Help! HDV/DV IN (How do you switch it to out, so I can capture?
 

I have two XH A1 cameras. Today is my first time to actually capture on FCP 6.0 and I plug the firewire cable in, the camera shows CH1/2 on the left upper corner, and the HDV/DV IN in the middle right. Obviously I want it to go the other way, but how, and what do I do to accomplish this?

I have searched forums here and elsewhere, and poured over aspects of the manual, but I must be missing something very simple. It isn't blinking, or anything of that nature, so i don't think both cameras have the flaw. Is it a setting in FCP?

What am I missing. I certainly appreciate the vast amount of intelligence available here and hope an answer comes soon. I have important footage I need off ASAP.

Thanks to All!!!!

Firewire goes both ways. You need to turn off your camera, unplug the cable, turn it back on to the player mode and go into the menu to make sure it's set to play whatever you shot, ie., DV or HDV. Then turn it off and plug it in again. Never unplug the camera or plug it into the firewire cable when it's on. If you try to change the playback mode while plugged in, FCP won't recognize the change.

Fire up FCP and go to your capture settings. There are several HDV settings. For example, if you shot 24F, you would use the HDV 1080P24 capture mode. If you shot 60i, you would use that mode. The capture mode has to match what you shot. You sequence settings will have to match also. If you capture footage and drop it into a timeline and it wants to render before you do anything, that means something isn't matching.

So, plug in the camera, turn it on to the play mode, and then open your capture mode in FCP.

Still Not Working
 

Hi,

Still not working, even when following the excellent advice. Here is what I get when I do all of that, and try to then capture...

No Date From Device

Capture was aborted due to lack of incoming data from device. Check your connections and that the deck is playing.

After doing the other suggested things, it also still says HDV/DV IN on the display. Does the camera automatically know which way the firewire signal is supposed to go? I didn't think I was so ignorant, but I must me about this stuff.

Thanks for any help!

Dean

Might be a dumb question but.... I also have two A1s and one of the cameras does what you describe and the other does not. Shall we assume you have tried to capture with both cameras?

Do what Bill says and also try selecting "refresh AV devices" under the View menu.

What format is the footage, DV or HDV? Do you have the camera set to down-convert? Have you tried the Easy Setups? There are a few variables to eliminate, but this isn't rocket science. Your camera and FCP just need to be on the same page.

Good question! I tried both cameras, both do the exact same thing. Go figure.

Shot in HDV.

Down Convert is off, as specified by many others in the forums.

Easy setup set to the settings others have used.

Refresh AV devices.... I could try that.

But I still a question, is it normal for the camera display to say HDV/DV IN? When in fact I want it to go out? Because all of the display factors regarding playback go dimmed when I plug in the firewire cable. This indicates to me at least that the camera(s) are not seeking to send info out of the cam to computer, but rather taking it in from the computer instead.

This may not help since you have a FCP issue and I'm a noobe, but I have similar situation capturing in Avid Liquid. If I have the camera on, in VCR mode, paused on a live frame of video and then open up my capture window, it recognizes everything correctly right away.

No idea if that would help with FCP, but since I have a killer MAC Pro and FCS on it's way to me...I'll be watching for what your solution is!!

Firewire is bidirectional. Just because it says "in" doesn't really mean anything other than it's detecting that the cable is plugged in.

I think either OS X or FCP 6 has a bug that causes this problem. The only way I've found to fix the problem is to reboot the Mac and try again. That fixes it for me every time. If you find an easier solution, let me know. Don could be on to something but I haven't had a chance to try testing it.