Connecting A Sony Handycam to a Mac Computer

Wow looking forward to the new Mark videos! Youtube stuffs up quality of videos too: from what Ive seen, that other have uploaded, revver seems to be better quality – but I am yet to receive a nice new handycam in the mail to find out
Lissie

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Thanks for the info. I have the same Handycam.
After installing the said software could you please explain
what steps to take to download from Handycam.
Thanks again

Hello, I stumbled upon your blog looking for a way to connect my sony mini dv camcorder to my macbook. I already have everything you said to get but there is one problem. It will only read the first recorded clip I have on the disc and I have no idea why haha, is there any way you could tell me of a way i could rectify this issue so I can browse all of the clips on the disc?? If you know of course, I don’t know anyone who can help me, or maybe that video expert you know, but I would greatly appreciate your help!

Much thanks,
Kyle

Thank you Mark and Shaun!!! My husband just purchased the exact Sony Handicam model you wrote about and was in the process of FREAKING OUT about the Mac compatibility (or lack thereof) when I stumbled across your website. We are expecting twins soon (thus, the new camcorder) and tensions are already high around here, as you can imagine. I followed your instructions and everything seems to work now. You saved us a HUGE headache. I can’t thank you enough. Happy New Year.

help i have a macbook pro 15 aluminum and a sony micromv dcrip7 want to make a dvd….

Great article! I stumbled upon your blog through a search for something different and nwo solved my nephew’s problem in the process! Thanks for the info!!

what are you using to connect the camera to the mac? i have a sony handycam that records on mini disks, and i just bought a mac and final cut express 4. I was using a program called pinnacle on a pc, and i used a dazzle to connect my camera to the pc. but the dazzle doesnt seem to work on the mac. ive been trying to figure this out for like a week now, and i already have what you said, the $20 purchase and the Streamclip. do i need a firewire, or something like that?

You know, Sony should really give you a cut – I bought a hard drive HandyCam *only* because I saw your web site first. Thanks – it works like a charm with my MacBook Pro!!!

Hello I just bought a sony hdr-xr200 and only has a hdmi,avr and usb outputs, how can i make my mac to reconize my cam so that i can used it to live brodcast on the net?, Is there a pice of hardware that i can get for it?.
please help

I am hoping this will help me. I had a friend get the movies off my mini dvd disc, and when I put it onto my MacBook I still couldn’t open them. I am downloading the streamclip and will make the other $20 at purchase at apple if you think it’s going to help. Do I then need to go from the camera to the laptop, or do you think I can open up the mpeg files that I’ve transferred to my laptop?

Hey Mark, I have a Sony Handycam with the mini DVD. When I connect my camera to my Macbook Pro, it doesn’t even recognize any recorded files on my miniDVD. Ideas?

I have a sony dcr dvd610 I downloaded the softwares you said but I dont know what to do from there. I plugged my camera in with usb and it came up as a blank dvd. My dvd is full from our trip to the zoo. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks! This is driving me crazy!

Figured it out, I think…I had to finalize the dvd in the camcorder thanks!!!

Yes, I downloaded the software, but when I connect the handycam it shows as a blank recordable DVD.

I have a Sony Handycam DCR-SX40 Camcorder, Macbook, Leopard, and iMovie9. I had import problem like everyone else is reporting. After I connected my camcorder by USB to the Mac, I looked in Finder and found it. I checked on the file on the camcorder and found that if I accepted the extension “ind” with the using program being iMovie9 it imported fine. Now that my Camcorder file specifies iMovie9 for my imports, it work well. I haven’t yet checked for compression and loss of quality.

In the past I have used iMovie6 and a Canopus converter box (cost $200) and have imported into DV files that keep full quality.

I did what you said and the movies opened right up. But there’s no sound. Any idea what’s going on? Thanks!

When I turned on my Mac and the Sony Camcorder HDD (mine is DCR-SR80), the files have the .mpg extension. I just bought the Apple MPEG-2 software you mentioned here, and then I checked out its website for hardware compatibility. It didn’t mention DCR-SR80. Now I’m worried. How can I convert the .mpg to mpeg? Whenever I click on these files, it says,”This is not a movie file.”
Help!

