Problem importing HDV

Hi all:
I am having a problem importing HDV video into FCP 6.5 through my Sony HDV camcorder. I have the iLink activated in the camcorder settings and it reads HDVout. In the FCP Audio/Video settings, I have designated

Sequence Preset: HDV 1080i50
Capture Preset: HDV
Drive Control Presete: Sony HDV 1080i50 Firewire

I have also shifted these around in different settings, using HDV Firewire, Sony HDV Firewire in the Devide Control Preset. The problem is that I continually get the following message when I open Log and Capture:

"Unable to initialize capture device. Device is not connected or the capture preset is not setup correctly. This may also happen if you play DV footage in an HD device"

We have tested the 9-pin to 4-pin cable and it is working fine. Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Mac Pro Intel
2 x 2.66 GHz Dual Core
10.6.8
8 GB 667MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

Thanks,
Stan

Are you positive it's HDV? Try capturing as DV.

The strange thing is that I brought the camcorder to a friends office who has the same system as mine and the HVD video came in just fine as HDV (the viewfinder reads "HDVout". He came to my office and we set things up similarly but I could not get a signal. We used both my and his 9 to 4 pin cable with no results. I'm stumped.

Haven't you had this problem before recently? Or someone did, I'm sure - maybe search for the resolution on that one.

I have never tried importing hi-def video into my FCP system from a camcorder, so it was not me you were thinking of. No suggestions?

Ahh bloody HDV, it's so dodgy.

All I can say from this distance is that the message you are getting is telling you that FCP is not reviving the correct signal. As it says, this often happens if it was shot DV, but people think it's HDV. But HDV can be finicky to work with and it could be a number of things.

So start from scratch. Make sure it was shot in HDV. It might say what format it is in the top right hand corner of the camera monitor while the footage is playing. Make sure the camera is set to HDV out. Then connect it to the computer. Then open FCP and go to easy setups and choose the flavour of HDV you shot in. Then (with the camera on and in playback mode) open log and capture. Can you control the camera with the computer at this point?

What Jude said. I capture HDV from my Sony A1U all the time, including live conversion to ProRes HD formats.

If you've done HDV capture before, you're aware that it's not an "import" operation nor a Log and Capture operation, it's strictly Capture Now from the Log and Capture window. The nice thing is, the clips are usually broken down by camera stops, so you shouldn't be lugging around a 1 hour file, for instance, but shorter bite-sized segments.

I use HDV to ProRes422 as the Capture Preset, since I don't want to edit a Long GOP acquisition codec in the timeline.

In playback mode on your camera, check your Playback/Edit menu (or something close to that) to assure your "VCR HDV/DV" option is set to HDV to assure that's what's going out the pipe. Your Mac and FCP should see it correctly. If you discover it's on DV, you should probably unplug the Firewire cable and replug it to refresh the new setting.

If you desire to transcode HDV to ProRes as mentioned above there should be a setting for it, or you can fashion one from the Audio/Video Settings. Your tower its surely fast enough for live HDV transcode so I recommend it.

HTH

- Loren

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