Really need help! – Digitizer Issues

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Camcorder on, set to VCR mode
FireWire connected to camcorder and Mac
No other FireWire device connected to Mac (except for FW Hard Drives)
FCP Capture preset to DV NTSC

Check for bad FW cable or a bad camcorder FW connection by hooking your DV camcorder to another (borrowed) DV camcorder and see if your camcorder “shows up” on the other camcorder.

[Gary Adcock]

[Thax] “No other FireWire device connected to Mac (except for FW Hard Drives)”

and what happens when you disconnect the FW drives?

gary adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation

[Paul Kim]

Yeah, I unmountd both FW hard drives, unplugged all other FW, and neither my DSR-11 or my DVX-100 works, even though I can control them as a deck on FCP. It seems like a software/setting issue? Not that I changed anything since it was last working.

I even tried a Firewire 800 6-to-4 pin cable, and that doesn’t help, either, so it doesn’t seem to be the cable. It still says the digitizer is missing. This is so strange…

[Gary Adcock]

[boroc7] “Yeah, I unmountd both FW hard drives, unplugged all other FW, and neither my DSR-11 or my DVX-100 works, even though I can control them as a deck on FCP”

Nope it’s a FW issue
remove every FW device that is not a camera and try again. Just un-mounting the drives does not release the FW buss.

or add a FW card in the PCI slot so that the cameras and drives are on different busses. ( and no –for the 500th time– the FW400 and FW800 bus on your mac are the same internally)

gary adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation

[Paul Kim]

Sorry I didn’t make it clear, I did unplug every other firewire device, including the hard drives. Besides, this wasn’t an issue a week and a half ago, because I’ve always had multiple firewire hard drives plugged into my computer. And there’s no reason why anybody can’t have hard drives attached to their computer while using their deck.

Still can’t figure it out.

[Gary Adcock]

[boroc7] “And there’s no reason why anybody can’t have hard drives attached to their computer while using their deck.”

actually there is, the FW bus does 2 things –it transfers data and it transfers and/or Sync’s to the power. if you have multiple devices that draw power the FW chain sync’s all of the timing between the devices.

A device like a deck or camera needs to send control commands to do things like start and stop the deck plus transfer the video data back to you – so the data stream needs to be operating in both directions. That process is something that can be interrupted by having devices attached but not powered up (thereby changing the syncing) or by sending so much “control” data up stream that the video data coming downstream to the drives can be interrupted. Canon and JVC cameras are most notable for causing FW protocol errors when other devices are on the FW bus.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation

[Paul Kim]

Thanks for that info; sounds like you know your stuff quite well. But I’m still stuck with my problem here. As I mentioned, I detached everything except for the deck, and it still has this issue. I’ve never had this problem before, in 3 years.

[Michael Horton]

You just upgrade to Tiger or QT 7 or FCP 5? If so, read this

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301852

Michael Horton
lafcpug
https://www.lafcpug.org

[Paul Kim]

Michael, you are THE MAN. It worked! I can’t believe it…I would’ve never figured that one out on my own, not in a million years.

CREATIVE COW ROCKS!!!

Seriously…I’m so grateful. Spent more than week on this, and now it’s working. Thanks for the help that you all provide; it saves time, money, and stress.

God bless,
Paul

[Michael Horton]

Just so you know, this happens most often because one has upgraded while a FW device was connected to the Mac. Big no no. Any more upgrades, unplug all FW devices first.

Michael Horton
lafcpug
https://www.lafcpug.org