On location and need capture help!

[Jonathan Schwartz]

Scenario:

Shooting State Band Festival with Canon XH-A1 and HV-20.
Filming both in DV mode and capturing onto macbook pro 2.4.
Capturing onto G-Raid Mini FW800.
(One camera running through GRaid and other through express card)

Used this same setup 2 days ago without any problems

Today, Macbook will not recognize either camera!
Luckily I brought 2 Panasonic DVC-30's as backup and both work fine
Ruled out the cables as the Panny's are detected immediately by system profiler. Canons will not show up under profiler.

Cameras will not show up in FCS or under quicktime.

Called Canon and they talked me through any setup problems without any resolution. They want me to send both cameras back and said the firewire ports on the cameras are the problem. How can both cameras all of a sudden have faulty firewire ports? I just imported footage yesterday on the HV-20.

I am on location for 2 weeks and really need these cameras to be working, not sitting in a repair facility. Any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated. (Yes I have read through all of the threads before I posted this)

Jonathan Schwartz
CA Video Productions

[Chris Soucy]

Wow, what a pickle!

Might be a long shot, but if you have a 4 pin to 4 pin Firewire cable, connect the two Canons together and set "DV Control" to "ON" on the A1.

Set both cameras to "Record Pause", then hit the "Record" button on the A1.

If the HV20 starts recording, there ain't nought wrong with the Firewire ports.

If it doesn't, could well be true they're toast, tho' can't for the life of me think how.

Give it a try and see how you go.


CS

[Chris Soucy]

Assuming the above doesn't work OR you don't have the cable (odds on, that last one), why not shoot Canon and ingest Panny?

At least the video will look consistant. Sort the mess out afterwards.


CS

PS. You didn't miss an "H" off the front of that "DV mode", did you?

[Jim Miller]

As a test, try capturing to your internal drive without the firewire drive connected. With FCS I have just found a similar problem that goes away when I don't have the camera AND a firewire drive attached at the same time. Both work fine individually. I have no idea why this happened and do not have a solution other than capturing to the internal drive then copying it to the firewire drive without the camera attached. Bummer - still trying to find a fix.

[Chris Soucy]

Actually, I'm sure the problem you're describing has been given a pretty good thrashing over on the Apple web site.

Spent yonks a while ago trawling through it trying to get an answer to the "Canon camera won't speak to Mac" question.

Don't recall finding a solution as no one seemed to be able to finger the cause, and it appears to be utterly random.


CS

[Jonathan Schwartz]

Jim,

Thanks for the response. When I was on the phone with Canon tech support the GRaid was not plugged in. Though after reading through the forums I should have restarted everything after I unplugged the drive.

Chris,

I do have a 4 pin to 4 pin cable but it is locked on site and I will have to wait until tomorrow morning to try what you suggested. As far as ingest, I am trying to cut down that step and I am capturing live with quicktime. Also the panny's are not 16x9. I am filming 65 concert bands in the next two weeks and I am trying to avoid any extra rendering going from 4:3 to 16:9.

Keep the suggestions coming!

Jon Schwartz

[Chris Soucy]

Have you actually tried playing a DV tape from the 16:9 Canons in a Panny and seeing what comes out the FireWire port?

I'm not saying it will work, it's just that in my ignorance I can't see why it won't.

It's only data from one medium to another, after all, and I didn't think there was any difference in the format between DV 4:3 and DV 16:9. Different data yes.

Anyway, it was just a thought.

If it did result in 16:9 getting onto your hard drive you could at least shoot tape and ingest the hard way and thus keep using the Canons.

How does doing the remainder of the shoot using the Panny's "live" impact the finished project with the switch to 4:3?


Whoa! Hold the phone!

Being that sort of bloke, I went and dug my venerable 4:3 XL1s out of mothballs, slapped on a battery and wired it up to the pc.

Then I slipped a new tape into my A1, kicked it down to DV 50I 16:9 and fired off a minute of tape.

Whacked that tape into the XL1s and squirted it into Ulead 10.

Guess what?

Yep, perfect 16:9 on the PC (well, it sure weren't 4:3)

Give a whirl on your set up and see if it works.

If it works...........well, you know the story in the event we can't get the Canons back on line.


CS

[Jonathan Schwartz]

Chris,

Thanks for putting so much time into this. My goal was to not have to ingest but to record straight to the macbook pro as I am constantly filming for the next two weeks. If I can't get the Canons online tomorrow I will just stay with the Pannys. I was just looking forward to using the Canon setup in 16:9. I'll let you know how this all works out tomorrow.

Jon Schwartz

[Daniel Epstein]

Looks like you could use the Panasonics as your playback into your computer since you are shooting DV. If the Canon cameras tapes are compatible with the Panasonics. The 16x9 shouldn't be a problem.

[Chris Soucy]

What's in todays exciting episode?

Do we have Crispy Canon's or a Mad Mac?

Has the Panny tape ingest saved your 16:9 bacon or have you gone live and ended up in 4:3 hell?

Do tell.


CS

[Jonathan Schwartz]

Chris,

Well to answer your question, all of the above.
I do not have the 4 to 4 pin firewire cable so I will have to wait until Friday to test that theory
Yes the panny's can ingest the Canon footage so al was not lost.
Yes I am in 4:3 hell shooting with the pannys so I can record directly to the macbook.

By the way I found a workaround to record two streams at the same time.
I duplicated my quicktime application and was able to open both and record two different video signals simultaneously. This has completely cut down the need to ingest. I would love to use my Canons for this event, but I just do not have the time to record, ingest and then edit.

Jonathan Schwartz

[Chris Soucy]

all is not lost.

Good news about the twin apps, not so good about the 4:3.

Be interested in the results of the post mortem on those Canons.

Hope there are no more disasters.


CS