lost ability to capture HDV, “no data from device” error

[Jerry Alto]

Tom- I think you have a setting off somewhere. It sounds like you have been thru the menu on the deck a bunch of times so it must be in FCP. I would suggest boot down the computer and turn off the 10U. Turn on the 10U and plug in the firewire cable. Boot up the computer and before launching FCP go to to the Apple icon in the upper left corner and select ‘get info’. Select firewire and if things are working right the deck will show up as a firewire device. If there is no deck then you have a deck menu issue. If the computer sees the deck then open FCP and go to audio/video settings and make sure your settings are 100% correct.

You might want to relaunch your succesful project (you’ve probably dumped the media but thats ok) and check out the A/V settings that were correct and hey make an EASY SETUP of the settings that worked and save the setting where you can find it so you can reset your new project correctly.

If that doesn’t work it might be a ‘dump your preferences’ issue. There are a bunch of threads in the Cow FCP archives on how to do that. Hope this helps.
Jerry

[Tom]

Jerry-
thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, no luck with your suggestions. I’d been doing something very similar, trying to shut down everything (computer, deck, unplug firewire cable) each time I made a change to the deck’s settings, but nothing seems to matter. The deck definitely shows up as a Firewire device in System Profiler (correctly identified as Sony HVR-M10U). So no problems there. And as I mentioned the deck is fully controllable from the HDV Log & Capture window in FCP. Settings are all correct in FCP (I’ve reset them countless times in all manner of different ways) and I’ve trashed my preferences a number of times already.

I’m at a loss. I’d try voodoo at this point. And Apple support has been as useful as a wax teapot.

as it stands the project’s dead in the water, which should go over well on Monday morning.

[Simonc]

I fixed just this, for me. On the camera, In/Out Rec menu (in VCR mode, the left and right arrows menu) make sure iLink Conv is set to OFF.

It was set to On, and even though the camera was saying HDV out, it seemed to fox FCP (maybe it was outputting DV).

Hope this fixes it for your deck too.

[Joseph Bradley]

Not to sound stupid or anything but when you open the capture window is the capture video box checked?

[Jerry Alto]

Tom- Don’t give up. You can be as close as a mouseclick (as jbrad2 suggests). I have gone through the same thing. FCP system settings can be very frustrating. They have to be perfect. Once you have them set correctly everythings fine but watch out when you change formats. And then you factor in an HDV deck with all of it’s menu items you double the possiblities of a simple switch being off.

You said that you can capture DV fine. That sounds an alarm for me. That means your deck AND FCP are set for DV.

Did you use the HVR-M10U as your deck for the DV project? If you are capturing DV from your HDV deck then you have to change the deck settings when you plug in an HDV tape. Is the HDV light on on your HVR-M10U? Is the iLink-DV down convert light off? Are your capture settings in FCP set to HDV (not HDV intermediate)? Is your machine control set as HDV firewire?

Be sure your closed out of FCP and disconnected from the computer when you make your deck changes.

I think its worth another shot. Many times I’ve stumbled onto my mistake and had to shake my head and ask myself ‘Why didn’t I try that earlier.’ I hope the solution is a simple fix and you are on your way again.
Jerry

[Tom]

thanks Simon, for the reply, but I’d already double-checked this as well (I even came across another post from the Apple Discussions about this, maybe it was yours?).

the madness continues.

[Tom]

Jerry-

I can capture DV when I set the deck and FCP accordingly (I did use, and can still use, the M10U for DV capture).

Trying to switch to HDV capture, I have switched the menu settings on the deck to playback HDV (and i.Link down convert is OFF), seemingly successfully – the HDV light is on, the HDV tape plays properly on the LCD. I followed the Apple article (#302407) steps which says to shut down FCP, disconnect firewire, adjust deck settings to HDV (don’t select AUTO), reconnect firewire, open FCP, change Easy Setup, and Log & Capture. I’ve even tried manually selecting all the HDV presets instead of Easy Setup. No difference. I get nowhere.

I’m desperate the get to the point of shaking my head and saying “why didn’t I think of that earlier?” – but I’m losing faith that there is anything left to think of. It’s obviously some issue of FCP not fully accepting the change back to HDV from the deck (device control and timecode are acceptable, but the video & audio are clearly not), but I can only take the frustration in small doses.

Still open for the shake my head suggestion, as i said, desperate in fact.

thanks,
Tom

[Simonc]

Hmmm. Try forcing the VCR to HDV (not auto – same menu), make sure it *is* a HDV tape (sorry for the obvious) go into FCP Preferences, and load the quick set-up preset for HDV (50i/60i) to set all the presets (sequence default, capture default, device control etc.) to the right thing.

I also had problems when my Lacie d2 was using firewire, but found switching to USB2 and only using firewire for the camera fixed that – although it was not the same symptoms as this (camera was not detected at all).

And, for paranoia’s sake, have a HDV sequence open and selected when you open the capture window with Cmd-8.

If all of that does not do the trick, I’ll start listing *everything* I have set in the camera, and in FCP (5.0.3)

Simon C.

[Simonc]

Looks you have already done everything in the post I just made – sorry!

I think you should concentrate on the decks menus, have you had the AV in -> DV out on recently (external video source going through the deck) – I was recently doing this – and had the same ‘no data’ results – but, I’m not sure exactly at what point they went away, it was still on though when I started to try and capture. Maybe check that, and then reset the deck ?

[Tom]

Simon-

thanks for your persistence on the case. So have you had luck, switching from HDV to DV and back with your camera (Sony I presume)? Can you now do it reliably? The M10U deck is really just the Z1/FX1 in a square box – the tape mechanism is literally lifted straight from the camera, which must be great for manufacturing purposes, but I have my doubts about the Pro-ness of the deck – it’s not nearly the “solidness” of say a DSR-25 or even a DSR-11. Not that that should matter with something as straightforward as switching formats, but I do wonder if it’s a deck problem more than a FCP problem.

definitely let me know what works for you though.

thanks,
Tom