. Neither iMovie nor FinalCut will recognize that there is a video device connected to the USB port for video import. When you connect the camcorder to your Mac, the camcorder needs to be in "Play/Edit" mode. You need a 4-pin (camcorder DV port) to 6-pin (Mac Firewire 400 port) firewire cable. Firewire, IEEE1394a and i.Link are all the same thing.

If it is a hard drive or flash memory based camcorder, that should mount like any other external mass storage device on your desktop. Copy the files to the hard drive. You will also need to download and install StreamClip - this is a free download from Apple. Go to Apple.com; click on Downloads, search using "streamclip"... select the first item. Download and install. Launch StreamClip and import the video file you copied - export the file as DV or .mov - iMovie and FinalCut can deal with these formats - they don't like the highly compressed MPEG2 files stored on hard drive or Flash memory based camcorders.

If the camcorder is DVD based, NEVER put a mini-DVD in a slot loading optical drive. You either need to get a drawer loading DVD drive (I like the ones from LaCie) and use a DVD ripper like Handbrake

or

You will use the AV cables - to connect to an "analog/digital bridge" (like those from Canopus). The DVD camcorder connects to the A/D bridge with the AV cable that came in the box with the camcorder and the A/D bridge connects to you Mac with a firewire cable.