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How to connect Sony PC105e camcorder to Mac Book Pro (M1)

F

free.flyer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 10, 2021
28
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I have a Sony PC105e camcorder and want to transfer the DV tape to my Mac Book Pro (M1), preferably digitally to get the best quality.

The camcorder has a DV interface connector, so is it possible to connect this DV interface to my Mac and if so how ?
 
First, you'd need to find an Apple FireWire to Thunderbolt adapter. Apple recently discontinued it because it uses the older Thunderbolt 1/2 protocol, but you can likely still find them on eBay or something. Then you'd need Apple's Thunderbolt 2-to-3 adapter to daisy-chain it to (and it does work!) Then hook a DV FireWire 4-pin to 9-pin cable between the camcorder's DV port and the FireWire to Thunderbolt daisy-chain plugged into your Mac, and you should be good to go!
87F8455E-DC2C-4BC3-9366-917C2A84AA8F_1_105_c.jpeg

This is what I am currently doing for my college's TV studio, digitizing their old Video8 and Hi-8 tape library via a Sony Digital8 camcorder that supports playing back analog Video8/Hi-8 footage, hooked up to one of their M3 iMacs.
 
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dandeco said:
First, you'd need to find an Apple FireWire to Thunderbolt adapter. Apple recently discontinued it because it uses the older Thunderbolt 1/2 protocol, but you can likely still find them on eBay or something. Then you'd need Apple's Thunderbolt 2-to-3 adapter to daisy-chain it to (and it does work!) Then hook a DV FireWire 4-pin to 9-pin cable between the camcorder's DV port and the FireWire to Thunderbolt daisy-chain plugged into your Mac, and you should be good to go!
View attachment 2495031
This is what I am currently doing for my college's TV studio, digitizing their old Video8 and Hi-8 tape library via a Sony Digital8 camcorder that supports playing back analog Video8/Hi-8 footage, hooked up to one of their M3 iMacs.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for your detailed explanation and confirmation that it works. I’ll see if I can find the discontinued adapter on eBay etc
 
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Is it called "Apple Thunderbolt 2 to Firewire 800 Adaptor A1463" ? On ebay they are selling for £80+ !!!!!
 
My mum has an iMac mid 2010 which I think has a firewire 800 port, Im wondering if I could use that ?

She also has an iMac 2017 and it would be easier to borrow this if it has the correct firewire port.
 
Last edited:
My dad also has a mac book pro Mid 2010, does this have the firewire port to connect directly to the camcorder ?

1742761489653.png
 
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free.flyer said:
So something like this...
Click to expand...
Yes. That looks just like the cable I used many years ago to import my DV footage to a 2008 iMac. It should work with any Mac that has a Firewire 800 port like the MBP Mid 2010 you showed in the photo.

Hopefully there's iMovie already on one of the old machines. It should import the DV into an iMovie Library. Then you should be able to drag/drop that Library to a modern Mac, and have the modern iMovie convert the library files (I think not the DV files, though) to the most recent format.

Good luck!
 
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free.flyer said:
So something like this...

www.kenable.co.uk

Firewire 800 IEEE cable 1394B 9 Pin to 4 Pin 2m

Firewire IEEE 1394B 9 Pin to 4 Pin Cable 2m Connect a Firewire 800 device (9 pin) to a Firewire 400 device (4 pin) 2m long cable IEEE1394B... [see below for full description]
www.kenable.co.uk www.kenable.co.uk
Click to expand...
Yep, that should work fine! I've used similar for years, and even using the "adapter chain" dandeco mentions to a modern Apple Silicon Mac.
 
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Anonymous Freak said:
Yep, that should work fine! I've used similar for years, and even using the "adapter chain" dandeco mentions to a modern Apple Silicon Mac.
Click to expand...
Yep. In addition to doing so with the M3 iMacs at my college, I've also done this with my M1 MacBook Air.

