It all started when I wanted to take some old video camcorder and put them on the MacBook. Quick Search in the forums soon informed me that Samsung does not make drivers for Mac. (Well, they make for some recent cameras, but not for VP-D55.)

I need to DV port FireWire, which I could easily order online *. I tied her up and made my first record only to discover there was no Soundtrack.

By taking the following steps, I finally can record video directly from the VP-D55 using IMovie, complete with soundtrack. But it seems to be incompatible, and I do not know why. If not the first attempt, he often works on the second or third, so do not give up.

IMovie recorded videos perfectly every time – but was it included Soundtrack, it seems, of trial and error “thing. I can only assume the cable is not tight enough, so make sure it is centered, aligned, and is fully plugged in FireWire. Include the following steps:

1. Plug in FireWire, for the Mac, when the camera is turned off.

2. Open IMovie.

3. Turn on the camera (make sure you are on the mains not battery)

4. Important: Make sure the viewfinder is open, and at full volume – so you can hear the soundtrack coming through the camcorder. (You may need to press the menu button on the camcorder and go to adjust the volume to make sure that the volume is not turned off)

5. Window Imports film will open in IMovie.

6. Select “manual” settings.

7. Press “play” on your camera (and not on screen)

8. The message may appear on the screen, which reads: “No device control” – just ignore it.

9. Press ‘Import’ on the screen

10. It may suspend the camera, so you have to press “Pause” or “more” to the camera, to release her.

11. When you are finished recording, press the stop”on the screen.

12. The message “generating thumbnails”

13. Wait until this is complete, then click “Finish”.

14. THEN turn off the camera and disconnect the cable.

I can not understand why it works sometimes and not others. The unpleasant thing is not seem in any way to know whether there is a sound recording while actually recording. I had to wait a whole 60 minutes of recording was complete before I could try and find Soundtrack missing.

I went IMovie. Turn off the camera. The newly launched IMovie, and repeated the whole process, as indicated above checking every step along the way, including checking the cable, and this time it worked.

IMovie is to throw one or two times without explanation. I also found out that IMovie after each project, and restart the application to start a new project following the steps described above, it seems to work. Check cable connections, which seems a little ‘Loose’, also seems to make the difference.

So with a lot of time and patience, I was eventually able to transfer more than 4 hours old well loved videos on MacBook. Can you be bothered or not will depend on how valuable your video to you, I suppose.

From what I can gather in the Mac forum is the fundamental incompatibility with Samsung and Mac, but I had a VP-D55 (camera) for several years – long before I bought the Mac, and wanted to transfer my old videos.