I have or had the same problem I even went to B & H Photo in person to see if they knew what, it could be & no one really knew only maybe that it was the firewire mini to firewire 800 cable was bad but I knew the computer side port firewire worked so maybe it was the port or the wire itself so I bought a new wire & that didn’t work. I was getting the same message the deck wasn’t connected so then i checked all the video & deck setting so I said to myself so let me just to check outside the old final cut pro log & capture tool let me try I Movie camera capture so I did I hit the Icon & it worked.
I have so much vintage footage on tapes so I am going to need to start capturing it all online and digitally & to roll into projects.
I hope you figured it out I know it’s quite frustrating .
Phil Fiumano
NYRockstv