I have posted a question in this forum in December about a Sony HVR-M15U that stopped capturing. I posted that question because like most Adobe users, I had a deadline looming. As it turned out, that Deck was faulty and unable to be repaired. The replacement is what I refer to in this post. This problem I've posted today is completely different to the one I posted in Decembe. It's not a faulty deck , the deck referenced in this post works perfectly. The trouble I'm having appears to be far more complicated and is to do with a deck that is in full working order so it appears to be something to do with Premiere Pro. Any help with solving this issue would really appreciated.


I have been using a Sony GVD800E Deck with Premiere Pro CC 2017 (through the Creative Cloud desktop app) on a mid 2010 Mac mini to capture Digital8 tapes by using the DV capture settings and it has been doing an excellent job. Until the it just stopped recognising that a deck is plugged in. The specs for the mid 2010 Mac Mini I have been using with Premiere to capture are: 2.4 GHz Intel "Core 2 Duo" (P8600) processor, a 3 MB on-chip level 2 cache, a 1066 MHz frontside bus, 4 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (PC3-8500) memory. I shutdown my mid 2010 Mac Mini to upgrade the RAM to 8GB. After starting up the Mac and launching Premium Pro, I found the capture window stating that no deck is connected. At first I thought it could have something to do with the Sony GVD800E but I plugged it into a late 2009 model Mac Mini and it captures perfectly. The specs for this late 2009 Mac Mini are: 2.53 GHz Intel "Core 2 Duo" (P8700) processor, a 3 MB on-chip level 2 cache, a 1066 MHz frontside bus, 4 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM. I haven't upgraded the RAM on this Mac mini which I use a Sony HVR-M15U to capture mini-HDV tapes and it does the job perfectly. But even after trying the HVR-M15U on the mid 2010 Mac, Premiere wouldn't recognise that either. The mid 2010 Mac I've had dedicated to capturing using the Sony GVD800E deck was a bit sluggish compared to my earlier model which prompted me to go for a small RAM upgrade. Both Mac mini's are running OS Sierra.


I went through all the trouble shooting I could think off such as: making sure the deck was turned on before launching Premiere, changing the FireWire cable to one from the other Mac Mini I use to ensure it wasn't that, checked the status of the Mac to ensure there wasn't any corruption going on and doing a general cleanup. But none of that helped. So clutching at straws and to be 100% sure that the RAM I received to upgrade the mid 2010 Mac mini wasn't causing any problems, I took the new RAM out and put the old RAM back in. I know it was a long shot but I'm desperate to get Premiere capturing again on this Mac. I know it's not the deck and I haven't been able to get the latest upgrade offered by Creative Cloud due to the low specs specs for the both Mac mini's but I haven't needed to because both of them have captured 100s of hours of footage with very low specs using the Sony GVD800E and Sony HVR-M15U without any issues. To me it app that this problem I'm having with the mid 2010 Mac mini appears to have something to do with Premiere Pro but shutting it down to upgrade the RAM shouldn't affect the abilities of the software?? Plus, because I'm using Creative Cloud, Premiere Pro isn't directly installed on either of the Macs I use it with.


I have 100s of Digital8 and HDV tapes to capture, so I have two Mac mini's capturing both formats while I edit on a new iMac. It's the only way I'm going to be able to get this project completed before the the next decade so your help would be extermly appreciated.


So with the deck and cables work fine on my other Mac mini, can anyone please help with me ascertain why Premiere has just stopped picking up a deck in working order that has been capturing Digital8 footage for quite some time. Any advice or suggestions would be most appreciated!

The most likely cause that fits the behavior you described is the cable or the firewire port on either the deck or the Mac Mini. You would have had to unlplug it when changing the ram.

There are a number things you can do to troubleshoot.

1. In the system profile check if the firewire port is visible.
2. plug some other device such a hard drive, scanner, printer to that firewie port.
3. try using imovie to capture video from the deck.

If you can establish this is a Premiere issue then I would do a clean install of both the os and Premiere. I would also use the OS that came with the Mac Mini. For doing such a basic task as capturing there is no need for the latest os you are only opening yourself up to a chance of an undocumented compatibility issue either with Premiere or the hardware.

Cheers Pete! That all sounds like great advice! I swapped over my decks. I plugged in the HDV capable Sony HVR-M15u into the Mac in question after doing a complete]y new instal of Premiere. It recognised it for a short time but then started suggesting that the deck wasn't turned on, which it was. So your suggestion about the FireWire port being faulty sounds right. The cable is fine but I can see why the FireWire port maybe damaged due to the way I've seen people trying to plug things into it due to different cables needing a little more force to plug in. The strange thing is that it was working fine, I shut it down, unplugged everything, changed the RAM, plugged everything in and it wouldn't work. So that suggests, had I not touched it, it could be still working? But it's not so moving on......Thanks for the tip of using an older OS. It came with Sierria and was second hand. I use Snow leopard on my other mini doing the same job - just capturing. That works fine. Slow at times but has been a great work horse. I'll go through and preform all the points on your list.
Thanks again!