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DSR 1800 – FCP FW 400 – 800 connectivity problem
Hi Folks,
Haven’t posted in ages, been working away happily on my old laptop w/ FCP 5! However, just bought an IMAC, OSX 10.6.2, 2.66 Intel Core i5, 8 gig memory. Also just bought FCP 7.0. My Sony DSR 1800 has worked perfectly through the years, going 400FW out and 400FW into my old laptop, that that is how I always captured footage. The new IMAC doesn’t have a 400 FW, only an 800. So I bought a 400/800 cable, so I’m running 400FW out of the deck and 800FW into the IMAC. When I open FCP, I get the “Unable to locate external devices/apple firewire NTSC 720×480” message. I tried another cable, that didn’t work. East set-up has me at NTSC, DV-NTSC Firewire. I also tried Firewire Basic. Then I get the bright idea of seeing if the 4oo/800FW cable works with my old laptop. Neither cable worked.
Is there a known issue with 400/800 FW cables working with FCP? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Gotta get this thing going.Rob Maloney
“If you’re walking on thin ice, you might as well dance”
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11 Replies
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I have had no problem with FW400 hard drives into my new MacPro using a 400-800 cable. I haven’t had to plug a deck in that way but I am sure others here are doing just that. I presume you have double checked that iLINK is selected, not 9 pin or QSDI
It might be as simple as the old trash prefs and repair permissions house keeping, even though it is a newish install.
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Hi Michael,
Thanks for the quick response! Yeah, I tried to do all the silly things like have iLINK selected. I’m really at a loss. First Mac problem I’ve ever had!
Rob“If you’re walking on thin ice, you might as well dance”
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Do you still have the laptop to capture with and then swap the drive over to the new machine?
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Rob- Quit out of FCP>plug in your deck with the 400/800 cable>power up deck>go to Apple icon>about this Mac>more info>firewire. Can you see the deck? Do not proceed until your iMac sees the deck. Once the iMac sees the deck its all about getting your FCP settings right.
HTH,
JerryMacPro 2.93 Quad
FCP7
Sony Z-1
GV-HD700 -
Hi Michael,
Not an ideal long term solution, but it could get me over the hump. Thanks for the advice!
Rob
“If you’re walking on thin ice, you might as well dance”
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Hi Jerry,
Did what you suggested. No luck. I even thought it might be the port on the back of the iMAC, but I connected a drive to it and it read it. So then I thought maybe the port on the 1800 went bad, but then I went FW400 – 400 out of the 1800 to my old laptop, and it worked fine. I am completely at a loss…
Rob
“If you’re walking on thin ice, you might as well dance”
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We have similar problems w/either our DSR-11’s or DSR-1500’s (can’t remember which) where they won’t work w/our Mac Pros using a 400-800 cable. We have a a few different Sony HDV decks (can’t remember the model numbers off the top of my head) and they work fine using the 400-800 cables on the same machines.
-Andrew
3.2GHz 8-core, FCP 6.0.4, 10.5.5
Blackmagic Multibridge Eclipse (6.8.1) -
I’ve seen issues like this with a Canon XH A1 or XL H1, can’t remember which. It ended up working best if I plugged a FW 800 drive into the iMac, then a 400>400 into the drive and the camera. It was still often annoying to get it up and running though.
Sam Ellens
Intern – Zamasti Films
4th year at Ryerson University – Radio and Television ArtsMy system: iMac 21.5 3.06GhZ 4GB
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Thanks everybody. I’m still at a loss…I just spoke to a tech at SONY that said they have had problems going 400 to 800 with some Apple products. Disheartening, to say the least. Calling Apple Care now. I’ll keep you posted.
Rob“If you’re walking on thin ice, you might as well dance”
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I am having similar problems with a newly purchased MacBook Pro 2.4GHz 13″.
Sony J-30 deck is not recognised by Final Cut Express and does not show up in System Profiler.
Strangely my Firewire external disc drive – which DOES work – also doesn’t appear in System Profiler.
It’s all rather odd… and very frustrating.
Have you had any resolution to your problems?
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