[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

[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

[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-
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.