External video drama

hi guys
I have just upgraded my system to: g5 2.5. 8 g ram. aM ON fcp 4.5 and OS 3.9. Haven't gone to tiger yet.
Did all the upgrades from a new machine before running FCP for the first time.


Am using a new Sony HVR M10E as a deck to go with the new Sony Z1E. Fab system. No problems. Except, I can't get any video from the timeline/ viewer/ canvas through my external monitor.
Am running video out through canopus adv 110 to a jvc monitor and krk speakers - firewire 400 to the canopus and then s video to the monitor and the relevant in and outs to a mackie mixer and to the speakers.
The M10E is connected through ilink to a firewire 400 at the back of the G5.

In the timeline through view/ external video the a,ll important view all frames is grayed out.
The launch warning comes up saying can't find apple firewire device and I have no option throuh audio/ video settings to choose anything other than none or cinema display for video out.
The weird thing is that when I press play on the deck it comes out of the speakers and monitors but not through FCP and I can't log or capture from FCP.
Any thoughts? This is a beautiful system but I seem to be one hurdle from perfection.

Many thanks
Chandos

I think it would do all these things if you had a dead FireWire cable or connector on the Mac.

Check it out by doing a simple dub between the deck and the camera. Leave the computer out of it.

Koz

Does the connector on the Mac work with a FireWire drive or FireWire anything else?

Koz

Koz
Thanks. The deck is linked to the G5 by an ilink and into firewire at the back. The canopus etc is linked to the monitors etc from the firewire 400 at the front.
These must be working because when I press play on the deck I get sound from the monitor speakers and pictures on the video monitor. But FCP does not form a part of the equation.
Should I be thinking of going direct to the monitors from the deck? What confuses me is that FCP doesn't appear to recognise the deck.
I can't connect the camera to the deck because I don't have an ilink to ilink cable.
Any more thoughts?
Chandos

Whenever I get called into an insanely complicated problem like this with multiple defects, I follow a procedure of stripping out everything complicated and reducing the system to its absolute base configuration.

Unplug everything. No FireWire devices. No USB things. Nothing but the basic computer. Does FCP seem to run by itself? Can you open simple projects and see them on the screen and do they have local sound? Put some colorbars and tone on a fresh timeline from the effects tab and make sure that works.

Now put **one** thing back in the mix. Say, plug in your FireWire drive and thoroughly check that.

Now plug something else back in--but only *one* thing.

Everybody wants me to wave a wand and put them back in service in fifteen seconds flat , but it rarely works like that. It takes a bit more time, but I almost always find the problem in the end. I can tell you that if you have more than one problem, this is the *only* way to fix the machine.

Koz

Hi Guys
Koz, thanks for your post and of course you are right. I did as you said. FCP works fine in all ways.
But the problem still remains and it is this:
In log and capture the logging screen says: preview disabled. But says VTR OK. I have full device control except I cannot see the picture in the logging window. I can see it on my monitor and hear it through my monitor speakers.
I can use JKL, shuttle etc. I can set in and out points and the deck will obey but come capture clip the deck will rewind to the in point and the capture clip window will emerge but remain blank and teh deck will then play from the in point but not stop at the out point - it just carries on. On pressing ESC it says user aborted.
Capture now comes up with the screen but remains blank.
In the timeline existing projects will not play through the monitors - and I cannot got to through view to external as they are greyed out.
The funny thing is that when I first set up the system I was able to capture one clip and then FCP crashed.
I think this must be a configuration problem and I'm sorry to be so long winded. Do you think this has anything to do with Quick Time 7? I'm not on Tiger yet. Should I delete FCP and relaod?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated. I know this is a tough one but as you say, the answers are always simple. how come I've got device control but no pictures and no capture?

Chandos

<<<The funny thing is that when I first set up the system I was able to capture one clip and then FCP crashed. >>>

That's not funny (at least not "ha, ha" funny) that's actually very important.

Because of the crash, you probably have one or more scrambled preference files. Trash the preferences and start again. Trashing depends on which version of FCP and OS you have. Apple explains it all to you.

[search.info.apple.com]

Koz

Hi again.
Kos, thanks for your advice. I trashed the prefs but to no avail. But this time in log and capture I am getting a message when I try to capture now:
Attempt to capture video without device selected. Please select a video device in your capture presets and try again.
But in capture presets in the audio/ video settings and when FCP boots up all I can get is Apple firewire Pal is missing.
Does this mean that FCP does not recognise my deck?
I'm sorry this is taking up your time and I'm grateful for your help so far.
Thanks
Chandos

Such a bizarre problem! You've got something more complicated going on, because your FCP *is* recognizing your deck -- if you can use the Log and Capture window to pilot the deck, then there is communication. Otherwise you'd get a "No Tape Threaded" message and your Log and Capture window would be dead.

Could it be that the preferences that your FCP application creates (after you trash pre-existing prefs) are corrupt in the first place?

Is the timecode you get in Log and Capture accurate, ie. matches the tape?

I'd suggest taking your deck out of the equation and hook up your camera to FCP, see if you can Log and Capture with that. If you can, then there's something wrong with your deck. If you can't, it's almost certainly an in-computer problem.

Hi Guys
Derek, thanks for your post. I am in a total gloom about FCP etc. I did as you suggested and connected up the camera instead of the deck. FCP wouldn't even load and then the computer told me to reboot.
On rebooting the fire wire 800 drive ( my scratch disk) had disappeared and wouldn't reappear. It did later after several restarts.
FCP will load now with the second internal hard drive as scratch. Should this always be the primary scratch?
Its got to the stage that I think all I can do is reboot the whole system, take off all the old files and upgrade to Tiger and see if it makes a difference. Otherwise I don't know what is wrong. It could be Quicktime 7, it could be 3.9. It could be the way I've set up the system. Whatever it is it has me in a dperession.
Thanks for your thoughts and help
Chandos