"No camera attached" error in iMovie HD 5.0.2 - Sony DV Camcorder DCR-HC38

Happy Holidays Everyone!
So I first encountered this problem when I had Mac OS 10.5 installed on my laptop and I was using iMovie 6. There were no problems at first, my laptop recognized my new camcorder for weeks and I made a couple of short projects, but one day it wouldn't recognize my camcorder anymore! The problem happened after I updated my OS with the latest security update that came out earlier this month, December 2007.
I called apple support and they couldn't help me. They said they've been receiving a lot of calls about this very same problem! They said my camcorder was not on the "support list" which shouldn't matter because it worked at first, right?
I followed all the troubleshooting: reseting the pram, etc.
I went into system profiler, then firewire, and it gave a red error message saying: "unable to list devices"
Then I researched all of the suggestion here on these forums and other forums and nothing has helped.
So I thought I would do a clean install of 10.4, and run iMovie 5.0.2 but it's still the same, although now I don't get the red error message saying: "unable to list devices" in system profiler. It just says "Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec"
This is a real pain in the butt because the main reason I bought this machine was so I could edit video!! Any NEW suggestions anybody???

the firewire port on the camera was bad! it figures!

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Hi
My list to try to find the problem.
Cable
• Sure that You use the FireWire - USB will not work for miniDV tape Cameras
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from LKN 1935.
Hi Bengt W, I tried it all, but nothing worked. Your answer has been helpfull insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos) to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before. Thank you. LKN 1935
*from Karsten.*
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camera set to 'Play' , not rec/computer/etc.?
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a technical check.
connect camera, on, playback, fw-connected...
click on the Blue Apple, upper left of your screen ..
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Hi,
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