Is the Sony HVR-M15U compatible with a older Mac pro?

[JKruts]

I recently purchased a Sony HVR-M15U in order to capture many Mini-DV tapes in both DV and HDV formats. The unit appears to be working as I can view video on an external monitor etc. I connected it to my older MacPro and connected it via a firewire cable. I launched iMovie and when I turned on the Sony HVR-M15U VCR, it was recognized but when I clicked on import, all I see is a blue screen with the correct time code in the top right corner.

Is there a compatibility issue or does it matter if I use firewire 400 or 800? My Mac recognizes my camera just fine but I want to use the Sony HVR-M15U as a playback device instead of my cameras. Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to give me feed back.

 

[Dave Braine]

iMovie should recognise most miniDV camcorders, but it's not listed here:

iMovie for macOS supported cameras

A wide range of third-party camcorders and digital still cameras are compatible with iMovie on your Mac.

support.apple.com

Also, in the past there have been many problems trying to get Sony miniDV camcorders to connect to a Mac. Plus there was often a problem trying to use tapes in a camcorder that wasn't the one that was used to do the recording.

 

[sevoneone]

The HVR is a professional DV/HDV deck, not a camcorder. The decks were always way more forgiving with tapes from other camera manufactures. It should work with iMovie as the data stream over firewire should be the same as any camera or deck. Hmm...

If I remember correctly, those decks had a mode switch for allowing the computer to control the deck over Firewire or essentially just push the DV signal. I don't think the newer versions of iMovie support the control protocols... If there is such a switch on that model, might be worth toggling between the settings. You might have to manually push play on the deck too. You could try downloading the trial version of Final Cut to see if that makes a difference too.

I also seem to remember there being issues if you had DV and HDV recorded on the same tape or recorded one format over the other, but that was never that common.

 

[iluvmacs99]

I recently purchased a Sony HVR-M15U in order to capture many Mini-DV tapes in both DV and HDV formats. The unit appears to be working as I can view video on an external monitor etc. I connected it to my older MacPro and connected it via a firewire cable. I launched iMovie and when I turned on the Sony HVR-M15U VCR, it was recognized but when I clicked on import, all I see is a blue screen with the correct time code in the top right corner.

Is there a compatibility issue or does it matter if I use firewire 400 or 800? My Mac recognizes my camera just fine but I want to use the Sony HVR-M15U as a playback device instead of my cameras. Any suggestions?

Thank you in advance for taking the time to give me feed back.

You need Final Cut Express 4 which supports the tape controls and print to tape feature of the Sony HVR-M15U. Final Cut Express 4 doesn't like anything higher than El-Capitan, so an old Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1 would work perfectly. I use my PowerMac G5 just for this situation running Tiger 10.4.11. Also, you don't want to use iMovie to capture DV material as it de-interlaced the source footage to half its resolution except iMovie 6HD. Final Cut Express doesn't, so the resolution and quality of captures are much higher. Hope this helps.

 

[Dave Braine]

The HVR is a professional DV/HDV deck, not a camcorder.

Since discovered that. Thanks.

 

[e1me5]

Download the free trial of FCPX and try to import using it. I did it many times in the past with FCPX and sony decks, had no problems.

 

[Boyd01]

I also have an HVR-M15U and used it to capture over 100 hours of legacy DV, DVCAM and HDV tapes. Worked fine for me on a 2012 quad-core Mini server connected to the firewire port. Also worked properly on a 2013 MacBook Air with a firewire to thunderbolt adapter. I did some capturing in the legacy version of Final Cut Pro and some with Final Cut Pro X. I did not try iMovie.

I'd agree with the suggestion to use the free trial of Final Cut Pro X (if your computer supports it). If not, maybe you can find a copy of the old Final Cut Pro 6 or 7, that's what I used. Also, there are a lot of menu options on that deck, and its a pain to set them since everything is configured with on-screen menus. I recall that I needed to play with the settings to get everything working myself. Unfortunately, it has been several years since I used the deck so I can't offer anything specific.