I have a six year old Mac, and it doesnt have a firewire,how to I import into iMovie with a USB or van't I?

Question

Help... i can use a UBS connection or can i add a firewire outline to my Mac like on a PC. Not sure what to do, please someone help me. Thanks

Answer 1

You cannot import digital video into iMovie via USB but you can import the video onto yopur hard drive via USB and them drag the individual clips into iMovie. Lots of trouble. Needs USB 2.0 to be reliable, also, as explained by others. Now, if your "old Mac" is a laptop, you will need a PCMCIA Firewire card. If it is a desktop Mac, you'll need a PCI card (much cheaper).

For your desktop Mac, go to any large computer store, such as CompUSA, and ask for a Firewire PCI card or USB 2.0 / Firewire combo PCI card. Should cost 30-50 bucks. I bought one for ten bucks but it was one of those two-day sales at Fry's. That will install in your Mac and off you go.

Or, as suggested by others, you can just spend about a thousand dollars more and buy a new computer. If you think this is the time for a new high-dollar purchase, go for it.

Answer 2

I think you are going to need to upgrade your Mac to a newer model.

My reasonging is this:

a.) DV camcorders interface via FireWire (also known as IEEE.1394 or iLink) or USB 2
b.) USB 2 support only exiss on some recent Macs, not the 6 year old Macs
c.) FireWire and USB 2 move data at much caster rates than USB 1 and USB 1.1 could ever handle

Modern Macs have FireWire built in, along with USB 2.0. In fact, all the MacBooks and iMacs have been shipping with built-in iSight video cameras for about a year.

So, with the current crop of Apples - you can shoot video of yourself while you are at your desk (requires $29 QuickTime Pro license though), as well as take your DV cam into the field to shoot some video, and then import it to iMovie (also included), and then burn it to DVD using iDVD HD (also included).

These new iMacs and notebooks all have monitors, so that is one expense you are saving right off the bat. If you can use your existing monitor, you might want to look at the MacMini as an even cheaper alternative. It sacrifices some things like the integral iSight video camera - and shaves a couple to several hundred dollars off an iMac or MacBook price.

There are USB 2.0 hubs out there. But I think you will need to have USB 2.0 on your computer in order to get it.

USB 2.0 is a very fast interface - as is FireWire.

USB 1 is inexorably slow. It has a very low transmission rate, like the ancient ADB serial port that was used for connecting Mac keyboards back in the 1980s and early 1990s.

USB 1 would be impractical for transfering data. Even if a DV camcorder supported transmitting video over it, the camcorder's battery would probably run down before it transmitted a significant amount of footage.

Plus, it probably could not read the video data off at a slow enough rate to match the stately pace of the USB 1 interface.

It just would not work.

Most people do not go beyond 6 years without upgrading their computer. You are best off buying a new computer.

New Macs are going to run 10x faster, accommodate more memory, support Leopard when it comes out next year, include the latest iLife '06 versions of software like iMovie that you want to use, and work with things like Bluetooth phones that you might have now or be thinking of getting in the future.

Plus, they come with 802.11g wi-fi. So 55 mbps wireless home networking would be yours if you have a broadband connection and can spring a little over a hundred bucks for an Airport Express device.

If you want the best bang for your buck, wait until around April 2007, which is when Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) should be released. Then you can ask for a Mac that already has it preinstalled on it.

That should save you time and about $130 over buying a Mac this year and upgrading the OS next year.

That also gives you time to budget for acquiring your new Mac, and figuring out which DV camcorder you are going to buy to go with it. By then, HD digital video cameras might be down to about the same prices as regular ones this year.

Then you will be sitting pretty!

Answer 3

im not sure but if your computer has a USB plug then they might sell at some stores a Firewire to USB converter.