Sony DCR-TRV8E - DV. How do I digitise to a Mac?

[cosmos65]

Hello!
I've got a stack of DV Cassettes that I would like to digitise. The camera is still working and I can see the tapes on the screen on the Handycam. My question is, how do I digitise this stuff to my iMac? I have tried several cables with no success. I would like to import the DV tapes into iMovie and edit in there. Is this a possible? Or do I have to pay to have them digitised?
Any info or advice most gratefully received.
Many thanks.

[JVRaines]

You should be able to do it with iMovie and a FireWire (IEEE1394) cable, provided you have a FireWire port. If you have a Thunderbolt port, then you will need the Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter.

[smrpix]

You should be able to do it with iMovie and a FireWire (IEEE1394) cable, provided you have a FireWire port. If you have a Thunderbolt port, then you will need the Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter.

Specifically you will need a FW400 (from the camera) to FW800 cable and a FW800 to Thunderbolt cable. Any other combination will not work for both the necessary machine control and video capture.

[johnmeyer]

Yes, you definitely need to use the 1394/Firewire cable because it will simply copy the bits on the tape to your computer. Any other method will require that the video be re-encoded, causing an unnecessary loss of quality.