Help with Pd-150 export!!
 

Hello!

I'm usually in the HD10u forum here, but today I'm using a PD-150 and I need emergency help!

I've got my G5 talking to the camera, but all it shows is a blue screen. I can get it to give me a red light (for recording) via the computer without having to touch the camera. But, it stays blue and the computer gives a message that it lost communications with the camera! So, it works for a few seconds and then it stops.

This video is for a job at a television station (it's a video reel), so I need to get the tape to them today!!

Thank you very much if anyone can help.

Murph (long time dvinfo.net member)

How do you have it connected, via FireWire? How do you have device control set-up? Have you tried different FW cable?

Thanks for the reply! I got it working.

Just an FYI - apparently, there are no PD150 or PD150 drives for iMovie! There are for FCP HD, but not iMovie. That's really weird...you figure it would work in both.

Thank God, I have FCP!

murph

Some users have to disconnect any external drives in order to get iMove to recognize the camera.

My pd150's been talking to iMovie (2.1.2) for about a year now with no problem. Just out of curiosity, what version of iMovie do you have?

It's 4.0.1 - apparently Sony didn't ship drivers to Apple. What a crap deal!

Murph

Sony isn't responsible for drivers, Apple is.

Don't blame Apple. My PD-150P (P for PAL) works fine with iMovie 4.01 on a Mac G4 933. I suspect a foul cable or a lose FW port on the cam. Was it a rental camera or a work horse borrowed from the TV station? These tiny firewire ports are delicate and break easily. You know how careless people sometimes are, if the equipment isn't theirs.

Actually, it was confirmed by Apple's tech support and their website has a list of cameras supported too. The PD-150 is supported by FCP, but not iMovie 4.0 or higher...yet.

Forget Apple's camera support page! It's the same list since iMovie 1.0, completely outdated and of no referencial value anymore. You may notice that none of the cameras listet is newer than 3 years old. Besides, you only find consumer cams and recorders on the iMovie list. Therefore only VX2000 is mentioned and not the PD-150 DVCAM. This was just a lame excuse by some lazy Apple tech support guy. Since they have never tested any newer cams, they shouldn't even dare to mention this page!
I wonder how many camcorder owners decided to buy a PC insted of a Mac after checking this useless list...