I have two of these cameras but only one will connect to my computer via the firewire. In FCP when you go into the capture screen, camera 1 works as normal, "device is found" and capture works. But on camera 2, when you plug in the firewire the "HDV/DV input" text just keeps flashing on and off as well does the channel 1/2 in the upper left hand corner. The computer says no device is connected.

Has anyone else had this problem? Is my firewire port on the XHA1 fried?

It's perfectly normal and nothing is malfunctioning. You can have only one connected and recognized at a time. It has to do with the FireWire bus; the camcorder must be in position 1 on that bus, and there's only one position 1. One camera wins that position and the other loses. It's not a problem of the camcorder; it's just a limitation of the FireWire bus.

I don't have both cameras connected at the same time. I'm trying each camera separately.

So I hook up camera one. Works as it should. I disconnect that camera and connect the other camera an that is when i see - "HDV/DV in" text just keeps flashing on and off as well does the channel 1/2 in the upper left hand corner. The computer says no device is connected

Joe, this is a little obscure, but it might be relevant. I heard a Canon rep say once in relation to firewire issues and the A1 that you must set the camera's date and time setting. You can experience problems if it's still in its default setting. I know, it seems absurd, but give it a try.

Can't wait to see how this works out!

Joe, this is a little obscure, but it might be relevant. I heard a Canon rep say once in relation to firewire issues and the A1 that you must set the camera's date and time setting. You can experience problems if it's still in its default setting. I know, it seems absurd, but give it a try.

That IS absurd. I would think the only relevance to setting the date & time would be so TOD TC will work for NLE's that have a DV Scene Extraction (or similar named) process. But firewire itself? Hardly likely.

Bill

I am not sure about the A1, but with the older Canon Gl1 & Gl2 when the "DV" (I can't remember exact text) flashed instead of staying on steady when connected it meant we has a firewire port that was blown. You can also check the system profiler in the mac OS--under the apple menu scroll to "about this mac" and click the "more info" button. Next click on"firewire" and look to see if the camera apppears in the pane to the right. You can see what it will look like with your other camera connected. We had a FW problem a while back with the Z1's. DO NOT TAKE THE CAMERA TO OTHER COMPUTERS !!! If it's not a big deal get it to Canon to check. The experience I had was moving the camera from one computer to another and then testing with a second camera, and a third computer. Long story short was 2 dead camera ports and 3 dead computer ports in less than 30 minutes.

But I hope it's the time and date setting, as ridiculous as it sounds.