Can't capture vid - Canon XL cam FW 400 to FW 800 HD - Apple gurus stumped

Question

Am I REALLY the ONLY person out there using a Canon XL 1 and/or 2, an external hard drive with firewire 800 ports and a G5 and/or Mac Book Pro and working with FCP?!!!!
I made a special trip from Flagstaff AZ to the Apple Store at the Biltmore in PHX, just to stump the Apple genuises with this problem. They asked that I post this on the Apple site's discussion forum.
The verdict was: There seems to be a problem capturing video in FCP ("Unable to initialize video deck" and FCP freezes up) when going from the Canon, via firewire 400 4 pin to 6 pin and saving to an external hard drive via firewire 800. The 400 cable is good, as it captures fine to a drive using a 400 cable. It's just the 400 port on newer, 800 capable hard drives, is limited to one. We tried all different ways of configuring, going from camera to HD thru the Mac, and going from camera directly into the external HD, plugging into the 400 port, and then into the Mac from the HD thru the 800 ports.
The only thing that we didn't try, because it's a rare cable (the Apple store hasn't carried one in over three months), is a 4 pin to 9 pin FW 800 cable.
What am I doing in real life to still keep making money? I capture to my old external HD that has 2 FW 400 ports, then dump the footage to my new HDs with FW 800 ports to work on the project. Time consuming.
Again, all versions of FCP and QuickTime software are up to date. We also used one of their G5s. Also, the problem occurs with both my LaCie Rugged HD and my Western Digital My Book, both purchased from the Apple store. The guru at the store kept referring to a bridge issue???
Thanks.

Answer 1

Here's my standard "so you are using a Canon camcorder to capture and it isn't working" routine:
Not all Canon cameras have connection issues, but hanging around this site I've come to recognize their ability to connect in FCP is the most problematic of all the camera brands. If you have a Canon camcorder, and can not get it to connect up with FCP, the following is a way to sort through the issues and get it to work. Some are elegant - some are ugly.
Before we go any farther
-you should be using 'Firewire Basic' as the control protocol. If you aren't, go change it and try again.
-Also, verify that you have a solid installation of Quicktime. You may want to reinstall it using the 'delete receipts' method. Here's how:
Go to /library/receipts and delete any files that say Quicktime followed by a number e.g. Quicktime703.pkg
Go to the Apple quicktime site and download the appropriate version of Quicktime to your hard drive.
Run the Quicktime installer.
Reboot
Repair Disk Permissions for your System Disk (Disk Utility > Select the system disk > Repair Disk Permissions)
With some confidence that the software installation and camera settings are correct and it still won't capture correctly, you are most likely a victim of the dread 'Canon firewire bus incompatibility problem'. Simply stated: Canon cameras do not play well with other devices on the same firewire bus. And, since all the firewire ports on a Mac connect to one bus - well - you get the picture.
The most direct solution is to purchase another, non-Canon device to use as your capturing machine. The Sony DSR-11 is highly recommended for DV work. Since you have one and it isn't working, perhaps you have a more fundamental problem. Beyond replacing your tape playback device, the path you take depends on the model of computer you own.
1. If you have a G5 tower or a MacPro, capture to a second internal drive with only the camera attached. If you need to move material to firewire drive, disconnect the camera. A second internal drive is quite inexpensive these days if you do not already have one.
2. If you have a G5 tower (PCI) MacPro (PCI), G4 powerbook (PCMCIA) or MacBookPro (Expresscard 34) with an available slot, purchase the appropriate firewire card for the slot. Connect your camera to the card and you should be good to go. The new card creates a unique bus and will avoid collisions with the external drives.
3. If you do not have a slot or a second internal drive and you are stuck with the camera, welcome to the camera/drive shuffle.
- shut down and remove the external hard drive(s) from the system
- connect the camera directly to the firewire port of the computer
- start the camera then the computer
- capture to your internal (system) hard drive
- shut down the camera and computer
- disconnect the camera and reconnect the external hard drive(s)
- start hard drive(s) and computer
- move captured files to external hard drive(s)
- edit
If you output back to tape or wish to view your work on an external Video (NTSC or PAL) monitor, you need to set up the camera to use the firewire out as the A/DV converter or VTR - which means reversing the steps:
- copy the file back to the internal drive
- shut everything down
- disconnect the external drive(s)
- connect the camera to the firewire port (and the TV to the camera if needed)
- start the camera then the computer
- play the file.
One caveat here - You may have difficulty getting the file back to tape without dropping frames. Playing files off of the system drive is very demanding and they may have a hard time keeping up.
All in all, if you do not have the option for second bus (i.e. iMacs, eMacs, iBooks, MacBooks) you may want to think about a computer with expandable options next time.
There is the option of capturing using iMovie, but that brings on it's own set of problems and is not recommended.
Good luck.
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