Firewire 800 not being recognized?

[EllieS99]

Firstly, sorry if this is in the wrong section!

I just got a MacBook Pro about a month ago, and was so excited to get editing some movies (me and my brother bought Final Cut Express about a year ago for Mac.) When I went to plug in my camera I realized there was no Firewire 400 port...
Sooo, I ordered a new 800 one and when it finally came I was again, excited to edit some movies. And now, it doesn't work.
Every time I go to put something in it says "Unable to initialize video deck. You may still use capture now" and then on the capture screen it starts up the built-in webcam.
I tried changing settings on my video camera to see if that worked, took the cord out and plugged it back in, etc. I also changed under easy setup or whatever a bunch of the formats that it imports with and still none work.

Do you think it could be because we have an older version of Final Cut Express that it doesn't recognize the new FW 800 or something?

Thanks.

 

[art gardiner]

Under your Audio/Video Settings make sure you have your Capture Preset & your Device Control Preset set to the same flavor. I.E - Capture Preset set to DV NTSC, and Device Control Preset set to Firewire NTSC. Video Playback should be set to Apple Firewire, or corresponding to your connected camera.

Usually, this message pops up when there is a communication error between your deck and FCP's settings.

HTH,

Art

 

[EllieS99]

Under your Audio/Video Settings make sure you have your Capture Preset & your Device Control Preset set to the same flavor. I.E - Capture Preset set to DV NTSC, and Device Control Preset set to Firewire NTSC. Video Playback should be set to Apple Firewire, or corresponding to your connected camera.

Usually, this message pops up when there is a communication error between your deck and FCP's settings.

HTH,

Art

Thank you art for your quick reply!
I'm just a little confused, are you talking about my audio/video settings on my camera, or on FCE? On my camera I went into setup and all that there really is about that sort of stuff is aspect ratio, and if the audio plays in the right or left speaker.
Sorry if I seem dumb, I'm just a little slow with technology.

 

[art gardiner]

Don't worry. We all have to start somewhere. The settings I'm talking about are in FCP/FCE, under the FCP/FCE menu bar.

Just curiouse, what camera are you using?

 

[illpickle]

He is referring to settings within your final cut. To test it out in the easiest way possible launch your final cut system. once it is loaded do:

File < Easy Setup < Format: NTSC < Use: DV-NTSC Firewire Basic

This should configure your final cut system to recognize firewire for input/output.

 

[EllieS99]

Hey, sorry for the late reply.

I changed it to that setting, but it still says it cannot capture it...
I took this screen shot, this is after it says unable to initialize video deck (sometimes on other settings the camera pops up in place of the coloured area)

My camera is a Panasonic PV-GS500... it's about 4 years old, could that be the problem?

 

[dlync05]

I'm having the exact same problem. Can anyone tell me how they got around it?

 

[spinnerlys]

I'm having the exact same problem. Can anyone tell me how they got around it?

So you have one of the MBPs with a Firewire 800 port, the Panasonic camera and FCE 4?

Has it worked before?

 

[dlync05]

I have a Sony z1 camera, with Final Cut Pro 7. It's the first time i've tried capturing on it, had to order a 9pin to 4pin cable especially for it.