11-12-2007, 03:00 AM

Just bought the JVC 40 GB hard disc camcorder Everio with the dock station etc.

as i had never able to make my old sony mini dv cam work on my Imac, i was extra carefull and asked for a demo on an imac. BTW my own imac is only 6 months old.

they showed me using Imovie 08 and when connected the camera via USB to the imac, the camera showed up nicely in Imovie, however at my home this doesnt happen! it only shows it as a hard disc on the desktop.

my god what to do? why it works there and not here?

11-12-2007, 03:58 AM

Are you sure they used USB and not Firewire?

11-12-2007, 04:48 AM

hi yes i am 100 % sure, especially since the cam doesnt have firewire, only through the craddle can one get firewire.

i tried both at home and with USB i seem to get nowhere, but wonbder oh wonder with firewire i get as long as i play the movie on the cam, the option to import and edit the movie in Imovie, i am so far thjus one step further then where i came from.

11-13-2007, 12:59 AM

What version of iMovie are you using? I think iMovie 08 will be required for this type of camera.

Perhaps playing with the sequence of starting iMovie and plugging in the camera will help; start iMovie first then plug the camera in, or plug the camera in first and then start iMovie. I would agree that this shouldn't matter.

Have you watched the Apple tutorial for importing video.

You sure have bad luck with this technology.

11-14-2007, 04:00 AM

hi yes i run imovie 08, and did updates for almost everything also.

i triesd different sequence but that doesnt help.

i also watched the video yes. the problem now is that if i have 1 hour video, i need to play off the full hour video on the camera in order to capture it in imovie.......which is a bit of a pain, i am sure if i could just import the file it would go much faster

11-14-2007, 07:08 AM

Just saw this video for a JVC Everio model. It shows importing into iMovie HD though but maybe helpful to start importing from the clip you want. I thought iMovie 08 had the ability to import the video manually from a point on the tape you preset. That would at least save time to get a selection near the end of the recording.

Go to the Help menu of iMovie 08 and select iMovie Help. Enter "Video Standard" without the quotes. If the result is the same as mine, you want the 8th line that says something about importing using a USB camera. In the resulting page near the bottom their is a link regarding iMovie not recognizing your camera. Click that and go through it in detail. You might have to scroll down to the title "Monday, August 27, 2007".

Here is the Apple page about supported cameras for iMovie 08.

bmcgonag has a page regarding that general camera model. He uses iMovie HD in that video of his, but the idea may apply to iMovie 08. Admittedly it sounds like you shouldn't need that kind of work around.

From what I've seen via Google, I think iMovie 08 should work with your camera. Of course you haven't told us the exact model, so who knows. This podcast at time sequence 24:23 one of the guys says he used an Everio and it was recognized upon plug in.