Sony Trv-33 And New Imac/imovie 2008 Not Playing Nice

What does it mean to have to get the video "queued"? I have a SONY TRV-33 camcorder-- made a DVD with it ONCE on a new sony vaio back when i got that laptop and the camcorder in 2003. so amazingly complex i never did it again. (but it worked-- i could download TAPE video to a PC)

BUT now with my brand new imac w/ imovie 2008 AND a new firewire cable, i get nothing. cant locate my camcorder user's manual (yet) but everything i read on the imovie help and various websites says it should be easy but it doesnt work. i click on import from camera and get the imac camera -- the option on that screen to switch to a different camera doesnt offer any other camera (like the sony i am looking for)

the camcorder does not show up on the desktop or in the system resources (?) where one website suggested it should

with a USB cable and the camera switched to "memory" the camera is recognized but only for the contents on the memory stick

with a new 6-4 pin firewire and the camera switched to "vcr" i get nothing but the words 'DVR IN" on the camcorder menu. no way to control the camera, etc. the camera is a DV camera for sure


CAN ANYONE HELP? its a bummer because it was not a cheap camera when i bought i new

I would check the menu's on the camera in VCR mode and make sure that DV Output is turned on. Another test you can do is plug in your camera and turn it on "Camera" mode and the fire up iChat or an application that supports webcams and see if you can switch the camera input from the iMac cam to the Sony cam. That way you can see if the camera is talking to the PC.

Another issue could be your firewire cable (not likely but possible) or maybe your Firewire port on you cam may not be working correctly. Again, both longshots but possible. I'd try the cam on another computer if possible to test out those theories.

You could also try another cam on ur iMac and see if it works just to make sure iMovie is working correctly.

I **REALLY** appreciate your words of advice. I will go and try all of those things tonight. have a great holiday, will let u know how it turns out!

no problem, it's what we're here for.