no external playback with latest greatest.... Sony TRV900

Question

no external playback with latest greatest.... Sony TRV900

Hello Learned Folks

MacPro 08 with latest OSX 10.5.4. Latest FCS. Here's the problem:

Bought and setup the computer in April. Used Migration Assist. FCS worked, but the timeline wouldn't playback through FW to my camera/deck, a Sony TRV900. Called Apple Care and they said, "clean install of everything will fix the problem." Returned this week from 2 month job away from home and did the clean install of everything. Whew. Now I'm starting my first project in FCP and still no playback through FW. I can capture OK, so the data is flowing in one direction, but no matter how much I diddle with View/ external video etc etc. nothing comes out to external monitor. All of this equipment worked fine with MacBookPro and 10.4.x.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your time, John

MacPro 2.8, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jul 13, 2008 7:27 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 13, 2008 7:51 AM in response to John Phillips10

Be sure the camera is set up right... i.e. in playback mode. Restart FCP, then select the easy setup for DV NTSC... see if that makes it come to life.

Jerry

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Answer 2

Jul 13, 2008 8:15 AM in response to Jerry Hofmann

Hi and thanks for responding... unfortunately, your suggestions did not help the situation. I have also tried front and back FW ports as well as using/not using a FW hub.

John

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Answer 3

Jul 13, 2008 8:17 AM in response to John Phillips10

Thanks for responding but this did not help the situation... I also tried front and back FW ports, and using/not using my FW hub.

John

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Answer 4

Jul 13, 2008 8:36 AM in response to John Phillips10

Does the camera have any kind of "reset to factory defaults" option, on the off chance something is askew there.

Does the camera let you monitor via iMovie ?, if so this points toward a problem with the FCS install.

If iMovie is dud too then try a different FW lead failing that it might be a FW port issue.

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Answer 5

Jul 13, 2008 9:15 AM in response to John Phillips10

Hello Steve

Thanks for your suggestions too... I reset the camera. I installed iMovie and imported a clip OK (it knew the name of my camera) but not having used iMovie, when I hit playback, nothing appeared through the FW/camera. Automatic? Motion3 btw doesn't respond to external video via FW DV NTSC either. I changed FW cables to a brand new one I had sitting around and alas, still no video from computer to camera. As mentioned both FW ports were tested.

Only left to do is try another DV deck I guess.

John

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Answer 6

Jul 13, 2008 9:21 AM in response to John Phillips10

As a result of resetting the camera you may have to now go in to its menu settings and specify that the AV IN is active . . then give it another try with iMovie . . but as you say if that fails then another camera or deck should be tried to see what happens next

Good luck !

🙂

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Answer 7

Jul 13, 2008 9:54 AM in response to John Phillips10

Hello again Steve (and all)

Well this situation is really bothering me, so I'm still trying everything I can think of... rather than wait until Monday to borrow a DV deck from my employer, I decided to see if my wife's hand-me-down PowerBook G4 with FCP HD 4.5 could use my camera... sure enough, capture and playback worked as expected on my old machine. Clips in timeline showed right up on the camera!

Huh.

My FW audio interface and multiple FW HDs work OK on the MacPro, just not this camera... wonder if the ports are indeed bad or this is a Leopard/QT problem.

John

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Answer 8

Jul 13, 2008 10:01 AM in response to John Phillips10

Well you have narrowed it down to the machine . . so its a case of seeing if its software or hardware related when you can lay your hands on another deck

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Answer 9

Jul 13, 2008 7:04 PM in response to John Phillips10

What are your sequence settings? That camera won't display anything but the Easy Setup for NTSC DV (or PAL if you're in PAL land).

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Answer 10

Jul 14, 2008 6:32 AM in response to John Phillips10

Thanks for the advice. I am already using the Easy DV preset. I shows me that the Sony TRV900 is the camera attached. Still no playback through FW.

Any thoughts about using an adaptor for DVI -> RCA (my ntsc monitor) attached to the computer's second monitor output? I can select this in FCP for monitoring. I suspect this would screw up audio playback sync however. I use a MOTU FW audio interface attached to the analog audio outputs of my camera for monitoring the sound in sync with the FW video out.

John

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Answer 11

Jul 14, 2008 6:42 AM in response to John Phillips10

You could get external monitoring working correctly from the output of the DVI connector, but you'd need a Matrox MXO to get it to work right...

You don't need the MOTU in the mix don't think. The analog outs from the camera fed to monitor and speakers should be in sync.

Jerry

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Answer 12

Jul 14, 2008 6:51 AM in response to John Phillips10

Thanks Jerry for your input.

Curious why the MXO is required/recommended... if the second monitor setting is 640 480 (I'm still in SD) why wouldn't that be an adequate monitor output to my JVC NTSC monitor?

You're correct about the MOTU for analog output from the camera - not an issue. What concerns me is playing back the timeline in FCP with my analog monitor on the 2nd DVI and the audio going through the FW to the MOTU... I wonder if the sync would be better with the built-in audio output in this situation. I'll have to test this...

John

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Answer 13

Jul 14, 2008 7:20 AM in response to John Phillips10

The MXO changes the computer display's progressive scan to interlaced, and it also changes the gamma response to match that of a LCD TV. Without it, you cannot see proper color, nor see interlaced video properly on it at all. It also takes the DVI's output and turns it into a video signal that can be seen on a video monitor in SD or HD. The MXO would also carry the audio signal, so it too would be in sync.

Jerry

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Answer 14

Jul 14, 2008 7:32 AM in response to John Phillips10

Hello again Jerry

I hope others are learning as much from this as I am... so - I'm coming from a simple DV camera into FCP then playback through the camera via FW then from the analog outs of the camera to my analog monitor and speakers. As noted this works fine on my wife's G4 laptop with FCP HD 4.5. New computer, new operating system and playback doesn't work any longer. Solutions from helpful experts such as yourself tend to be $1k cards or boxes to take FCP output to an analog monitor.

My thinking is: 1) find a fix for the FW/DV output problem (shouldn't this just work??) 2) get an ADVC-110 with which to edit on my little monitor 3) get a new DV camera with analog outs 4) then look into Konas and MXOs...

The whole problem of accurate monitoring is still a mystery to me, though it seems lots of cash helps one's anxiety! Any advice on how to setup the computer monitor (in my case a Dell 2408) to be somewhat close to what the video image really looks like?

Thanks again for all the help - John

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Answer 15

Jul 14, 2008 11:29 AM in response to John Phillips10

Here's an update from the original poster... I am bothering everyone because the logic of the situation might be best seen by a more experienced eye -

1.) with latest greatest, Sony TRV900 doesn't playback from FCP (or any DV enabled program such as AE, Mot3) - all options tried.
2.) with latest greatest using a Canon DVC-30, playback from FCP 6.0.4 works fine
3.) Sony TRV900 works both in and out with older G4 PowerBook, OSX 10.3.9 and FCP HD 4.5

My deduction is that Leopard or QT 7.5 are are fault here. Make sense to you? If so, then why would a fairly standard FW protocol (the Sony uses an oldie goldie) be removed from action?

Any ideas who I should complain to?

Thanks again -

John

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