Unable to capture HDV with Sony HDR-FX1 in FCE 4

Question

Hello all,
Been using an HDR-FX1 for a while, shooting mostly DV, and today I began experimenting with HDV. I shot 8 minutes of footage with the camera in HDV mode.
When I setup FCE 4 for Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60, the capture window doesn't recognize the camera. However, if I set the FX1 to down convert to DV via firewire, FCE recognizes the camera and I'm able to capture.
How do I (or can I) capture HDV into FCE 4 with the FX1? Is there something (a setting perhaps) that I'm missing? Do I need to jump to FC Pro for this?
My system: 1.6 GHz PowerPC G5 (tower), 2 GB RAM, Sony FX1, FCE 4.0, QT 7.3.1
Thanks in advance,
tg

Answer 1

I had a similar issue with iMovie08 import using HDR-HC1... You may want to try this to see if it helps:
1> Close the import app (FCE, in your case)
2> Unplug the FW cable from the camcorder (Most important step)
3> Go into the Sony menu and re-select the HDV settings (explicit HDV, not Auto + Conv off) in the camcorder
4> Re-connect the FW cable, and restart FCE
I use these steps successfully while switching between HDV and DV imports from my camcorder using iMovie 08. Hopefully, this resolves your problem with FCE. Later this weekend, I plan to experiment (for the first time) with FCE HDV import to try and see the export quality difference between FCE and iM08 (which apparently downconverts everything to 540 lines!).