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Jeremy, this is what I read on Apple site which was the source of my befuddlement:

“To determine whether your computer has PCI or PCI-X slots, read the ID label, which is located on the side of the computer at the bottom under the air deflector. Your computer’s ID label tells you what hardware configuration you have. If your computer has PCI-X slots it will be listed here. If you don’t see “PCI-X” your computer has PCI slots.

You can also identify your model by the number of DIMM slots. Computers with 4 DIMM slots have 33 MHz PCI slots; computers with 8 DIMM slots have 100 and 133 MHz PCI-X slots.”

[Flame Schon]

Hi Jerry, sorry if I made it sound like I thought the dimm slots were for anything but Ram. What I’d read was simply that the way to tell if ones computer could take PCI-X rather than simply PCI was by the number of dimm slots. (that is, that the earlier G5s had only 4 and the later 8 and this number was also an indicator of the PCI vs PCI-X status of that particular computer.) I didnt imagine that the dimm slots were for PCI cards. I can see all the empty PCI slots on the back of my computer and was just hoping that my computer would accommodate the faster PCI-X.
So, sorry if I managed to sound more befuddled than I am.
And thanks again
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Jeremy, thank you again. I believe judging from my system profiler, that I must buy a PCI card not a PCI-X, although again not totally certain. I have read that if I have 8 dimmm slots then I can use a PCI-X card which appears to be either 60 or 100 MgHZ. Whereas PCI card would be at 30? MGHZ. My confusion as to which has to do with whether 8 dimm slots (which by the way are now filled as I have 4.5 GB of Ram) are considered 8 separate slots which apparently would mean that my computer (the earliest G5 Power PC Dual 2GHz)could take the PCI-X or whether those 8 dimms which all are configured in pairs are considered only 4 dimms in which case I need to get the slower PCI only card. Under the hardware list in system profiler, I see only PCI cards listed and nothing therein.
so, again
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Jeremy, thank you again. I googled PCI-X cards and find many possibilities. Do I need a FW800 or 400? At present I have 2 ext drives daisychained to the 400 port and one to the 800 port. As far as I can tell there must be a PCI slot available since I have only an ATI Radeon X800XT card in there. So, how does this work regarding 800 and 400? And which brand should I order? Hope I can install this myself? When you say firewire camera plugged into the Mac itself , then I may not use the Firewire 800 port for one ext drive? In other words, is the conflict created by any firewire ext drive or only those using Firewire 400?

Thanks again

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Thank you Pete. I installed QT 7.5.5 couple days ago per Jeremy’s suggestion and then lo and behold, Pro-apps appeared on my software updater with FCP6.0.4 buried there as it were with no word in the description beforehand and now, voila there it all is on my computer. Now I need only to get myself a PCI firewire card I think PCI-X is too advanced for my dual 2 gig Power PC G5 Mac -But do I get a 400 or an 800 PCI firewire card?–and maybe I’ll actually be able to capture with this Canon HV30, without unplugging all firewire drives first and maybe it all will work although I understand that the log and capture, specifically the batch capture function may never be as simple and straightforward as it once was with old camera and old technology. One would hope for simplicity with old age and not greater complexity–but there you are.
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Jerry, thank you. I just went to Software Update, and found the Pro App update 20008-03 v1.0 (seems like it wasn’t there a few days ago) which however tells me that I get update to Compressor to 3.0.4 and to Apple QMaster to 3.0.4 but no mention of FCP 6.0.4. And NOW I see that as I write this FCP 6.0.4 IS being installed so it is truly buried.
However, I still can’t get the computer to recognize this camera. (Canon HV30). I was able to get it recognized only by turning off computer, unplugging all 3 firewire ext drives and then turning on computer with only camera plugged into firewire…which is going to be a real problem since I need to capture to an external firewire drive.
Any further suggestions?
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replying to my own post of a few minutes ago – I see from reading earlier threads that I was right… That in order to go from FCP6.0.3 to 6.0.4 I do need to have OS 10.5 and not OS 10.4.11…So, is my other informant right in saying that with my computer (Dual 2 gig Power PC) that I would be better off sticking to my present OS??? And where does that leave me in my attempts to capture video from this Canon HV30??
This looks like a catch 22 situation.
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Actually I see that I may not be able to update to 6.0.4 from 6.0.3 without going from OS10.4.11 to 10.5 and I have been advised to stick with my present operating system with my relatively old computer Dual 2 Ghz PowerPC G5. Is this correct?
Is this FCP update the one that’s going to make or break it with capture from this Canon HV30 camera? If so, then I am in a bind, yes?

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Thank you for reply..a further question:
If the only supported format is 1080i60 -does that mean that I can’t shoot 24p? ??
(I am at QT 7.5.5 and will update to FCP 6.0.4 from 6.0.3)

This little camera is totally new to me as I’ve been using an old Panasonic EZ30 for years till it broke..and this of course had no choices, so life was simple and everything about this camera and interface with FCP worked.

And I bought this little camera because I have a Power PC Mac G5, (dual 2Gig) and couldn’t with any ease I believed use a camera with AVCHD. Now it appears that input into computer is complex, and log and capture doesnt work as it did with old camera which I didnt use for a deck anyway, at least not until my old deck broke.

Thanks again for any further suggestions,
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Is there then no reasonable workaround?
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