squeeks,
Sometimes, even though a camera has a hot shoe, it doesn’t mean that they will support everything that there is such as an XLR adapter. I took a few minutes and did some digging and I did not find… nor did it say that the DCR-HC96 supports a XLR adapter. It does support a few of Sony’s shotgun stereo mics and flash units but that’s it.
All is not lost though, there is a company called BeachTek that make XLR adapters that will except XLR connectors. You plug the XLR mics into that unit and from that unit there is a plug that you just plug into your 1/8 pin mic input. See link below:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=136397&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation
RAM
