FCS 2 and the ADS Tech Pyro AV Link
 

I am at my wits end. I just purchased this ADS Tech box for capturing audio from a minidisc recorder (and maybe component video from my hd100) and neither FCP or my system profiler recognize it. It's specs say that it's supposed to work with mac! I have googled and googled to no avail. And of course, I'm on a deadline.

Does anyone have any insight?

Thanks.

I have tons of advice but I am not sure how much help I can be. First have you tried GarageBand?

Apple - Support - Discussions - How do I import audio from a minidisc ...
As noted, it probably won't maintain sync so watch for that.

Other advice includes:

Don't use untested methods when on a deadline. There is enough to go wrong with tested methods.
Do use good wireless microphones for wedding audio. Lectrosonic's are best (although Sure has a new unit that looks compelling). Sennheiser's are pretty good.

Mike

FCP 2 (Final Cut Pro) is a really old version. Do you perhaps mean FCS 2 (Final Cut Studio)? If you're really running FCP 2 then I don't think you will find much help unfortunately.

I used an ADS Pyro box once and didn't have any problems with it. I was probably running FCP 4 at the time. You will need to set capture as a non-controllable device. Which Easy Setup are you using?

BTW, I got the Pyro because of the component video input also. It is standard definition only. But I tried capturing SD component video from my Z1, and the results were noticeably worse than firewire capture - lots of noise. I also tried capturing progressive via component and it came out scrambled - seems that it can only handle interlaced. I decided to return it because of this, but I didn't have any problems capturing regular 480i video. I didn't try capturing any audio, but don't think it should be an issue.

Tell us more about how you have it connected, exactly what is happening, and what error messages you've gotten. Basically it should behave just like capturing from a standard definition camera via firewire, except it can't rewind, fast forward, pause, etc.

I'd move up from the ADS Pyro- it's probably not supported by FCP anymore. Go for one of the AJA or Blackmagic cards or just get a cheap DV camera if you want Firewire only.

Noah

i think aja and blackmagic are out considering i'm using an iMac =)

@Boyd
FCS 2 is what i'm on, thank you for correcting me.

Sounds like I need to return this for a dvc-110 from canopus or something like that. Any suggestions?

note: any suggestions to upgrade my mac will be immediately dismissed =)

I really don't think there should be compatibility issues with the Pyro box. It should behave like a regular standard definition camera connected via firewire. You will just need to choose "uncontrollable" device so that FCP knows it can't rewind, etc. Then you would also have to use the "Capture Now" option.

You still haven't provided us with enough information about what is (or isn't) happening to allow us to help troubleshoot. Granted, it's an inexpensive consumer product, but it should allow you to capture interlaced analog DV over firewire.

Well the box works- turns out the glitch was the firewire cable it came with. Switched cables and the mac sees it just fine. Might upgrade to the canopus line anyway though, since I really want to capture my hd video uncompressed.

Glad you got it working. Naturally you cannot do HD with the Pyro box; it isn't advertised as being able to do that. I think it's a reasonable inexpensive solution for consumer quality analog DV capture though.