Trouble with JVC GY-HD100: trying to capture in DV NOT HDV

Question

Hello all!
First let me say I am a long-time reader of these boards and they have saved me on many, many occasions. However, this is my first post!
I have used FCP for over 6 years with my trusty Canon XL1 and XL1s with relatively few issues. I recently shot a feature in HDV using the JVC GY-HD100 (in 720p 24 no less - yes, yes, I know, what a mess). I used the Firestore Pro-HD to store the footage, which added additional fun getting those m2t files onto the computer and into FCP. What a headache it was jumping from DV to HDV systems, getting the very pricey HD monitor and AJA Kona LH card, etc. Believe it or not, my HDV workflow has equalized and I successfully edited the feature in FCP (everything worked pretty smoothly once I got all the footage into FCP).
Anyway, that was a complete digression from my issues right now. I got a corporate job that required two cameras, so I decided to use my XL1 and new JVC (my other XL1 is broken) . The job did not require HDV, so I used the JVC in standard DV mode. I figured I could always capture the miniDV tapes in my XL1 (broken one is now deck, ha, ha). Well, the tapes recorded in the JVC camera do not register timecode in the XL1 (picture looks ok though) and the audio is a little scratchy.
So I decided to try capturing the footage from the JVC. Now the problem is I cannot get FCP or what seems to be the computer itself to recognize the JVC in DV mode. I have two editing systems:
#1 Dual 2 GHz G5, OSX 10.4.7, QT 7.1.2, FCP HD 5.1.1
#2 Dual 800 MHz G4, OSX 10.3.9, QT 7.1.2 , FCP HD 4.5
(I use #1 for HDV and #2 for DV)
I've tried getting FCP to recognize the JVC on both systems and it cannot find it. iMovie cannot find it either. Even though the JVC GY-HD100 is not on the list of approved cameras for NTSC capture (only for 720p 30 HDV), I've read on the boards of others who have used it in standard DV mode without issue. So now I am trying to figure out if there is something wrong with the firewire port on the camera. Here is something that is fishy: under the system profiler, usually a firewire device like a camera will show up under the bus (my XL1 does), but the JVC does not.
I've tried the trashing prefs, trashing QT pkgs and reinstalling, repairing permissions, etc., which are all in effort to get FCP to work, but I'm not even sure that this is a FCP issue, it might be a firewire issue.
So after my long-winded post (sorry!!), has anyone here used the JVC GY-HD100 to capture DV footage into FCP and did you have to do anything special to get the computer/FCP to recognize the camera. I guess I can also use my Kona LH board using the video out from the camera (and bypass the firewire), but I've never used it for SD/analog capture before, so if anyone has experience with the settings for that scenario, that would be great also. I mostly use my Kona to output the HDV to my HD preview monitor.
Ugh...needless to say I'm stuck in the middle of a project with half its tapes captured. Thank you very much in advance for your help!
-Catherine
Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   QT: 7.1.2

Answer 1

Hello all!
First let me say I am a long-time reader of these boards and they have saved me on many, many occasions. However, this is my first post!
I have used FCP for over 6 years with my trusty Canon XL1 and XL1s with relatively few issues. I recently shot a feature in HDV using the JVC GY-HD100 (in 720p 24 no less - yes, yes, I know, what a mess). I used the Firestore Pro-HD to store the footage, which added additional fun getting those m2t files onto the computer and into FCP. What a headache it was jumping from DV to HDV systems, getting the very pricey HD monitor and AJA Kona LH card, etc. Believe it or not, my HDV workflow has equalized and I successfully edited the feature in FCP (everything worked pretty smoothly once I got all the footage into FCP).
Anyway, that was a complete digression from my issues right now. I got a corporate job that required two cameras, so I decided to use my XL1 and new JVC (my other XL1 is broken) . The job did not require HDV, so I used the JVC in standard DV mode. I figured I could always capture the miniDV tapes in my XL1 (broken one is now deck, ha, ha). Well, the tapes recorded in the JVC camera do not register timecode in the XL1 (picture looks ok though) and the audio is a little scratchy.
So I decided to try capturing the footage from the JVC. Now the problem is I cannot get FCP or what seems to be the computer itself to recognize the JVC in DV mode. I have two editing systems:
#1 Dual 2 GHz G5, OSX 10.4.7, QT 7.1.2, FCP HD 5.1.1
#2 Dual 800 MHz G4, OSX 10.3.9, QT 7.1.2 , FCP HD 4.5
(I use #1 for HDV and #2 for DV)
I've tried getting FCP to recognize the JVC on both systems and it cannot find it. iMovie cannot find it either. Even though the JVC GY-HD100 is not on the list of approved cameras for NTSC capture (only for 720p 30 HDV), I've read on the boards of others who have used it in standard DV mode without issue. So now I am trying to figure out if there is something wrong with the firewire port on the camera. Here is something that is fishy: under the system profiler, usually a firewire device like a camera will show up under the bus (my XL1 does), but the JVC does not.
I've tried the trashing prefs, trashing QT pkgs and reinstalling, repairing permissions, etc., which are all in effort to get FCP to work, but I'm not even sure that this is a FCP issue, it might be a firewire issue.
So after my long-winded post (sorry!!), has anyone here used the JVC GY-HD100 to capture DV footage into FCP and did you have to do anything special to get the computer/FCP to recognize the camera. I guess I can also use my Kona LH board using the video out from the camera (and bypass the firewire), but I've never used it for SD/analog capture before, so if anyone has experience with the settings for that scenario, that would be great also. I mostly use my Kona to output the HDV to my HD preview monitor.
Ugh...needless to say I'm stuck in the middle of a project with half its tapes captured. Thank you very much in advance for your help!
-Catherine
Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   QT: 7.1.2