I want to upload a video to my macbook pro for an iMovie, but it says I need a Fire Wire...Is it possible to connect my Vivitar DVR 410 to a FireWire cable?

To connect your Canon ZR 800 camcorder to your MacBook Pro using a Firewire connection, you will need a Firewire cable and a Firewire port on your computer. Here are the steps you can follow to connect your camcorder to your MacBook Pro:

1. Locate the Firewire port on your MacBook Pro. It is usually located on the side or back of the computer and is marked with a symbol that looks like a small lightning bolt.
2. Connect one end of the Firewire cable to the Firewire port on your MacBook Pro.
3. Locate the Firewire port on your Canon ZR 800 camcorder. It is usually located on the side or back of the camcorder and is marked with a symbol that looks like a small lightning bolt.
4. Connect the other end of the Firewire cable to the Firewire port on your camcorder.
5. Turn on your camcorder and set it to playback mode.
6. Open the video editing software on your MacBook Pro and choose the option to import video from a Firewire device.
7. Follow the prompts in the software to import the video from your camcorder.

I hope this helps! If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask.

I take it that your macbook pro has imovie on it. If you open up imovie and plug in your camcorder it should recognise the camcorder and give you access to putting the movie onto your mac. Have a look at http://www.apple.com/support/imovie/ it should help.

The best way to download videos from your camcorder to your computer involves removing the memory card from the camcorder and plugging it into a card reader (either built-in to the computer or connected via USB or FireWire). This is likely to be faster than connecting the camcorder to the computer, and won't run down your camcorder's batteries.

Once the card is plugged in, it will appear to your computer as a removable drive. You can use the operating system's drag&drop facility to copy videos from the card to the computer's hard drive, the same way you copy any other files. Or you can use any video cataloging program, such as iMovie and Windows Movie Maker.

Hi - It's pretty easy. You would use the I.Link (Sony calls it) connector which is actually fire wire. So you would need a fire wire cable (about five dollars or so) between the camera and Mac, load up the built in Imovie software and you'll be ready to go.
Here's a link to a good video tutorial demonstrating the process.
http://video.about.com/desktopvideo/Apple-iMovie-video-capture.htm
Have Fun
Regards, Mikeywaf

Hi, I managed to down load mine by connecting with a firewire and setting the camera to playback mode (not PC), opening imovie, turning the camcorder on and selecting file -' import from camera". a screen came up then I started playback on the camcorder and was able to select import from the screen on the imac.

try using the image capture utility when connected to the computer. canons are notorious for forcing you to use image utilities (picture wizard in windows and image capture in macos). my canon xsi did the same thing.

If you need further help, reach me via phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/jarrad_11786570be7a2abd

If your cam has a firewire connection, you could plug it into the macbook and use iMovie to transfer the videos over. You can also get an external DVD drive to put those tiny DVDs into to transfer it over.

you should be able to use firewire and iMovie to get the video over in DV format

I've been around the block with this for days, including a fresh installation of the software on my MacBook Pro. Sigh.

Here's what seemed to work:

1) Reset Vixia HV30 (tiny reset button behind the battery). Did not change any settings on the camera after that.

2) Installed Canon's software that dropped some canon-related files in Library/Quicktime folder.

3) Opened new iMovie 6.0.3 and Final Cut Express HD 3.5.1 projects (a) FCE (using Easy Setup in FCE) to Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60 (b) iMovie 'HDV 1080i'.

4) Connected 4-pin --> 6-pin firewire cable out of the camera to a bus-powered external drive and from the drive, firewire 800 --> firewire 800 --> MacBook Pro 10.5.8.

This was a last-ditch, Hail Mary effort. It worked, and the camera showed up in the System Profiler firewire window, too, whereas it had not before all of the above. Still does not show up when hooked directly from the camera to the FW 800 input, but at least I can capture now.

You would need to use iMovie. Most MacBooks come with this already installed but if you can't find it you might have to buy it from apple's website. All you have to do is open iMovie with the camera connected and on and import the movie into iMovie, then you can edit the way you want it to be. iMovie has some great tutorials as well. Importing and editing can take a while, however.