Connecting Your Camera to Your Mac
In the spirit of innovation and evolution, Apple continues to change the connectors used for our MiniDV cameras. Most importantly, LifeFlix requires a connection to the FireWire, or IEEE 1394 port on your camera (not USB). But newer Macs use Thunderbolt, so you'll need a FireWire to Thunderbolt to connect your Mini DV camera to your computer.
This is a FireWire cable (9 pin to 4 pin):
If you don't have this cable, they are easily found at your local electronics retailer such as Best Buy, Walgreens, or online at Buy at Amazon.
Your camera's FireWire connector looks like this:
There are two different connector types on your Mac (depending on how old it is) -
Older Macs: Look for the port on your Mac stamped with a "Y"-like icon (see below). That's a FireWire port. Below is an example of the two different types of FireWire ports. Next to that example is another image showing what their respective connection cables would look like.
In the left image below, the squarer port on the right is the newer type of FireWire port. The image on the right shows the newer type of FireWire cable, also with the squarer end.
Newer Macs: Newer Macs do not have a FireWire connection port, instead they have a Thunderbolt port. If you own one of these newer Macs (first, congratulations!), you'll need a Thunderbolt (your computer connector) to FireWire (your camera connector) adaptor which is shown below. Buy on Apple.com here
