OK so I just bought a MacBook Pro and I have a question. I have a digital video camera (Sony DCR-SR42) that I use for recording and when I plug it into my PC I can transfer the videos without a problem. However, when I plug it into my Mac the files come up as files that cannot be read and I can’t get them to play. I’ve tried importing them directly to IVideo and also tried using Quicktime but neither workd. Does anyone know of a file converter that they can recommend that will allow me to download my videos to my Mac so I can edit them??

The camera has a Hard Drive and is a sony dcr-sr42.

Imovie was packaged in the Ilife ‘08 that came with my machine.

I’m connecting via USB as there is no fire wire coming from the docking station to the laptop

I’ll see what I can find using the search function.

Any help would be appreciated.

Looks like the camera uses the MPEG2 format while iMovie uses the DV format.  You’ll need some extra software to get this working on the mac.

If you don’t mind paying some money I’d get
QuickTime Pro $30
QuickTime MPEG2 Component $30
Visual Hub $23
MPEG Streamclip Free

You might not need all of that for this job but they’re all great apps to have for basic video needs on the mac.  Here are some links that might answer your particular question:
On Mac Forums
On Macosx.com
On Apple Support

Re: Digital Video Help

[quote author=“jkbrannon”]... I have a digital video camera (Sony DCR-SR42) that I use for recording and when I plug it into my PC I can transfer the videos without a problem. However, when I plug it into my Mac the files come up as files that cannot be read and I can’t get them to play.

Burnum has the right idea.

In general, assume anything that says “Sony” on it is going to be as incompatible as possible with Macs unless the packaging says otherwise.