Weirdest Capture Problem... EVER!!
 

Ok, whoever can figure this one out wins my undying admiration. I want to capture video from my Canon GL2 to my G5. I have done this a million times before, no problems. All of a sudden, my computer won't recognize that the camera is attached, and I get that "Unable To Initialize Video Deck" message.

Here is what I've ruled out:
Cables - I've used cables that I know work
The camera - I used it on a different G5 and was able to capture fine
The firewire port - I use other Firewire devices without any problems.
FCP settings - I've reviewed them a million times, and when I switch to iMovie, that program won't recognize the camera either.

So, the computer won't talk to the camera, and I can't figure out why. I've tried attaching the camera both before and after starting FCP, no difference. Does anyone have ANY suggestions? I am going out of my mind!!

Thank you,
Justin

Justin,

Check Apple's site because this has come up recently. IIRC, it's something to do with Quicktime. Have you also tried repairing disk permissions? That solves a lot of issues in OSX land.

-gb-

Well, the FIRST thing I would check would be what Greg suggested. Make sure you have repaired permissions and try it out.

The THIRD thing I would check is the integrity of the firewire port. I know you said that other devices are working but I have a thought based on very little knowledge. I do know that there actually can be some unintended variable clock speed issues with some firewire bus systems. Video transfer is on the higher end of data rates that firewire busses handle, and I'm not sure, but if the video app is ultra-sensitive to the integrity of the signal, perhaps it reads as 'unrecognizable'. Other apps are not likely to stress the FW out as much - so who knows. This may be a questionn for an Apple tech.

As far as the SECOND thing I would check...who knows, but I would sure as heck thing of something quick and cheap before shelling out for a repair job on a G5 without even knowing wheather or not I had a faulty FW card.

Have you tried hooking up your camera to iChat AV? You should be able to use any FW digital camera with that app and it might be a good way to test it. Also, if you have QT 7, you can also try capturing just using quicktime with a lower demanding signal, like h.264 or mpeg 4. iMovie and FCP both operate using a QT engine, so using straight QT might not hurt to eliminate application conflicts. If capturing at a lower signal rate works, than try the third option, "as source" I think it is called. If this is not working, than maybe it helps narrow things down a bit, and perhaps someone here can sound it on what might be happening to disable your full quality dv input.

None of this probably helps, so I'm sorry. Just a little food for thought.

Good luck.
-Jon

Oh yeah,
Also, do you have multiple user accounts on your machine? If so, try another account and run your app and try the capture. If you don't, then create another user account (if only temporary) and give the account just enough control to do whatever you will need to handle the video demands (running the apps, maybe QT settings, etc).

If everything runs fine through a clean account, then there might be some type of curruption in the settings, permissions, or a conflict with another application that runs under the administrator or with the main account you were running.
-Jon

See the following tech note from Apple - this is a common problem:

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

Thanks for coming up with that link Boyd. I knew they were saying it was related to Quicktime somehow. This question came up at last month's FCPUG meeting. I nominate your post for a sticky since it has been such an issue lately.

-gb-

Good idea.... I created a separate sticky on the topic

Thank you everyone. I will try all of these suggestions when I get home tonight, and log on with a full report!

Ahh yes, I hope that is indeed the ticket, Boyd. It sounds far more likely and preferable to my post. Please ignore my post, as I stated, much of it was based on late night rambling and very little knowledge. Luckily, I have not had this problem come up in transitioning to QT 7, but, personally, I give credit to Boyd who has posted a few other comments that I basically used to guide me through my update process. I hope deleting those specific files offers the fix - it definately makes sense.
-Jon