Thanks so much for your blog. I have a Mac and am not going back to a PC just to use a stinking camcorder. I purchased the Sony Handycam and ended up buying all kinds of Quick Time software, and there was still no sound! Spent three hours on the phone too between Sony and Apple customer support. I ended up returning the Handycam and purchased the JVC Enverio ($50 more, but compatible with Imovie 08), returned the Quick Time software to Apple and upgraded my Mac to Snow Leopard (which I was going to do anyway and has Imovie 09). You are right, Sony should be more user friendly with Mac, not just PC. I haven’t tried downloading my Enverio yet because I’m still waiting for Leopard to arrive. But I’m pretty confident it is going to work.

I purchased a Sony HDR-XR200. How can I import the video clips into Final Cut Express on my Mac Book Pro. My computer recognizes the camera and wants to put them into iMovie 08, and I am unable to export into HD! Any help would be appreciated!

I’m having the same issues and downloaded, installed and paid the $20 and no luck. Can you please write down the actual steps on how to do this. My cable is plugged in and no luck.

Please help.

I followed the steps above and played around a bit. Here’s what works for me: Use MPEG Streamclip to open a file (I have all the clips in iPhoto). It will play with sound through Streamclip. In order to save it and play it with sound through Quicktime, go to EDIT and choose “Convert to MPEG with MP2 Audio…”. Then you can save it anywhere and when you open that file it will play with sound through Quicktime.

Thank you. It’s validating to know that someone else had the same experience I had. Thank God I didn’t buy one and was only connecting my friend’s to my Mac.

@Kellie McMaster:
i had the same problem, unfortunately, you have to lose your footage, all you do is go to p-menu and go down to format and turn it to video file, you will lose your footage, but in future make sure the disk is video before you record on it.

I have a DCR-HC52 (which uses Sony tapes to record). How can I get the videos off my Handycam and onto my Dell computer?

Mark MUCHAS GRACIAS DESDE ESPAÑA

MARK,

THANK YOU FOR THE HELP I WAS SO LUCKY TO HAVE FOUND. I HAVE THE VIDEO OFF THE SONY HANDYCAM INTO IMOVIE THANKS TO THE 1st STEP. THERE IS NO SOUND AND I AM CERTAIN I JUST HAVE TO GET QUICKTIME MPEG 2 DOWNLOADED. IT IS $40 NOW AT APPLE. I HAVE NEVER DOWNLOADED A BITTORRENT FILE THINK IT IS WORTH IT.
I HAVE FOUND VUZE INSTALLER BITTORRENT CLIENT AND PUT IT ON A DISK. I ALSO PUT THE QUICK TIME MPED 2 DOWNLOAD (FROM ONE OF THE SITES, WHICH SITE DO YOU RECOMMEND IF YOU CAN) ON A DISK. AM GOING TO LOAD THIS ONTO THE MAC MINI BUT THOUGHT I MIGHT FIRST CHECK YOUR INPUT IN CASE THIS IS ALL WRONG.

APPRECIATIVELY,
JOAN

I was kicking myself for not realizing this handycam wasn’t mac compatible. I had already downloaded the quicktime mpeg-2 add-on but it still wouldn’t work. Streamclip did the trick…..Thank you SO much!

I have a HandyCam DCR-HC26…i followed your instructions, but my computer will not recognize my camera through the USB can you explain in another way how I can access the video?

Thanks very very good

my sony handycam that ALWAYS worked when I connected it to my mac laptop (via firewire) is suddenly not connecting. In the interim I installed Leopard and ilife 09. Could this be affecting the connection problem?
thanks!

Problem: my Sony HDD hdr-cx106e camcorder via usb did not show up on my MacBook (intel processor). After going to USB connect mode the camera said “preparing …” and nothing happened. The camera also did not show up in my usb ports (even after restarting).

What i tried: i read basically every forum/manual imaginable on the topic. Installed streamclip and bought the MPEG2 quicktime component. However, after i installed the quicktime component, nothing happened (i don’t know if it was to happen on its own but the installation did not help). I opened streamclip but the camera did not show up. So the steps described here did not just magically work for me as some action seemed to be missing in between. I also looked on the imovie support page on apple homepage. i had shot video in both SP and HD and to internal memory and memory stick. imovie help page suggested downloading the SP video to computer and then erasing it, which should then show the HD video on the computer. I tried downloading the SP video to a PC but the installation disk never finished because the computer did not find the camera.

