SONY camcorder compatibility with Mac / iMovie

I have just purchased a SONY HDR - SR12 120GB camcorder and i am having having trouble
opening the files on my Mac. I am running - a Mac OS X v 10.5.3 - 1.8 HHz PowerPC G5

The main problem is the software they supply is Windows only!

Has anyone else had similar issue or know how to get around this problem??

Cheers!

Are you using iMovie 7 to do this (part of iLife 08)? It is the only version of iMovie to support HDD camcorders.

i think you will be able to do it, see if this article helps,

iMovie ?08 and Sony HDR-SR1 and HDR-SR7 compatibility

i followed the link from here,

iMovie ?08: Camcorder Support

The G5 chip won't have anything to do with it - you just need iMovie 7

iMovie 08 - ithink its up to version 7.1.1

edit and the G5 wont run it

iMovie requires a Mac with an Intel processor, a Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0GHz or faster), or an iMac G5 (1.9GHz or faster).

Apple - iLife - System Requirements

looks like you need to buy a new mac to go with the new camcorder!

You are correct!! i think i am stuffed..... now i will have to look at getting a whole new computer just to watch and edit my footage!

It looks like you need iMovie 8, found this on this web page...

SONY - Australia

(Quote/)
Compatible with Apple iMovie 08
Footage from this Handycam can be imported to Intel Macs using iMovie '08 and the latest operating system update (Mac OS X 10.5). Please visit the Apple website for more information on iMovie 08 (including system requirements and detailed compatibility information).
(/Quote)

LOL!! did you bother to read the thread!!

It's not such a bad thing really. I have a Canon HV20 and when I try to edit the HD footage on anything but my iMac C2E 2.8GHz it is too slow.
Not that it helps you much, but you can pick up second hand Intel iMacs quite cheaply these days. Check out a few of the reseller firesales and the Apple refurb pages.
eg. Decryption just sold his 17" iMac Intel 1.83GHz for $650 this morning.

Cheers Leon - I will have a look around and see what i can pick up!

Did you bother to look at the link?

The information on the sony website confirms what the others are saying. It would seem that you are easily amused.

Im in a similar position but have not purchased as yet.

My video camera has recently had a fatal accident, so I am in need of a new camera. I am looking at the Sony HDRHC9 which is a HD mini DVI tape drive unit.

Having a G4 Powerbook I realised that the HD recording would not be practical until I upgraded to a new MacBook Pro (hopefully later this year), But seeing as the the camera recorded in the HDV standard onto Mini DVI tape and has a IEEE port, if I recorded in Standard Definition it should still work in iMovie HD v6 on my machine.

However the Sony Site still says intel only. So it looks like i'm stuck in the middle, I don't want to buy an old Tech camera but can't do any editing until I upgrade my computer.

So if this is correct I suppose i should consider a camera with a hard drive instead of tape. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks

yes i did bother. if you had read the thread before posting you would have realised that although we had already posted that iMovie 08 would work with the OP's camera, (so no new info in your link there), we had also found that the OP's mac would not run iMovie 08 so it was not a solution for them.

to use the footage from the camera the OP will have to buy a new computer.

i guess i am more annoyed than amused by pointless posts where there is no effort made to read the existing thread.

(perhaps being full of the flu makes me more grumpy than usual, and perhaps instead of embarrassing you in public i should have just sent you a PM and given you the chance to quietly edit out your post.)

I have a sony hi def to mini tape camera (can't remember the model but about 1 year old and am away from home this weekend so can't check) and I edit my footage on imovie in tiger on the last powerbook model released pre intel.
Works OK but don't expect to be able to import in real time. Sometimes it bogs down to 1/2 speed on import but it's not a problem unless you want to import looong clips, I don't know if the bottleneck is the system or graphics card or firewire, would like to hear how others go with importing full HD footage over firewire.

Anyway, amazing image quality, better than HD TV and DVD, I love it.
The other huge advantage is that I can save out a single frame at around the equivalent of a 3mp still camera, brilliant for capturing reference material for sculptures.

Don't buy a camera that wont take tape, sooo much better for archiving your work but be prepared to pay $20 plus for HD tapes.