The ugly side of the Tiger

[Fred Flinstone]

I bought my first Mac last week after 15 years of marriage to the ugliest witch in the industry - Namely Microsoft The latest facelift won't do anything to improve her in any way! Simply put she's history.

Whereas I am now very much in love all over again - like I was dating a teen bombshell My 24" intel Duo Wonder Babe is way more than I would have expected in a lover - she too does show her bones at times and they're ugly to say the least!

Here I am faced with a wonderful array of DVD and Media editing tools, built in web cams , great new developments in Camera Raw support, bells and whistles on practically every inch of her body and just getting to the good stuff when "What the Donald Duck!!!" None of my hardware works!!!

Even Ubuntu does a better job of supporting legacy Camcorders and Digital Cameras! This is not only a let down - it's a disgrace! Let us try and think about supporting the camera before supporting the Camera Raw guys!!!! I have not that old Sony DSC-V1 cameras and a JVC GR-D290 Camcorder. USB2 cameras. Where were the mac developers when folks went out shopping? Down the Pub I should think! Neither Sony or JVC seem to support Driver updates for windows, let alone Mac.

So what's the solution here without having to replace my Cameras (I only bought the JVC 3 months ago) - everything is firewire on the Mac and though there are USB ports I have to ask myself what's the point of them when they do not recognize hardware like WIndows and Ubuntu do????

Would very much like to find a solution to these problems and take the tarnished look of my new babe, She's sexy and I plan to spend a lot of time with her in the coming weeks and months..... going back to the ex is definitely not an option!!!!!

[Viro]

When you say your hardware doesn't work, what have you tried? I have a Sony cybershot digital camera from about the same period (circa 2003), and when I plug it into the USB port, it gets automatically detected as a disk drive. Does this happen on your machine, or is it completely unrecognized?

[Lt Major Burns]

i went through this problem.

it feels really good to shout about it, but at the end of the day, if it's not mac compatible, then it's just not mac compatible. there are solutions, but it'll be a pain. as long as the thing you're buying says mac compatible, then you'll have no trouble.

unfortunately, you seem to have found possibly some of the only pieces of hardware that don't work under os x. the other one is the Epson C46 printer which i stupidly bought thinking everything will work.

apple doesn't guarantee that everything ever made will work, but it does say that around 90% of hardware will work out of the box, without drivers.

[fryke]

Viro: It's about video cameras. They don't just "show up as drives".

[barhar]

325 word original post re-written ...

iMac 24" with Sony DSC-V1 camera and JVC GR-D290 Camcorder. Having compatibility problems.

-----

01. The Sony DSC-V1 is supplied with System 9.x compatible software. Use 'iPhoto' and / or 'Image Capture' (both applications are in the '/Applications/' folder). (Source)

02. The JVC GR-D290 Camcorder - may be simply Mac incompatible. That is not Apple's responsibility, it is yours. (Source)

[Viro]

fryke: The DSC line is for digital cameras, unless I'm mistaken as my digital camera is DSC-P9. I also Googled DSC-V1 before posting the original reply, and I'm pretty sure it's a digital camera.

Barhar: While I cannot fault the content of your post, the tone could be a little aggressive. Only a little.

[lurk]

The big problem is with non-standard interfaces. You will see the same problem in Linux, althought there are more reversed engeneered drivers out there for Linux devices.

For instance consider the digital camera case, all that it takes to make a usable USB digital camera is implementing the USB Mass Storage Device protocol. If you can save $1.37 per camera by cutting corners and supplying a proprietary driver, that might make sense. I know that lots of cheepo digital cameras have lost sales to me for just that reason (I was looking for a camera for my 5 year old kid at the time).

What it really boils down to is that a Mac is compatible with those 90% of products (it used to be 40%) that are future proofed through standardization. You yourself said that

Neither Sony or JVC seem to support Driver updates for windows, let alone Mac.

If you had models that used standard interfaces (this includes protocols) they you would be future proof and golden. [For instance I spent about $100 more on my Sony video camera to get the model that did not have a proprietary interface so it would run under Linux, later the move to a Mac was painless.]

[Fred Flinstone]

The DSC-V1 is a Digital Camera - Has 9.x drivers but you cannot open them on the intel mac - even the memory stick shows up as a greyed out 'Unix Executable'. I read someplace these were 'Classic' drivers. I have never even touched a Mac before I bought this last week so the next bit is even worse..... the thread mentioned something like running classic through System Preferences - No such entry!

Once again - very easy to say it's my problem that the camcorder is not compatible and I should look at the box etc - As mentioned I never even touched a Mac til last week. Once again the responsibility should be more on Mas and Product developers to include support for both USB and Firewire. If yoou think the world is all firewire then you haven't left the Mac bubble in a very very long time. Even products that were firewire have switched to USB2. Point more or less re-stated.

The very painful thing about all this is I do actually own a Sharp DV Camcorder that was both USB and Firewire compatible but that now suts in Ireland. I bought the JVC for the simple reason that Windows SP2 updates as well as ultimately F***ing up my entire OS knocked out firewire connectivity to my cam. The so called Hotfix wasn't worth a toss and even though I have 3 different ways of connecting firewire devices on 2 different machines I could not get the PC to recognize the Camera.

So you're telling me I have a 1-legged beauty here - The Heather Mills Model? Thought this was the real deal!!!! Either way aside from all the confusion - neither one works on my Intel Duo and the camera (possibly even the video too) worked fine under Ubuntu