What worked: i connected the camcorder to my computer via a different usb chord. did not use the one that sony provided but a one that belongs to a canon powershot photocamera and voila – there was my camcorder on my mac! i was absolutely amazed that this was all that i had to do. maybe it works for some of you as well.

Personally, i now hate Sony. I like the camera but the way you have to work around is just ridiculous and in the end all it takes is to replace the chord they (!) have provided you.

Those of you out there with the same problem, i feel your pain.

I have borrowed a sony handycam from my university for a filming project and I have a mac book pro. I don’t have the lates fire wire cable to connect the cam but do have a usb cable.

Mac is not recognising the handycam what can I do?

Hello :

I followed the steps in this blog, I think, but it’s not helping me. I have a Sony DCR-30 (mini-dv) which I’m trying to connect to my MacBookPro OSX 10.5.8.

How can I connect my camcorder so it mounts on my MacBook? StrearClip seems to convert files, not help camcorders mount. I see no “import from camera” option in the menu.

The MPEG2 codec is for quicktime, but quicktime does not import from camcorders.

Anyone can tell me how to get that stupid camcorder recognized? I HATE Sony !!!

I have a MacBook pro, and my DCR-SR80 “used to work” with iMovie 09. now it don’t work. I have access to a DCR-SR100, this works with iMovie 09. I tried moving a file from DCR-SR80 to DCR-SR100 and then using iMovie 09 – and that WORKED! so we know it’s NOT the file format (which would eliminate downloading different conversion software and losing audio qualities). Why don’t Sony just make all their DCR-SR series HDD camcorders work with Macs?

I was recently given a Sony Handycam DCR-SX44 and own a MacBook with iMovie. I was also unable to import my videos, but then I followed the steps on the following website. It worked, and it was so easy (and free, too)!

http://www.kb.sony.com/selfservice/documentLink.do?externalId=C455202

I hope this helps someone else.
(Sorry, if this is already on here somewhere because I didn’t take the time to read through every other comment.)

Thanks for sharing the knowledge base link Susan. This has been my problem eversince. I’m about to ditch my handycam already because it’s so frustrating to import it on my old PC when all my files are in my Mac.
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Thanks for this post! It helped me lots. Very frustrating problem, I won’t buy another camcorder that can’t synch with Mac software again, if possible.

I’m writing the details of what I did here in hopes it might help somebody.

For me, the computer recognized the camera as an external hard disk (Sony Handycam DCR-SR45 with hard disk drive). I use a USB connection cable – don’t remember if it was the one supplied but perhaps not. I turned on the camera after connecting, and touched the “USB Connect” button on the camcorder screen (the one with the little cylinder next to it), and voila, there it was as “NO NAME”.

I simply dragged the movie files onto my Mac hard disk to copy. They were under “NO NAME” disk: MP_ROOT folder: 101PNV01 folder. The files were listed as .MPG i think. That way I had the data from the camera & could burn it or save it for future conversion as needed.

Then I opened them in StreamClip (after following the instructions above to download and install the StreamClip software and the Quicktime MPEG2 add on for $20), they played fine. I then converted to MPEG-4, and could open those in iMovie.

Using the Batch List function (under “List” pulldown menu) I could convert a whole bunch at one time.

Again, Many thanks to Mark.

You are amazing. Do you know how you saved us? All our kids would have grown up with out seeing their cool Sony videos on our mac ‘puter. It worked!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Indrek!!! I tried a different USB cable (one from my Canon digital SLR), and now the camcorder shows up on my desktop. You saved me $20!

I have just spent the last 2 hours trying everything. Downloaded per your blog. Got stuck…still not working! The sony pos that I have is an hdr-sr1. Trying to download the files onto my MAC. Any suggestions?

WOW! You guys are effing awesome! This works great!

Hello Mark! First of all, I loved the way you write is too creative now, I would like to know if by doing what you say I can import the footage to Final Cut and edit it there? Thanks!

Hi, I know that you posted this article a while ago but i have run into the exact same problem! I am not the biggest computer boff so this may seem like a really obvious question but… by doing the steps that yo uhave sugested, will this magically allow my camera to be recognised by the computer? If so, Will i be able to capture the film from the camera through iMovie and edit the contents there?

thanks for posting the article, hopefully it will be of help to me!