Brian33 said:
Yes. That looks just like the cable I used many years ago to import my DV footage to a 2008 iMac. It should work with any Mac that has a Firewire 800 port like the MBP Mid 2010 you showed in the photo.

Hopefully there's iMovie already on one of the old machines. It should import the DV into an iMovie Library. Then you should be able to drag/drop that Library to a modern Mac, and have the modern iMovie convert the library files (I think not the DV files, though) to the most recent format.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
If iMovie isn't pre-installed, you can use the QuickTime player in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or greater to capture from a DV/FireWire stream, and it transcodes/saves into a modern .MOV format easily. Just be aware that from Mac OS 10.15 Catalina to a few versions later, you have to make sure the DV source is playing when you open the capture window in QuickTime to ensure the sound goes through.
 
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Thanks, the only issue with the adapter chain is that a thunderbolt to FireWire costs £80+ (second hand from eBay as these are discontinued, so prices are probably higher than a brand new one!) plus another £50 for the thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter. So that’s £130 straight away!

And I’m not even sure if my camcorder is fully functional as well as the tapes. When I first played a tape on the camcorder the footage was corrupted and blocky but after fast forwarding it did improve. So either the camcorder or tape is faulty. The camcorder has been kept in my shed for years !
 
dandeco said:
First, you'd need to find an Apple FireWire to Thunderbolt adapter. Apple recently discontinued it because it uses the older Thunderbolt 1/2 protocol, but you can likely still find them on eBay or something. Then you'd need Apple's Thunderbolt 2-to-3 adapter to daisy-chain it to (and it does work!) Then hook a DV FireWire 4-pin to 9-pin cable between the camcorder's DV port and the FireWire to Thunderbolt daisy-chain plugged into your Mac, and you should be good to go!
View attachment 2495031
This is what I am currently doing for my college's TV studio, digitizing their old Video8 and Hi-8 tape library via a Sony Digital8 camcorder that supports playing back analog Video8/Hi-8 footage, hooked up to one of their M3 iMacs.
Click to expand...
This is rad and a fantastic share.
 
free.flyer said:
My dad also has a mac book pro Mid 2010, does this have the firewire port to connect directly to the camcorder ?

View attachment 2495108
Click to expand...
If you go this route, I have a FW 400 to FW 800 cord that I used to do the same thing you're doing with that same computer (I no longer have the computer).
Been sitting in a temp controlled room for years.
I also have 400 and 800 cables, too.
 
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free.flyer said:
And I’m not even sure if my camcorder is fully functional as well as the tapes. When I first played a tape on the camcorder the footage was corrupted and blocky but after fast forwarding it did improve. So either the camcorder or tape is faulty. The camcorder has been kept in my shed for years !
Click to expand...
You may need a MiniDV head-cleaning cassette; that could solve the problem.
 
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Quick question, does the Firewire interface include audio or is it just video ? I saw a youtube video of someone using Firewire to transfer footage from a camcorder to a computer and they said it did not include the audio, so they had to transfer that seperately and then mux the video and audio together.

PS. I just tried a MiniDC head cleaning cassette but I dont think it made much difference
 
Brian33 said:
Back when I used Firewire to transfer from my Canon miniDV camera to my 2008 and 2015 iMac, it transferred the audio at the same time as the video. It turned out well.
Click to expand...
Yes, that is how it's supposed to work. But for a while from Mac OS 10.14 Catalina to maybe Mac OS 12 Monterey, to ensure the audio would also transfer you had to make sure the videotape was already playing when opening the capture window in the then-current iMovie, Final Cut Pro or QuickTime Player. Apple has since removed that bug, thankfully.
 
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The firewire cable worked with both my parents Macs, but as they live far away I was hoping I could leave it with my mum to transfer all the tapes, but she got confused just using the camcorder !

So I've had to take a different approach, I have bought a firewire PCIe card for my Dell T30 server running Ubuntu.

https://www.ebuyer.com/140423-start...4-pci-express-firewire-card-adapter-pex1394b3

Fingers crossed this will work
 
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