XDCam HD discs not mounting on intel-mac in FAM mode

[Christian Hoffmann]

Hi,
when I connect our PDW-F70 to our new intel Power Mac (2x3GHz Dual core) via firewire, the discs won't get mounted in the finder.
I've installed the latest version of Sony's XDCAM transfer tool (1.1.0).

The funny thing is that the disc shows up in the Mac's disk utility. I can also use the FAM driver tool to switch the PDW's iLink mode from AV to FAM and back.
But the Media just won't get mounted in the finder and the transfer tool also doesn't "see" the inserted disc.

I also connected our PDW-F350 to the intel mac - same result.

When connecting PDW-F70 to our G5 again there were no problems. The inserted discs mounted immediately and importing worked fine.

Anybody here having the same problems? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Christian Hoffmann

[Greg Penetrante]

Make sure the camera really is in FAM mode and not AVC mode. I've made that mistake several times in the past.

Also, try plugging in the cable to computer and camera, and then turn the camera on (in FAM) and wait a few seconds, it may come up then...

best,
-Greg

[Christian Hoffmann]

The PDW-F70 deck as well as the PDW-F350 were definetely in FAM mode. I even changed the mode from FAM mode to AV mode and back several times, using the FAM driver tool. And as I mentioned - if I connect the PDWs to our old G5 everything works fine. But I stumbeled on something: In the information window of the FAM driver tool on the intel Mac it states that the driver "prodisc_fs" is not loaded (see attached screenshot.). Th FAM driver tool on the G5 states that "prodisc_fs" is loaded. So that seems to be the problem. I tried to install the transfer tool again, hoping the driver might be correctly installed on the second try. No luck. Maybe I should completely uninstall the package but I don't know were all the drivers are located. Any ideas how I could get ALL the XDCam transfer stuff off my system so I can do a clean reinstall of the software?

Thanks in advance,
Christian Hoffmann

[Greg Penetrante]

Christian,

It seems the owner/permissions are incorrectly set on your FAM drivers during install. Try install again after doing the steps below to remove the FAM drivers.

How to manually remove the Sony FAM Driver software from the computer.

Okay. Break out the terminal. Take a deep breath and type the following in:

sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Filesystems/prodisc.fs

sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/FAMProtocol.kext

sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/prodisc_fs.kext

sudo rm -rf /sbin/mount_prodiscfs

** You will be prompted to enter your password upon first command.
** Warning! I take no responsibility for any damage done to your OS when doing this. Yadda Yadda Yadda...

After doing this, re-install the XDCam 1.1 software. If you still aren't successful, run the Disk Utility and Repair Permissions on your disc. The utility will read the installed package receipts and reset the permissions for the installed itsems so the OS doesn't freak out.


Plan B:

Alternately, you may MANUALLY change permissions of the FAM driver installed components so that the MacOS will load them by doing the following:

Open the terminal. Take a deep breath and type the following in:

sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/Filesystems/prodisc.fs

sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/Extensions/FAMProtocol.kext

sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/Extensions/prodisc_fs.kext

sudo chmod 755 /sbin/mount_prodiscfs

Then...

sudo chown root:wheel /System/Library/Filesystems/prodisc.fs

sudo chown root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/FAMProtocol.kext

sudo chown root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/prodisc_fs.kext

sudo chown root:wheel /sbin/mount_prodiscfs

Then restart your mac.

** You will be prompted to enter your password upon first command.
** Warning! I take no responsibility for any damage done to your OS when doing this. Yadda Yadda Yadda...
** now that the permissions/owner/group is set right, the Mac should load these at startup...

best regards,
-Greg

[Christian Hoffmann]

Greg,
thanks a lot for your help. I won't be able to try this before Monday.
I'll let you know if it worked.
Thanks again and have a nice weekend.

Christian

[Greg Boston]

BTW Greg, can he not copy and paste the text you've provided? That helps eliminate typing the wrong commands in the terminal window.

I was also wondering if the usual first two lines of defense in the OSX world might work. Trash the preferences, then repair disk permissions.

regards,

-gb-

[Christian Hoffmann]

Hi,
I tried both of your methods - nothing worked. Even logged in as root and deleted the files you mentioned manually, then rebooted, then reinstalled - no luck. Media still doesn't mount in finder. Any ideas except for reinstalling or throwing the Mac out of the window?

Thanks for your help so far.
Christian

[Andy Mees]

prodisc driver notwithsatnding, i noted that you are using the FAM driver tool to switch between FAM and AV/C mode ... try changing to FAM mode in the menu pages of the F70 instead and see if that works any better
Menu > Setup Menu > Interface Select > iLink Mode > FAM

[Christian Hoffmann]

I tried both methods of switching to FAM mode. No luck. In fact I always used the PDWs menu to change modes before this problem occured. I only tried the FAM driver as alternative to switch between modes. But just to be sure I just tried again and changed the mode in the PDWs menu manually - same result.

But thanks for your input.

Christian

[Peter Newsom]

Is it possible that your computer has a newer version of OS than what is accomdated by the Sony transfer tool?

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Peter Newsom

Is it possible that your computer has a newer version of OS than what is accomdated by the Sony transfer tool?

Not likely, Peter. I have the latest version of OSX and my system works fine with XDCAM Transfer. However, I should qualify that by saying that I have a G5 based system and Christian says his G5 systems are working, the Intel based Mac is the one with the problem.

-gb-

[Nate Weaver]

Christian, at this point I'd:

1-Start with re-installing the system over top of the existing. It only takes 15 minutes or so.

2-Failing that, wipe it and start over.

#2 is drastic I know, but it only takes 2-3-4 hours to do that and reinstall all your software, and I suspect you've already spent at least 3 on this already.

[Harley Flanagan]

I'm curious to hear how this is resolved!

[Christian Hoffmann]

Originally Posted by Nate Weaver

2-Failing that, wipe it and start over.

I was afraid that at some point somebody would post something like this.... ;-)
The funny thing is that the intel mac is brand new out of the box and freshly installed. But me and my dealer had a hell of a time to get our fibrenetix raid up and running with MetaSAN. That' why the thought of a reinstall scares me. Maybe the MetaSan software (http://www.tiger-technology.com/arti...?story=MetaSAN) IS the problem. On the other hand the combination of both softwares is running fine on the G5.
Regarding a system reinstall - I think for the moment I'll stick to capturing the material as DVCPro HD over HD-SDI. If it has to be native XDCam HD I still can carry over the PDW to our old trustworthy G5. 10.5 is somewhere out there on the horizon and then I'll have to reinstall anyway.
Lots of thanks to all of you who were willing to help me. I appreciate that very much.
I'll let you know if there are any news.

Thanks,
Christian

[Alister Chapman]

I have the latest OS-X updates on an Intel Macbook and a MacPro and everything works fine. I would suspect your MetaSan installation.