FireWire Capture from JVC GY-HD100

A few years ago I purchased a used JVC GY-HD100 that had a broken firewire output. I recently sent the camera to United Camera in Illinois to have it completely fixed so I could start capturing tapes via firewire.

Knowing now that the firewire ports were susceptible to frying I was extra careful to only plug the cord in when the computer and camera were both turned off. That said, I am still unable to capture footage from my camera. (I also have purchased a brand new firewire cable so I doubt thats the issue.) United Camera claims to have entirely replaced the main board so everything should be as if it was brand new.

I've searched every single message board on the internet that references the camera (honestly, I'm not exaggerating) and have yet to found a solution. I've tried to connect the camera with both my brand new iMac (via a firewire adapter), and my Macbook pro and neither even detect the camera as being connected. On both of those computers I've tried Final Cut Pro, OnLocation, and Premiere CS5.

In my research I found some had more promising results on PCs so I dusted off my old desktop from the closet. That desktop is at least 5 years old but I did have limited success with it. If the camera is put in regular DV mode the computer will detect it and I'm able to capture via Sony Vegas. This is hardly helpful though as all the footage I have is in HD.

As soon as I put the IEEE switch to HDV the connection is lost and the computer no longer detects anything as being plugged in.

As far as settings, I've tried everything combination I can think of on both my PC and through the camera's menu settings. I also updated the firmware from JVC and have found no difference in results.


Any ideas on where I might go from here would be life saving. My only thought now is to send it back to United Camera and have them try again but I've lost all faith in them as the first "repair" took 2 weeks longer than they promised. It also doesn't really help my current situation of needing to capture 5 hours of footage for clients.

I will name my firstborn child after anyone that has a successful answer to my problem.

Thanks!

Just a quick update:

I just installed a brand new FireWire card to my PC and tried that out. Nothing changed.

What version of FCP are you running?
What settings are you choosing in FCP for capture?
What settings have you got set on the camera?

Having said that, I think the JVCs are a bit notorious for this problem. A friend of mine is having to get footage captured at a facility because his is doing the same thing, although he hasn't tried to have it repaired yet, to my knowledge.

My version is Final Cut Pro 6.0

Sequence Preset: DVCPRO HD - 720p24

Capture Preset: DVCPRO HD - 720p24 48kHz

Device Control Preset: DVCPRO HD FireWire


I've tried a combination of virtually every setting on the camera. But typically the IEEE Switch is set to HDV, and the HDV Playback is set to AUTO or HDV.


The service place has offered to pay for shipping and try again on the repair I just have very little faith that they'll do anything different this time. And even though they're not charging me not having the camera to work for clients costs me every day.

The camera shoots HDV, doesn't it? Why are you using the Panasonic DVCPRO HD presets?

All the best,

Tom

In all honesty I didn't know DVCPRO HD was Panasonic... But yes the footage I'm working with was shot in HDV

I also tried the following presets with no luck:

Sequence Preset: Apple ProRes 422 1280x720 24p 48kHz
Capture Preset: HDV
Device Control Preset: HDV FireWire

Which HDV preset? What format exactly did you shoot? What happens when you use log and capture? Is the camera recognized by the application and system profiler?

All the best,

Tom

I've tried a few different presets but the one I used the most just said "HDV"

I shot in HDV 720 24p

The camera isn't recognized by the application or system profiler so when I try to use log and capture it just says "Unable to initialize hdv deck"

If it's not in system profiler you have a cabling or port problem.

All the best,

Tom

Try this sequence.

Go to the Final Cut Pro > Easy Setup menu and check that it looks like this



Save and quit.

Plug in and turn on the camera. Check that it is set to HDV out, not DV. Make sure to use a firewire cable, not USB.

Start a fresh project in FCP.

Open the log and capture window and see if the camera is recognised.

Thanks for all your help with this.

I followed that workflow and though I wasn't successful it oddly enough did give me a slightly different error message.

Rather than just pop up an error that said "Unable to initialize HDV deck"

A similar window popped up that said:

"Device is not connected or the capture preset is not setup correctly. You may still log offline clips.
This might also happen if you play DV footage in an HDV device."

I double checked to make sure the tape I had it was HDV so that wasn't the problem. The log and capture window also came up behind that message which hadn't been happening previously. When I closed out the message the Capture window still said 'No Communication' like it's been doing before though.

