Canon Vixia HV30 not recognized by iMovie 09.

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Level 1

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Canon Vixia HV30 not recognized by iMovie 09.

I have a unibody MPB (5.1, late 08), a HV30 from Canon and recently I bought a FW400-FW800 cable from Belkin (9-pin to 4-pin I think) to transfer my video to the Mac for editing.

The problem is that iMovie doesn't recognize the camera. When I turn it on in Play-mode, the camera is supposed to show a Firewire symbol when the connection is OK, but that doesn't happen. iMovie only lets me select the iSight camera as source for import. I have no other Firewire devices connected.

Help...

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jun 29, 2009 1:30 PM

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Answer 1

EZ Jim

Level 7

22,590 points

Jun 30, 2009 9:38 AM in response to Ayabara

Unless you are having other problems that might suggest a different cause, I would be suspicious of the cable first.

The simplest test will be to try a known-working cable. To test further, you can also try connecting your camera to a different Mac or connecting a different FW device to your Mac.

If you, your family, or friends do not have access to other Firewire cables or devices for testing, and if you bought locally, you can take your MBP, the cable you bought, and your camera to your local retailer for testing. Even if you bought elsewhere, a local retailer might be willing to test your cable and camera on a different computer or sell you a different cable that you can test at the store to be certain it works before you leave .

If you are interested in using adapters with your existing (and known to be working) FW400 cables, here are a couple from which to choose. There are others, but these have worked Mac users I know:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fw_adapter.html

http://tinyurl.com/cgll7o

EZ Jim

G5 DP 1.8GHz w/Mac OS X (10.5.7) PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight

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Answer 2

Ayabara Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 30, 2009 9:54 AM in response to EZ Jim

I'm also suspicious of the cable, which is this one http://store.apple.com/us/product/TP320LL/A#overview.

I don't have any other devices or cables to test with, but maybe I'll follow your advice and visit the store with my equipment.

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Answer 3

EZ Jim

Level 7

22,590 points

Jun 30, 2009 1:19 PM in response to Ayabara

Ayabara wrote:
... maybe I'll follow your advice and visit the store with my equipment.

We will watch for your status update re: what you learn at the store.

Cheers,
Jim

G5 DP 1.8GHz w/Mac OS X (10.5.7) PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight

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Answer 4

Ayabara Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 16, 2009 5:19 AM in response to EZ Jim

Ok, now this is about as embarrassing as it gets...

I went to the store today. We tested with my camera and cable, and a couple of different Macs. It worked like a charm. Then I went home and tried again, but it still didn't work. Then I looked at what I was doing and the mystery was solved.

Todays lesson for you guys:
Just because you can insert a FW800 cable into an RJ45-connector with hardly any resistance, doesn´t mean it will work very well.

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Answer 5

EZ Jim

Level 7

22,590 points

Jul 16, 2009 7:01 AM in response to Ayabara

Kudos, Ayabara !

Congratulations - both on your fix and on being brave enough to share it with us!

Thanks for letting us know.

Cheers,
EZ Jim

G5 DP 1.8GHz w/Mac OS X (10.5.7) PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight

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