Alright, so I own a Sony video camera that records on Micro-MV tapes, which is cool. the only problem is that the Micro-MV format isn’t mac compatible, since it records in mpeg2 format. What I’ve had to do was load the video onto a PC using Sony’s proprietary software, and convert it to DV format so I could edit it in final cut pro, or even iMovie. big hassle!

I asked around, and since the Micro-MV format was dropped by Sony even, there wasn’t really any support for the camera.

I figured I’d have to sell the camera, and buy one in Mini-DV instead, it was either that or drag an extra computer with me down to Guate’ just to convert my video to a format I could use.

I spent some time talking to people who had similar problems, and finally was able to figure out a few lines of code that would allow me to import the video via firewire.

About 30 seconds after I finished that, I found another way, this one provided by apple, to do the same thing, so I’ll talk about that one here, as it’s easier for other people to emulate:

Go to the apple website, join their developer network, download the most updated SDK version, mount the image and install, then open the applications and find DVHSCap. plug in your camera, and viola, it recognizes it and allows you to capture the video.

After you’ve captured the video, you can use a software program to convert it to whatever format you need. I convert it to DV so I can edit in Final Cut Pro. the conversion takes a while, and that sucks, but I don’t have to buy a new camera, or carry an extra computer with me, so I’d say it’s worth it!