Importing HDV footage from Canon Xh A1 to FCP 5.1.4

I have to say I have a similar issue. I am running FInal CUt Studio (soon getting the 2!!!!!) in a Mac Pro Dual Quad with 16GB of RAM in it. I am trying to import HDV footage from my Canon XH-A1. If I manually hit play on my XH-A1, I can import the footage just fine. FInal Cut, however, does not control the camera. In the capture mode, I can hit play, rewind fast forward all in FInal Cut and the camera will respond. However when I hit the "now" button under the capture comands, It does not automaticaly set the camera to play. It is a minor inconvinience but what really bothers me is that iMovie imports and controls the camera flawlessly!! No matter what setting I use in FInal Cut, It will not control the XH-A1 When I import. I really need help because I am seriously stuck!!!!!!

Mac Pro, iMac, MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I've been capturing successfully lately with an XHA1. No problems at all, worked flawlessly.

Have you chosen "HDV Firewire Basic" protocol - that's the one you should be using.

Yes I did. When I use the HDV Apple intermediate codec for the capture preset is the only capture preset I can use to import. It does nothing more than import video. I can't use the timecode and quing feature I love about FInal Cut Pro

I never use Capture Now - but didn't you always have to hit the play button manually in that mode? Apologies if I'm wrong.

You should have no problem capturing HDV on the rig you describe.

Well I am basing my experience off of an old Canon mini DV Camcorder I used several years ago with FInal Cut Pro. When I connected that camera and used the easy setup to DV NTSC and I went to capture from the camcorder, Final Cut would Que each clip into its appropriate time code. I could just leave it plugged in and it would go.
With my XH-A1, the experience is a little different.
I threw away my preferences and now it is captureing and separating the clips but I still hate using the intermediate codec instead of a vative HDV Codec. I wanted the capture now feature to log the clips in their titles and time code. With Apple's HDV Intermediate codec, it imports the video but I cannot Log in a clip.

Mac Pro Dual Quad 16GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I had the same problem with my canon xha1, I finally capturedd some footage. I have FCP 5.0.4, my settings are as follows, on the seq presetI used DV ntsc anamorphic, capture preset HDV, device control, HDV Firewire. I shot in hd, but keep the sequence at dv ntsc. That might help and everything captured perfectly. My problem is that i cannot edit in real time, I have to render everything, the audio, clips, etc. Do you have any suggestions on that?
How do you like your camera? Is theri a fourm on video cameras like the one we purchased the canon xha1. Hope fully the presets help, good luck.

Your sequence settings have no bearing on your capture.

Use the HDV 1080i60 Easy Setup - but when you've done that, change the firewire protocol to HDV Firewire Basic, not HDV Firewire.

You're having to render everything because you're dropping HDV into a DV sequence.

There's an excellent XHA1 forum over at dvinfo.net: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=138