PowerMac G4 Not Recognizing CamCorder

[tekboi]

Hi All,

I'm trying to import video from a tape on my Panasonic PV-GS31 CamCorder. I have a 'dv to firewire 400' cable connected directly to the the PowerMac G4 but it won't recognize it in iMovie 6 HD. And yes, I have camera turned on in playback mode.

I went to the system profiler and looked at the firewire bus... it didn't show that anything was connected to it. It's starting to annoy me that I can't find a fix for this.

Can someone tell me what i'm doing wrong?

 

[cgbier]

Can you get your hands on another camera? Tested a different cable? You sure the FW port in the camera is not fried?

 

[tekboi]

Can you get your hands on another camera? Tested a different cable? You sure the FW port in the camera is not fried?

Yes, I thought about all of those things. The G4 is the only computer I have that has a fw400 port on it. The iMac i have only has fw800 & my laptop doesn't have a fw port at all. I know absolutely nonone that has a camcorder right now. And I don't have a different cable... *sighs*

----------

also tried looking for a dv to fw800 cable at best buy... they didn't have it... I hate bestbuy.

 

[blunti]

you could try to order a cheap cable from monoprice.com and see if that works!

 

[Porco]

Do you have a firewire hard drive or something to at least check if the PMG4's FW ports are working?

You can get FW400 to 800 adapters like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/elago-FireWire-Adapter-MacBook-computers/dp/B003L4P872
if you want to try it on the iMac

If it turns out the PMG4's fw ports are dead, you could get a PCI card for it if you want. It could give you some extra USB ports too if you go that route, if you go for a combi card like the Sonnet Tango 2.0.