[Samuel_M]

Hello:

I recently purchased a new Sony DCR-TRV350 Digital 8 camcorder and was wondering if anyone here had any experience with this model and if so, whether it is compatible with any of the latest video software applications for Macs on the market today (i.e. iMovie, iDVD, Final Cut, etc.). If so, what have been your experiences thus far?

Please let me know, thank you.

-Samuel

[lewitt]

Sorry. I just tried my new TRV350. I have device control under firewire in both iMovie and FCP-4. But the signal contains no timecode. So, no logging/import. The USB also is NOT recognized as a drive by my G4/ running 10.2.8.
Maybe somebody can help us both?

[spiky_dog]

given that it's not listed on apple's compatibility page, which admittedly is not updated all that often, i would not hold out much hope.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/camcorders.html

[rtc_id]

I've made several "Home DVD's" from my DCR-TRV350. My wife has 17" iMac (1Ghz, 10.2.3, Superdrive). I'm relegated to the Windoze box. Anyway, on her iMac, the TRV350 jacked right in using firewire. The Mac recognized it just fine and importing into iMovie was a snap. It reinforced that whole "it just works" concept.

Once I empty a tape's worth of footage into the Mac, editing w/iMovie was a piece o'cake. Dropped in some audio tracks from iTunes to cover up crappy built in mic sound, futzed around with a few transitions, threw in a title screen, set chapter markers, export to iDVD, burn a disc, pop into home theater system, kids think they're movie stars and their old man is a freakin Martin Scorcese. Yeah, it just works.

Here's my disclaimer. The wife upgraded to Panther last month and I haven't tried it since. I'll give it a shot and report back if I find anything weird.

Later.

[Samuel_M]

Hello:

Wow, thanks guys for your input! I was somewhat hesitant to buy this camera at first, but in the end, it was pretty much the only option I had as far as converting my older 8mm and Hi-8 recordings to DVD given this model's backward compatibility. With each passing year, Sony seems to be taking away more and more features and scaling back on their Digital 8 line. Glad to hear that there are others out there who have had success in getting it to work with their set-ups...

So to reiterate it would seem that the firewire is my best bet and that getting a Mac to recognize it depends on the current OS version that is installed? Did I understand you guys correctly?

I would appreciate your continued feedback, especially from you "rtc_id." I'm very interested to know more about your experiences. If anyone else has something that they care to add, please let me know. Thank you very much!

[rtc_id]

Oh yeah, I forgot digitizing my old 8mm/Hi-8 tapes was another reason for getting this model. I haven't tried putting our analog footage on disk yet, I still have a ton of current tape to wade through.

As for the camera, I did snag a wide angle lens because we roll a lot of tape in the house. It helps quite a bit in indoor situations.

My biggest complaint with the camera is that it pixelates on really fast pans in bright light. I know this because we film a lot of motocross/dirtbike footage of the runts in the desert. It's really noticeable on the iMac screen, but not so much through our TV. I guess my low res (non-HiDef) TV hides the problem. Luckily I'm not trying to make the next "X-treme Stunterz" DVD, just something a bit better than my old man's Grand Canyon vacation slide show.

If the on-tape audio track is important to you, get an external mic. The internal mic is pretty feeble. It's bearable in indoor situations, but outdoors is pretty useless, especially in the wind. iTunes and a good collection of '80's metal is what I resort to in lieu of an external mic.

Samuel, if you have specific questions, let me know. I peek in about once a week. I really don't have much to say because I didn't struggle at all with any of it. When things go this smoothly, it's like nothing ever happened. We just enjoy the end product.

Later...

[rtc_id]

I finally got around to trying the TRV350 since we upgraded to 10.3.2. The 350 works fine with my trusty firewire (iLink if you're into Sonyspeak) connection. The reason I was spurred into doing this was that I was PM'd regarding this thread by an individual who was having USB troubles. The question was put to me if I'd had any problems with USB or knew of any other compatibility issues.

I'd remembered an earlier post regarding a USB issue with the Mac and the 350, so I thought I'd try it for myself. Yep, they're right. The 350 pukes on the USB. Our iMac doesn't see the camera hanging off the USB cable. Now I recall a CD rom being included with the camera and I suspect the proper USB driver is on that CD rom. I'm certain I never used the CD, so that means I never loaded a USB driver on the Mac for the 350. I did a quick search for the driver and didn't come up with anything on the 'net.

So here's my conclusion....
Go firewire and things go very smooth. If you want to go USB, you'll have to load a Mac compatible TRV350 driver if you can find one.

Later,
rtc