8mm conversion or accesibility to a computer

I have a Powerbook G4, and yes i have an external drive, but how do I actually connect the camera or get the info. on the tapes to my firewire equipped comp.?

Now can you tell us what camera you have? Manufacturer, and model - please...

ok its a Sony Handycam Vision Video 8 XR CCD-TRV16 NTSC, hope that helps,
thanks.

connect this camera to an Apple Mac G4 laptop would be similar to connecting the camera directly to a TV or VCR... but you need another part to replace the VCR...

If you do not have the camcorder's manual, you can get it here:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=CCDTRV16

You will need:
1) the AV cable that came with the camcorder (or an equivalent replacement).
2) an analog/digital bridge (converter). The Canopus ADVC55 or ADVC110 are probably enough for you. http://canopus.com/products/videoconversion.php
3) a 6-pin to 6-pin firewire cable (this connects the a/d bridge to the computer).

It is actually pretty straightforward...
1) Plug the analog/digital bridge into the firewire port of the Mac G4 laptop (I am pretty sure all G4s came with at least one FW400 port) with the firewire cable. If you have only one FireWire400 port (some G4s came with two... then there are some with a FW800 port which you won't use),
2) Connect the external drive to the computer. I don't know what kind of external drive you have, but if th a/d bridge s using the only FireWire port, then the external hard drive will need to use a USB port - this is not optimal, but it will work.
3) Plug the camcorder into the a/d bridge with the AV cable.

I occasionally use an old Dazzle Hollywood a/d bridge, but I don't think Pinnacle Systems makes a firewire version anymore and iMovie will not recognize video import via USB (so don't bother getting a USB-based a/d bridge just because it is cheaper)...

I presume you want to edit it... Most folks would want to burn a DVD - but since you have not told us which G4 PowerBook you have we don't know if your optical drive is DVD read-only or if it is a SuperDrive which reads and writes DVD...

http://support.apple.com/specs/powerbook/

The first with an optional SuperDrive was PowerBook G4 (1GHz/867MHz)

well, actually i wasn't going to burn a DVD, my Mac doesn't have the burner, but I wanted to upload some videos to the internet. But thankyou for the information. Oh one more, how do you upload videos to a site like Youtube? Do you need certain software?

this is my comp. info, but no DVD burner. I have only 1 firewire port, and my external hard drive is firewire, so i guess i'll have to do the video in small amounts.


PowerBook G4 15"
Machine Model: PowerBook5,6
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.2)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz

you have what you need to import, edit and "share" the movie suitable for uploading to YouTube... If you need help with that, consider posting those questions at the Mac Software forum here at CNET...

Thanks again, i truly am happy and grateful for your advice and help.

I remember the first time I went through what you are going through - I won't totally ruin it for you, but it should go something like, "That's it? I should have done this sooner..."