I'm still leaning towards it being a hardware FireWire issue with the camera. I've talked to the repair people and they're willing to pay to have it shipped back so they can try again.

nmrudolph Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for all your help with this.
>
> I followed that workflow and though I wasn't
> successful it oddly enough did give me a slightly
> different error message.
>
> Rather than just pop up an error that said "Unable
> to initialize HDV deck"
>
> A similar window popped up that said:
>
> "Device is not connected or the capture preset is
> not setup correctly. You may still log offline
> clips.
> This might also happen if you play DV footage in
> an HDV device."
>
> I double checked to make sure the tape I had it
> was HDV so that wasn't the problem. The log and
> capture window also came up behind that message
> which hadn't been happening previously. When I
> closed out the message the Capture window still
> said 'No Communication' like it's been doing
> before though.
>
> I'm still leaning towards it being a hardware
> FireWire issue with the camera. I've talked to the
> repair people and they're willing to pay to have
> it shipped back so they can try again.

This new information suggests that the Mac is sensing a FireWire device connected to it, whereas your earlier descriptions suggested that the Mac hadn't sensed it before...

If you haven't change anything yet, I'd suggest that you launch System Profiler and see if there is a device listed in FireWire section. Let us know what you see...

In other words, your earlier reports indicate that there was no connection or communication with the camera. Now, it seems like the Mac can "see" the camera but there is an communications issue with FCP, or a settings issue with FCP. I would try using iMovie and see if that can work with the camera (now that your Mac can "see" the camera).

Avoid using any connector adapters (just a FireWire cable alone).


-Dave

I ran System Profiler with the camera plugged in (no connector adapters) and this is what it displays for the FireWire tab:



There's no difference on that screen whether the camera is in VTR or camera mode.

I've tried using iMovie (also several different video editing suites on a PC) and it doesn't detect a camera as being connected to the computer.

From your screen shot it appears that the computer doesn't "see" the camera, at all.

I have heard that sometimes the camera will work for capturing in DV mode but not in HDV, as the FireWire port branches to different circuits for each type of video signal. So, if the HDV circuit is blown, the camera would still work for DV footage.

Anyway, here's a nice video that outlines the entire process. It may be of some use to you:

Capturing HDV with a JVC GY-HD100.


-Dave

This is a connection problem, a bad port, cable, or something else in the configuration. You can't capture until you figure out where the problem is in your hardware.

All the best,

Tom

Yeah that's what I was afraid of, the HD circuit being blown but the DV somehow fine.

I found that video awhile ago and tried everything there too... No dice.

I guess I'll just have to send it back to them and hope that they can actually fix it this time.

nmrudolph Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yeah that's what I was afraid of, the HD circuit
> being blown but the DV somehow fine.
>
> I found that video awhile ago and tried everything
> there too... No dice.
>
> I guess I'll just have to send it back to them and
> hope that they can actually fix it this time.

That's too bad. Hope they can fix it for you...

I know a few people who use that camera and they really like it (except for the capturing part)...


-Dave

NMRudolph,

Wow! I stumbled on this forum and thought I was in the twilight zone because I actually thought I was reading my posts. I am having the EXACT same problem. I was able to capture DV and HDV footage in FCP6 with no problems. Then all of a sudden, the DV stopped working giving me the same "unale to detect...." message. A few weeks later, the HDV capture stopped working. I should mention that a few weeks before all of this, I could no longer sync my Firestore to the camera.

Naturally, I thought there was something wrong with the firewire port. In fact, the camera repair guy DID find something wrong with the firewire port and replaced it. But, it still does not work.

PLEASE update the message board with what you find out.

Alan

AWilliams,

Sorry to hear about your woes with the JVC camera.

Very little has happened since this post was first published, due solely to the fact that the repair shop I chose to use has to be one of the worst in the country.

It's been almost 6 months now and they've given me virtually no feedback or updates on how far along they were getting with it. Come to find out they had been waiting for parts for months, and when those didn't fix the problem, they had to send it to the repair shop at JVC because they couldn't figure out how to fix it. (Despite the fact that the exact model I have is listed as one they repair on their website.)

JVC has been waiting for parts now too for almost 2 months. I talked to them on the phone and they said it would take less than 48 hours to fix it once they actually had everything.

I'm baffled as to how it could take JVC that long to get parts when they have factories making these things... I understand it's an older model but this whole affair has been insane.

I'll let you know when I get it back if it even works, but I can't suggest anything as far as fixing yours other than to say don't use United Camera.