Why can I no longer capture DV clips?

Question

I can no longer capture DV clips that are useable. Is it a wrong setting or maybe bad hardware?
I'm logging and capturing clips as DV anamorphic (downconverted by my deck from HDV), and when I play back the captured clip, the image in the viewer isn't moving (at least not very much; a series of freeze frames, really). When I expand the browser window, I notice that the data transfer rate for the clip is only around 300 k/sec, whereas previously capture DV clips weigh in at 3.6 MB/sec. I know 300 k/sec is around the rate for RT Offline clips - but there is no evidence that the offending clips are RT Offlined. I've spent ten hours in the program and in the manual, trying to figure out how to correct this.
I also opened the captured clips in QuickTime, and then used "Movie Inspector" to determine that the clips as captured are bad; in other words, it's not just a playback problem. A healthy DV clip reads out at 30.31 mbits/sec; my bad clips are reading 2304 kbits/sec, or 2805 kbits/sec, etc. The FPS for the problem clips read 0.81, 1.20, etc., whereas the healthy DV clips read, of course, 29.97.
Oh, here are some other peculiarities: it takes longer than usual to complete the capture -- 10 seconds or so past the end timecode reading. And it always gives me the warning that there was broken time code in the sequence. And, it appears that audio track 2 is out of sync -- a several seconds later than audio track 1.
And recently, there's variation to the problem, where the first couple of seconds of the captured clip are a series of quick freeze frames; then, the rest of the clip is entirely black, with only the audio apparent.
I'm beginning to think it may be a hardware issue. It's not the deck, or the firewire cable, or the firewire port. I've switch them all out with the same result. I've trashed FCPro preferences and then reset them, with no improvement. I even reformatted by drive, re-installed the OS, and installed a different version of FCPRO. Same results
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Sorry for any inconvenience; I'm new to the discussion process. And sorry for the delay in responding; I've been away and unable to follow through.
I'm still having the same problem.
I've tried two decks: Sony HDV HVR-M25U in downconvert mode; JVC BR-DV600U. Plus, I've tried my camera, Sony Z1U, also in downconvert mode.
The only other devices on the firewire bus are firewire hard drives -- essential to the operation.
I've tried Mac OSX 10.4.6 and Mac OSX 10.4.10. I've tried FCPRO versions 5 and 6.
It did not stop working after any updates or change in software.
I reset the capture to Easy Preset for DV with no success.
I didn't trash the preferences; but I did erase the disc and completely re-install the software -- twice.
My G5 does do one other strange thing. If I have the computer "sleep" mode activated, and the computer goes to sleep -- I can't wake it up for a couple of hours. I think that's a heat-related thing; this is the G5 that has 7 fans (or is it 9?). And I hear you can't start G5s if the sensors decide one of the processors is over-heated. If I shut off the computer, the same thing happens; I have to wait a couple of hours. My present workaround is that I just leave the computer on all day (deactivate the "sleep" option), and it seems to work fine -- unless this capture problem is somehow related.
I'm going to try to capture DV footage using iMovie -- once I get my hands on a version that works with Tiger. This might indicate whether this problem is software-or-hardware based. I'll update this message thread once I've been able to do this test.
Thanks for any further thoughts you might have!