Issue with my camera/firewire & final cut pro.

H

Heroinahalfshell

Member
Just recently my final cut pro freezes when my camera is connected to my G5 through firewire. I've tried leaving the camera off until final cut is opened, but when I turn it on the program refuses to recognize its connection. I've trashed the preferences, even did the unplug all cables & comp trick for 3-5 minutes but to no avail. Some other info being I've just purchased & installed the PreSonus firepod audio interface, that's where the problem seems to have started. Any suggestions? Please help.

Thank You.
 
Definitely I have a Presonus and it does not play well with FCP or other Firewire devices. Definitely unplug whenever you are not using it.

Noah
 
Thanks for the responses, but my issue continues even when I've unplugged the firepod. It isn't my camera either because I've tested two other dv cams and still no response.
 
Knowing exactly what camera you're using, what Mac model, hard drive set up, RAM, video card, all that would be of great help in troubleshooting your problem.

Also, when you unplug the Firepod, do you also go into your System Preferences and switch the audio input back to generic Firewire?
 
Did you trash prefs again after removing the Firepod. Also I'd try zapping the PRAM. That typically clears this sort of stuff:

Zapping PRAM is simple, just reboot your Mac and hold down "Command(the Apple key)+Option(the Alt key)+P+R" while it is booting, when you hear the startup sound for the seond time the operation is complete, and you can release the key combination. Now just let your Mac boot as normal.

-Noah
 
I think it could also be because you have something else plugged into your computer (also with firewire) at the time you connect your camera. When there are more than one firewire-connections, your computer has trouble of recognizing the proper one for capturing.
 
A few steps to try out:

1. Turn off everything. Then turn on in this order: Camera, Computer, any FW hard drive.

2. When you turn on the computer, you might as well reset the PRAM. Hold down Apple- Option-P-R right after you turn your Mac on and hold these keys down till you hear the startup chime THREE TIMES. You should only have to reset PRAM every month or so if things get whacky.

3. Make sure you have a good firewire cable- test it with another computer or camera.

4. Reset your QuickTime installation. This is something that has come up as of late as a contributing factor for connection problems with cameras. Go to this webpage and look at the tutorial:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301852

5. If none of that works, try deleting your FCP preferences and QuickTime Prefs.

6. Have an iSight? Sometimes these may create conflicts, unhook it and try connecting your camera only. Also, some hard drives create conflicts, try ejecting them and disconnecting the FW cable.

7. Open up System Profiler and look under FIREWIRE to see if your camera shows up. If it does ... open iMovie and try to capture just a short segment to the internal drive.

If none of these things work, you should check out all of your connections and make sure they work with something else.

Write back with your findings....
 
PS- I had this issue the other day and it turned out to be a flaky Firewire cable. Try a different one.
 
Hye guys,

Thanks for the help so far, but I still haven't been able to get this working. I've tried everything suggested. Unplugged everything, trashed all the preferences (FCP and Quicktime), reset the PRAM. THe camera is not showing up in system profiler. I reinstalled quicktime. I also updated from FCP 5.1.3 to 5.1.4, but this did not help at all. I tried using a different camera, and a different firewire cable, but to no avail. I also tried connecting both cameras to a different computer (Powerbook G4), and it also didn't work.

Both camera's are sony miniDV cams. One is the DCRTRV27, the other I'm not sure of, it's a bit older 3ccd cam with progressive scan. Neither one seems to work on either computer. I've been running all these tests with no other firewire devices connected to ensure no interference.


The Mac is a 2 Gzh Dual G5, 2Gb of DDR SDRam, stock ATI video card. No other firewire devices are plugged in, and I'm still getting this problem on both computers. Anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks guys.
 
If you tried different cables, different cameras, and even different computers, there must be something wrong that you happen to be doing. Unless of course BOTH cameras are bad or BOTH cables are bad or BOTH computers have something wrong with them.

Try both of everything again and don't go looking in system profiler, just open iMovie and see if you get a signal. Not sure if system profiler even lists if a camera is connected.

If iMovie gets a signal then you know you are on the right path. iMovie has better camera recognition than FCP in most cases.
 
Righ, since the camera is not a "volumne" but a peripheral, like a printer, it's not going to "mount" like a hard drive.

If you connect the camera, then turn it on, then launch FCP, open the Log & Capture window. Go to the Capture Settings tab, what is set there?
 
Hey guys, steve here, I've been helping try to fix this problem on site. The plot thickens a bit today. I connected a Panasonic HVX200 Via firewire, and it IS recognized. But neither of the sony's will be recognized. The problem is, the HVX200 doesn't play well with tapes from other cameras, so I get dropped frames while trying to capture from it, so getting on of the Sony Camera's up and running is really a necessity. Is anyone else out there having trouble with sony camera's specifically as of late? Possibly since upgrading to 5.1.3, or 5.1.4?

BTW, I tried capturing in iMovie using the sony, but that didn't work either.

-Steve
 
You know, with Canon cameras, you're supposed to use Firewire Basic in your capture set up. What are your capture settings for the Sony?
 
Hey thanks again for all your repsonses. I tried resetting the capture settings to firewire basic & brought in another firewire cable to test, the 3rd, and still nothing. I'm clueless to the situation.
 
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