dvx100a is recognized by computer, but not applications

M

muchachotron

Member
i am trying to connect my dvx100a to my 17" powerbook via firewire, and i can't get it recognized by any applications! final cut, gcam,video viewer, ichat, etc. none of them get any connection from the camera. i've tried both in camera mode and in vcr mode.

an isight works with the computer, so its not the firewire port on the powerbook. it doesn't seem like the 4 pin port is damaged on the dvx either, since it is showing up in the apple system profiler in the firewire bus. video does play to a tv via the a/v rca output from the dvx.

any idea whats wrong? this is very frustrating.

- d
 
ok, i'm narrowing it down, but i'm still confused:

- works perfectly in imovie. both live feed and tape playback/control show up in the window, as expected.

- is not recognized by final cut at all

- in ichat and quicktime 7 pro, it says that the "camera is in use by another application". i don't understand this, there is nothing else running, nor have i tried anything else before running either of these applications.

i have tried restarting and different combinations of powering up the devices. i am getting the same response from the sony dv hardware codec converter that i tested.

i'm running the newest version of os 10.4 tiger on a 17", 1.5ghz powerbook g4. final cut 4.5 hd, newest ichat, imovie 4.

i tried gcam and video viewer as well, and they do not work.

help! i didn't get this camera to edit in imovie!! arrrghh!!! it must not be the firewire connection, since there is no problem in imovie. i'd consider that its the older version of final cut, but since the newest ichat doesn't work either with the camera (but just fine with an isight), i am bewildered.
 
I'm having just the same problem with my DVX100E and was about to ask a similar question, glad you did it before me ;)

Anyway, it takes a while but most of the time, after 5-10 minutes, vegas finally detects it, dunno why.
 
First try turning off the camera and computer. For now unplug your sight camera. I don't have any problems with mine but might as well keep it simple.
Power on camera, set to VCR mode.
Powerup computer.
Startup FCP. It checks for camera on startup and posts a dialog if it can't find any.
In FCp go to View-> Refresh A/V devices.
Set view -> video -> firewire.
Set view -> playback -> all frames.
See if you can playback any images to your camera (check LCD on camera)
If so then try to log/capture from the camera.
If none ofthat works check the prefs. There's a basic Firewire and an Advanced Firewire(?) Try switching that or set it to a non-controllable device.
 
ok, i just tried this procedure and it didn't produce anything different, unfortunately.

upon starting up final cut, i get the dialog that says there is no external device connected. i need to choose "continue" for it to start final cut. refreshing av devices doesn't seem to do anything (it says that the apple firewire connection is "missing" in the preferance panels).

i also tried changing the preference panels as you suggested, with no results.

i've used final cut with other models of cameras before, this is the first time i have had a connection issue. the fact that imovie and the system profiler but nothing else recognizes the camera is very confusing. it seems like a specific software issue. or, perhaps a 10.4 tiger os issue?

- d
 
I havent tried FCP on my camera, but Premiere finds it immediately... But its a whole different story with Vegas. :(
 
I had the same trouble with my 100a and DVRack. The solution for it (and maybe your problem) was to attach the firewire before opening the application. Sounds simplistic but it worked, and it just may for you.
 
yeah, i've tried having the firewire connected before the app starts (i imagine this is required in any case to avoid that "unable to locate external device" dialog in final cut), i've also unplugged it after starting the app and re-connected it, but no results.

this seems like a pretty unusual problem, and i've been doing video editing for few years with different cameras (nothing as nice as my new dvx 'till now, but i've never had this problem until now either).

why, oh why, would it work in imovie but not final cut? and the ichat issue is strange, because it does display the little green video button that only appears when you have a firewire camera connected, but then when i try to do a video preview, it says the the camera is in use by another application!
 
Turn on activity monitor and make sure there's no other apps actually trying to use the firewire connection at the same time.
Do you have any other firewire devices?
Are you plugged into the camera or daisy chained?
 
