Canon HV20 Camcorder not connecting to my MacBook Air

sassyfm wrote:

I was using an adapter with a USB and HDMI port, so the firewire cable had a USB end which plugged in there and the adapter goes to USB-C into the Macbook Air.

If you were using one of those bogus USB-to-FireWire adapter cables, I hope it hasn't damaged your equipment. Either your camcorder, your computer, or your USB-C to USB-A + HDMI adapter.

The HDMI was two way, so the adapter took it from HDMI to USB-C.

Even if the adapter converted HDMI to USB-C – which I highly doubt – the MacBook Air is not designed to accept USB-C (DisplayPort) or Thunderbolt video input. You would need a special capture device and capture software to pull in video.

Are you saying the only way to convert the tapes directly to digital is to use a different type of computer. I'm sure I can borrow something that will work. Does this work on a MacBook Pro?

The tapes already have digital video recorded on them, in the DV format.

The issue is that to get that video off the tapes, you need to be able to make a FireWire connection. USB ports on those old camcorders are generally only for transferring still photos and low-resolution videos, not for transferring full-resolution DV (digital video). (Caveat: I haven't checked the manual for your Canon HV20.)

Apple removed built-in FireWire ports from their computers long ago. Thunderbolt dock vendors appear to have stopped including FireWire ports on their docks when they went from Thunderbolt 2 (Mini DisplayPort connector) to Thunderbolt 3. (Not for technical reasons, but for marketing ones.). Apple never updated their adapter so you could go directly from Thunderbolt 3/4/5 to FireWire, and now they've even discontinued the one that you could daisy-chain. So basically, if you have a modern Mac and want to use Firewire, you are up the creek. (Apple also has reportedly removed all FireWire support from macOS 26 (Tahoe) – putting the final nail in the coffin.)

That leaves

• Finding a computer that will allow you to import DV video over FireWire (e.g., an old Mac, or a PC equipped with a FireWire PCIe card),
• Buying a USB device to capture analog video, and digitizing the analog output from the camcorder
• Buying a HDMI capture device (such as people who record YouTube videos of gameplay use), and grabbing the HDMI output from the camcorder. (And no, a USB-C to HDMI adapter used in reverse is not a capture device … we would be talking about a device specifically designed for video capture that would need to come with Mac-compatible capture software).

Both of the latter options will involve extra format conversions, as neither an analog video connection, nor a HDMI connection, use a digital format that is the same as the one (DV) recorded on the tape. But if you do not have the necessary equipment to make a FireWire connection, or a good way to get it, importing analog video using a USB capture device and re-digitizing it may be better than not being able to import your old tapes at all.

Between the latter two, a suitable USB analog video capture device is likely to be less expensive than a HDMI one.

Servant of Cats has provided you with excellent information. See pp 75-76 in the HV20 manual about FireWire/IEEE1394/DV cables and connections.

Older Macs (iMac, Power Mac, PowerBook, iBook, MacBook, Mac mini) with built-in FireWire ports are not expensive today, so this may be the best solution. Use appropriate software, such as iMovie. Models with FireWire can be found via the specifications at everymac.com. Try an online auction site search for price indications.

iMovie for macOS supported cameras - Apple Support

"iMovie works with most mini DV tape-based camcorders using DV and HDV formats. Use FireWire port for tape-based devices."

(under Learn more)

What exactly were the cables that you were trying to use?

If you took a USB-C to HDMI adapter cable, plugged the HDMI end into the camcorder, and plugged the USB-C end into the MacBook Air, there's no way that that would work. Those adapter cables are unidirectional – designed only to take video output from a computer, and convert it to HDMI for a monitor. You'd be plugging in the adapter cable the wrong way. In addition, the MacBook Air is not designed to accept video input.

It is possible to make a FireWire connection if you daisy-chain

• An Apple Thunderbolt 3-to-2 adapter
• An Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire 800 adapter (now discontinued and practically impossible to find)
• A FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 cable (with the right number of pins for the port on the camcorder)

I hope that this is what you tried, and not one of the "USB to FireWire adapters" that you still see sold on some sites that should know better. USB 3.0 and FireWire are too different to support such adapters. So what you actually get is two connectors that have been glued together, and that possibly have random wires connected together.

If you are lucky, those devices will simply not work. If you are unlucky, the wiring of the pins will connect things that never should have been connected, and you may damage your camcorder and/or your computer.

If all else fails you may have to get an external USB device that digitizes analog video, and software to go with it.

Those are easier to find than FireWire equipment, but have the disadvantage that you are not transferring video from the camcorder in digital form. The camcorder must convert it back to analog – so the USB device and the software on the computer can then re-convert it to a (probably different) digital format.

Canon USA – VIXIA HP20 Support

"VIXIA HV20 has been retired. Product support is no longer available. Driver and content updates are not being made."

However, the user manual is online. On pages 66 – 68, it shows the options for connecting the camcorder to a TV set. If you were using an external analog video capture device, you would plug the STV-250N Stereo Video Cable that came with your camcorder into the AV jack, as shown on page 68. You would plug the three RCA plugs on the other end of the cable into the RCA input jacks of the capture device.