"Preview Disabled"/not capturing in FCP4.5

EA_Cru_2002

EA_Cru_2002

Active member
Hi guys, long time reader of the forum though this is my first post. I have a bit of a problem right now and I figure you guys are probably the best guys to ask.

Anyway, whenever I try to capture footage from the DVX to my Powerbook through FCP4.5, the log and capture screen says "Preview Disabled" which makes it impossible to capture. The timecode still runs but no image on my computer. I've rechecked the connections again and again, made sure they were tight and secure, but no help there. It says VTR OK on the bottom of my log window so it is communicating with it, but no image shows up. Am I doing something wrong? What's weird is that I've been capturing footage through the DVX for a while now and it's been capturing fine.

The thing is, I am borrowing the equipment from my school and there are five DVXs they have for use. Right now I'm using one I haven't used before. Could it be something wrong with the firewire port on this particular camera? Or a dirty head? Maybe my firewire cable turned bad? Or am I missing something in the settings of either the computer or camera? Man, I really hope someone can help me out there!
 
Did you rewind the tape?
Are the cables good and inserted all the way?
Do you see the image on the camera LCD?
If you press the play or other VTR controls in the log window does the camera respond?
Have you tried logging and batch captureing a short section to see if anything is actually captured?
View -> Video Output is set to the computer?
 
The most likely issue is that either you've set the Capture setting to audio only (in the Clip Settings tab of the Log and Capture window), or you've somehow changed the Capture/Input in the Capture Settings tab. It should say "DV NTSC 48kHz" or something close to that.

If you're getting deck control and timecode, the firewire is working fine. It's possible the camera is screwed in some mysterious way. Plug any other digital camera in, see if that works. But check the settings first.

Luck 2U
 
Well I tried everything guys and still, nothing worked. It wasn't the audio only capture, nor was it a View setting, nor was it the capture settings. Whenever I tried to capture footage, it would go to a black screen and never capture and when I would cancel (even with capture now), nothing would pop up in my bin. I tried different cameras, different firewire, different computers, and it looked like it was a software problem as the camera and cable worked fine on other computers. I just decided to reinstall FCP and lo and behold, for some reason it seemed to work. Still, thanks for the suggestions guys and for trying to help a brother out.
 
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