USB Digital Video Cams to PowerbookG4?

M

martinw

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Prior to switching to Appple I purchased a new video camera - a PANASONIC NV-MX500. It's a great video camera but now I can't find a way to connect it with my Powerbook since it only has a USB connection and no firewire.
Can anyone help me find a solution rather than forcing me to change video camera?
Regards
Martin
 
You might want to check Panasonic's web site to see if they have drivers for OS X.

Incidentally, which PowerBook do you have that doesn't have USB? Is it one of the older black ones wiht the G3 CPU? Only two of those had USB (Lombard and Pismo) and the latter included Firewire ports. All PowerBook G4 notebooks have USB and FW.
 
nixgeek said:
You might want to check Panasonic's web site to see if they have drivers for OS X.

Incidentally, which PowerBook do you have that doesn't have USB? Is it one of the older black ones wiht the G3 CPU? Only two of those had USB (Lombard and Pismo) and the latter included Firewire ports. All PowerBook G4 notebooks have USB and FW.
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Thanks for trying to help, Yes, I have checked the Panasonic web site = no luck. I have a Powerbook G4 with both USB and firewire ports but that is not the issue. My problem is that iMovie or QuickTime Pro both require firewire connections not usb ... can you still help?
 
Hmm.....are you running the latest versions of iMovie and QT Pro? I have iMovie HD here, so it might be a little different than your setup.

The other thing might be that your USB ports might not be 2.0, which means they would be too slow to use for data as time-critical as digital video, hence the Firewire requirement. Consider that Firewire is 400 Mbps, USB 2.0 is 480 Mbps, and USB 1.x is 12 Mbps. Check the Apple System Profiler to see exactly what type USB ports you have on your PowerBook. If it's USB 1.x, then you're forced to use Firewire.
 
I have a USB2 port and have tried running the video camera on this as weel. No luck. I also tried to get it recognised by iChat - same problem. Seems a shame if I have to download from my video to my wifes PC, then burn a disc and finally use this to work on my Mac ... I really expected more from Apple. Oh well.
 
It's not necessarily Apple's fault that this has happened. The one to blame is Panasonic for only making this camera a Windows-only product. I checked Panasonic's website and after going through a wild goose chase to find out on which of their sites it was listed in, it only showed support for Windows. It's possible that some of the firmware or some other software might be pushed out from Windows to the camera in order for it to be detected. I've seen this with some MIDI interfaces that use USB and they require software for either the Macintosh or Windows to push out the firmware each time it's plugged in to the computer through USB. For this reason I wasn't able to use it in Linux even though Linux does detect it and the lights become active on the MIDI interface, but the interface doesn't know what to do since the manufacturer hasn't written an app that would allow for Linux to push out the firmware to the interface.

You can't blame Apple for something they aren't in control of. Apple has thought of everything for which to include if the computer comes with it and if the camera is Macintosh supported. Beyond that, it's up to the manufacturers to provide the necessary software to allow their devices to work on another computer.
 
You are absolutely right to make the strong point about not blaming Apple and I 100% agree with you. I am just frustrated at having made the investment in the Panasonic ... in parallel I have thought about using the Studio9 MovieBox that has just been released with Apple OS X compatability. I have e-mailed Pinacle to check ... fingers crossed. Thanks a gain for your continued persistence which is much appreciated. Regards Martin
 
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