Wow, all i got to say is wow!

I just had to connect it and start vegas before powering the baby up. recognized immedialtely *stupid me*
 
i don't see anything in the activity monitor that would be using the firewire connection.

there is only one fw400 port on my powerbook, and that has the camera plugged into it. there is nothing chained. i do have an isight (which works with the computer just fine), but it is not connected.

i did have an ioxperts driver installed for a usb webcam but i deleted all of its components throughout the system and user libraries, so i don't think that was the problem, either.

i tried the camera on my girlfriends imac g5 in ichat, and i got the same video-available camera preview button and "camera in use by another application" notice, which makes me think its either the camera (firmware?) or the tiger os.

peculiar.
 
ok, i trashed the com.apple.finalcut preference file, but i am still getting the same problem! arghh!!

i'm going to try it on another laptop that still has os 10.3 on it.
 
i just tried the camera in ichat on the 10.3 powerbook and it worked. so, my problem is either a tiger 10.4-related issue or there is some vestigal preference or plugin or something lurking around, and i need to do a clean install of 10.4 to remove it. i'm not convinced that its the lurking preference/plugin, though, because i tried to do this with ichat on my girlfriend's brand new imac g5 with tiger on it and it displayed the same "camera is in use by another application" error as my 10.4 powerbook.

anyone else using tiger with their dvx? any problems with ichat or final cut? even the new quicktime player, which can record video, says that the camera is in use by another app.
 
upon further testing, i am still getting the "cannot find external device" errors in final cut (as well as the issues in ichat), but i can control the camera from within final cut. no image is coming through to be captured, and no preview is visible (preview is in fact disabled by final cut), but the tape is rewinding, playing stopping via the final cut pro nav controls.
 
yeah, i tried the regular ntsc dv and the ntsc dv basic in final cut, neither do the trick.

i just tried the dvx in quicktime pro and ichat on a g4 ibook and it works just fine (live feed, and i imagine tape playback as well though i didn't test it). i tried it in os 10.4 on the ibook, and then i updated the os on the ibook to 10.4.2 and quicktime to the latest version, thinking that maybe something in the update was the problem, since my powerbook is updated with all the latest versions (though final cut is still 4.5). to my surprise, everything works just fine on the ibook. i don't have final cut installed on any other machines but my own powerbook that i am experiencing the problems on, but i imagine that the ichat and quicktime recording features working or not working is a good indication of whether the camera is working or not.

as i think i mentioned before, the g5 imac we have is exhibiting the same problems as my powerbook no ichat or quicktime, but imovie is ok. i just don't know what to do. first and foremost, i'd llke to get ichat and quicktime pro recognizing the camera, and then tackle final cut. it just doesn't make sense that it doesn't "just work".

if its not an os issue, and its not a firewire issue (isight works just fine on my powerbook, as well as external firewire drives), what else is left? i just repaired my permissions and repaired the disk, and i looked for any old plugins or drivers i used to use (i had the ioxperts driver and some other stuff for using a usb camera with earlier versions of ichat av, but i think i got rid of all that, based on what i could find with spotlight and scouring the system and my user libraries). still, no dice. i had no idea what a hassle this would be before i got my dvx! i thought i'd just be able to jump right into some editing as i always have. seems like this is a pretty isolated situation, since not many people are commenting on it. thanks for your help thus far, though.

what else ya got?!!
 
hi folkses.

just wanted to follow up on this thread. i couldn't get anything to alleviate the problem, so i just did a re-install of tiger (archive and install method) and everything is jolly now. i can't explain what was wrong, but just wanted to notify y'all of my my closure. ahhhhhh. now i can finally make use of the shuttle pro and 320gb drive i just purchased to begin my video editing exodus.

.d
 
Hi muchachotron,

I solved the same problem by re-installing FCP. It sorted the problem for all the apps.
I don't really know what was wrong, just like you.

Anyway, glad you sorted your problem.
 
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