FCP 5.1 "unable to initialize" Sony HDR-HC3 camcorder
 

I've probably logged over 500 hours of DV captures - so I'm not new at this. I am only new to HDV capture though and I'm stuck now.

I have the latest FCP 5.1 and OSX Tiger and all latest updates and still FCP is unable to intialize. I've done restarts of coarse and I launch FCP with camera connected and ON and camera set to "Play/Edit." Capture preset is HDV 1080i60. I also tried HDV 1080i60 Firewire Basic. No Luck. Computer's firewire port works because drives will mount to it no problem. HC3 camera is properly set for HDV output - not Coversion to DV.

Anyone have any ideas what the problem could be? Is the camera so new that it's not recognized by FCP? What's the deal? I figured FCP5.1 would handle this and still I've yet to capture 1 second of HDV.

Still having problems. "Unable to intialize" again.

Used easy setup. Nothing seems to work. I've got hours & hours into this.

I feel like I'm just talking to myself - perhaps I am. But in the event this post actually saves someone else agrevation I guess it may be a help.

Solution: Trashed QT and QT.7.0.4 receipts. Empty trash. Reboot. Download QT, re-install, reboot. Seems to be working reliably now.

Sorry, couldn't say much, don't have FCP or an HC 3.

Jamie

You say you have captured over 500 hours of DV and my question is did you try capturing a DV signal from your HC3 as well? It could be that your camera has a defective fire-wire port although you did say that the drives are recognized.

I would keep the camera on Play while it’s hooked up to the computer to see if their will be video on the computer’s monitor.

HDV transfers on the Mac can be pretty finicky, enough that it's a bit disappointing. Should anyone else experience problems and that solution doesn't work, then remove any third party add-in firewire cards, if installed.

I couldn't get my HC1 to transfer HDV, even if I'm not using the add-in card's ports. What I do is to kill the video software, plug in the camera when it is off, turn it on, put it in VTR mode, then start the video software. Usually that does the trick.

Check to see if the System Information panel sees the camera under the Firewire entry.

Try transferring DV.

I definately had the camera output set for HDV not DV. My point with the "over 500 hours" comment (which is probably over a 1K hours now that I think about it) was that I'm not new at this and I was probably not making a silly mistake.

I keep the camera on play usually prior to lauching FCP 5.1.

It's seems to be working well now and I think the issues are primarily with software installs and the big thing is that for FC Studio to be fully functional QT7 needs to be installed last.

You'd think that if Apple knows they have an issue with QT/connectivity after operating system upgrade or upgrade to FC Studio that they could easily just make the last step a re-install of QT or someting else that gets the same results?

Sounds like it could this same problem? http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=49838

Yes - however apple's support page only says to trash the receipts and reinstall. Following that process "to the letter" I was only able to restore my SD camera connectivity and FCP 5.1 would STILL NOT SEE MY HDV camera. I tried probably 15-20 times. Reboots galore, relaunches of FCP, still did not work.

Here's what I did to get HDV capture working... trash QT receipts, Trash QT application file, empty trash, reboot, install QT7. I now have HDV capture working reliably. I hope this thread saves someone some aggravation!