Video camera to Mac? HELP!

I just bought a new video camera (it's a Sony DCR-TRV285E.) I bought the thing so that I could record stuff with it, download it to my Mac and make home movies with iMovie. I looked in the manual and its saying that the only way to "stream" recordings to the Mac is to do with through an iLink. There is no way to stream through USB.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but is the iLink the Sony version of USB? I had a look on the web and I can’t see where the iLink cable would connect to my Mac. Do I need a PC card to slot in the side of my PowerBook? If I do I have to get a PC card can I just head to PC world, for example, and pick one out or do I have to get an Apple only one? Can you get cables that go from an iLink connecter to firewire (would that even work)?

My other question was, what does streaming mean exactly? Do I have to like press play on my camera at the same time as pressing record on my Mac and then have to watch the whole recording and then press the stop buttons at the same time? Or does it just download like pictures do from a digital camera?

Are there any other good programs out there that I can capture video from my camera onto my Mac that anyone knows of?

Cheers for all the advice. :headphone

iLink is Sony version of firewire. I believe that you will need a 4pin to 6pin firewire cable. Once the you have everything connected up. Place the camera in VCR mode. Then start the iMovie application. iMovie should see that a camera is connected and place you into import mode. Click on the import button, and then you should be down loading (capturing) your video to your PowerBook.

And further to that it imports in real-time, so an hour of footage will take an hour (a little bit more to process the clips) to import

I just bought a 4 pin to 9 pin. I take it that will work as well. Can you get Adobe Premier Pro for the mac?

hojkoff_101 said:

I just bought a 4 pin to 9 pin. I take it that will work as well. Can you get Adobe Premier Pro for the mac?

Click to expand...

As far as I know there is no Mac version of Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5. Final Cut is a great and in my opinion better alternative.

I'll second Final Cut. I still use Premiere pro on my PC but thats because They dont make FCP for PC