imovie will not recognize video from canon zr600

[minimalismist]

hi all--i am frustrated to death with my camera and imovie. i bought a canon mini dv camcorder (zr600) recently and for the life of me i cannot get imovie (i have version 4.0.1) to read the video. it knows a camera is connected, i can control the camera from imovie's keyboard, but all i get is bluescreen and no sound. this is what i have done so far to try and remedy:
-i set the date and time correctly;
-i have unplugged and replugged the firewire over and over;
-i have checked and made sure i was using firewire and NOT usb;
-i have turned the camera on and off over and over;
-i made sure the camera was in "play" mode;
-i tried plugging in the camera first then turning on imovie, and vice versa;
-i have contacted canon who said it is an imovie issue;
-i have checked systems profiler to make sure my computer registers the camera under the firewire setting (it does);
-i have screamed and seethed and now my husband won't talk to me.
my os is 10.3.9; i have a g5 with all kinds of video capabilities that i can't use. i have final cut express installed but am not using it, as i cannot find the serial number to register it. all i want to do is transfer my digital videos to my computer. what is going on? is anyone else out there having this problem and PLEASE does anyone know how i can fix it?
thank you so much,
missy

 

[mvc]

I have had similar problems with a Canon Camera

Not sure if its the same issue, but this might be worth a try.

Is there anything else on your firewire port? A firewire drive or a DVD burner etc. Some Canon cameras don't seem to be able to coexist with other devices on the firewire bus. This includes devices plugged into the Firewire 800 port, in fact, that's the usual source of the conflict.

If there is another device on there anywhere on either firewire 400 or 800, try disconnecting/unmounting it, restart the Mac (make sure you do this), plug in the camera and see if iMovie can work with it.

This solved my problem. I include the text from a some forum I googled up below as a reference of the sort of issues that can come up:





Ah, this topic of Canon and LaCie not playing nicely together has come forth again. At first I was skeptical, but after NAB, not so. Sorry this is happening to you, Scott.
*
At NAB 2005 I had the chance to ask a LaCie engineer about the apparent conflict between Canon cameras and LaCie Firewire 800 drives that appears to have cropped up lately. First thing he said is "well, it's not just Canon, and it's not just LaCie, and it's not our fault, or theirs, or anyones... " anyhow, here's the story...
*
You see, Firewire comes in many flavours. Most people are familiar with the Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 protocols, but there are also protocols for Firewire 100 and Firewire 200 as well. The Canon cameras, and a few others, use the Firewire 100 (100 mega bits, not bytes, per second) protocol*, and there-in partially lies the problem. I think.
*
Like SCSI of old, the Firewire bus can be finicky when shared with slower devices, and it would seem that the LaCie Firewire 800 drives cannot be shared on the same bus with Firewire 100 protocol devices, such as Canon cameras, in current (10.3.6+) versions of the Mac OS. Yeah, that sucks. Who is at fault? Is it Canon for continuing to use the FW 100 protocol? Is it LaCie for making a drive that doesn't work with the Canon cameras (other manufacturers FW 800 drives apparently work, though I have no personal experience with this)? Or is it Apple for changing something about how FW works in the OS? Or for not having separate buses? Of for not shipping a 300GHz G5 as promised?
*
But you are not without options. You can add a Firewire 800 PCI card to your G5 or PCMCIA card to your Powerbook, which gives you a separate Firewire bus for your LaCie drive to happily exist on. As well, some people have successfully used the FW 800 drives with a FW 400 adaptor cable. This solution is less ideal, but a little cheaper. Please be sure to let us know how you decide to resolve this issue.
*
* To find out what protocol your Firewire devices use check under System Profiler > Firewire and select the device in question.

 

[gauchogolfer]

Lacie + Canon success

I am using a Canon Optura 60 with a Lacie 250 GB connected via FW800 without any difficulties. I can capture video directly from the camera to the drive in either iMovie or Final Cut Express. I've never experienced any issues with conflicts between them. This isn't meant to be boasting, I'm just letting you know that it is possible to have these two devices co-exist.

 

[OttawaGuy]

Macintosh: FireWire Issue With Some Canon Mini-DV Cameras
This document describes a FireWire issue that can occur when connecting Canon ZR-40, ZR-45, and ZR-50 Mini DV camcorders. For more information about this issue, please contact Canon, Inc.


Symptom

When other FireWire devices are connected at the same time as the Canon camera, one or more of the following symptoms can occur:
Devices unexpectedly disappear from the FireWire bus. For example, FireWire hard drives disappear from the desktop.
An alert box appears with this message: "The storage device that you just removed was not properly put away before being removed from this computer."
Video editing software such as Final Cut Pro and iMovie report dropped frames during capture.
The computer stops responding.
Products affected
Mac OS 9
Mac OS X
Canon ZR-40
Canon ZR-45
Canon ZR-50
Solution

Try one of the following workarounds:
Disconnect FireWire devices other than the camera. This step should always alleviate the issue.
Try a different length or brand of FireWire cable.
Rearrange the order of devices in the chain.
Note: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only, and does not constitute Apple's recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61603