Maybe nobody has had this problem but me, but in case it affects anybody:

To capture HDV from a Sony Gv-HD700 deck, and presumably any other i-Link Sony deck, you have to go into the menu and set iLink CONV to OFF. Then Windoze will recognize the deck and load the proper driver. If you don't it is recognized as a generic SD firewire device and Premiere will show it as offline in HDV mode. (Premiere will recognize it if you are capturing SD regardless) I have a suspicion that this might apply to Sony camera playback as well. / Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

Yes, this is always true of all capture devices and Premiere, and I assume other NLEs as well -- your deck (or cam) settings must always match your project settings. If one is set to DV (as it is if i.Link CONV is ON) and the other HDV, Premiere won't see the device. Same is true if you have a DV project or capture is set to DV but the cam/deck is outputting HDV. Premiere is very picky about everything matching exactly. Nearly all "failure to capture" issues are, it seems, due to a settings mismatch somewhere, at least for those who post to boards.

Yes, true of FCP as well. I mention it only because iLink Conv is one of those obscure settings that you might overlook --at least, I did -- and the problem had me scratching my head until I RTFM a couple more times.... thought this might Google for someone who had the same conundrum....

BTW, anybody notice the Gotcha in Media Encoder CS4? No matter what bit rate you set for your export in Premiere, it defaults back to 1 kbps in Media Encoder. Was getting pretty awful MOV files until I googled that problem and found it's apparently a bug in CS4......not sure if that applies to anything but quicktime files, but it's something to look out for....... B Vaughan