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Why won't my Camera Attach with IMovie HD

Hello,

I have been trying to attach a mini dv through my Camcorders with firewire and they have not been seen in IMovie. I have two cameras, both of which are IMovie HD compatiable and I have gotten each to work on my powerbook g4 before without any problems. My firewire cables are working (I have tried three and they all work perfectly).

I have been going through the discussions and trying everything that was suggested. I also have done everything in the articles and with the general help menus.

I heard that a software update might have been the original source for the problem. Is there a way to see if this is the problem?

Is there a way to see is the camera is actually hooked up and being read by the computer?

Any thoughts or suggestions are HIGHLY appreciated. This project I am working on is very important so I really am grateful for all of your time.

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Jun 10, 2007 12:37 PM

Reply
11 replies

Jun 10, 2007 1:45 PM in response to Zack Uidl

Hello Zack,

the first thing to check is if your Mac actually recognizes the camcorder. To do that open System Profiler (Applications > Utilities) and see if it is listed under Firewire. If that is not the case (and you are sure the cable is not the culprit) you might want to try resetting your FW port.

If the camera shows up, try the following:

. delete the iMovie preference file (com.apple.iMovie.plist) and empty the trash
. repair permissions with Disk Utility and reboot
. open Garageband and play a few notes, then close it.
. connect the camera, power it up, then launch iM

hope this helps

mish

Jun 10, 2007 2:09 PM in response to Zack Uidl

I am having a slightly different problem.
My Nikon Digital picture camera also does mpeg's and when I attach it to MacBook, it always starts up iPhoto. It is set to do this, but then it also downloads the mpeg's to iPhoto, which takes forever, and then I have to transfer those to iMovie.
Is there a way for just iMovie to start up, instead of iPhoto?

PS... It is USB interface.

Thanks,

Adam

Jun 10, 2007 5:53 PM in response to Zack Uidl

Hello Zack,

if your camcorder does not appear in the System Profiler, there are two possibilities: either your Mac has somehow "forgotten" about the FW ports, or the ports are fried. In the first case, try to reset the ports with the procedure below (also known as "zapping the P-RAM) - for the second case you'll need a technician. Can you connect any other FW device successfully?


Resetting USB and Firewire ports:
Shut down your Mac. Disconnect all external drives. Hold the apple/option/p/r keys down at the same time during start up.

hope this helps

mish

Jun 10, 2007 9:00 PM in response to mishmumken

Hi Mish,

I have the same problem, but I couldn't even find Utilities under my Applications folder in System profiler.

shishamo


Hello Zack,

the first thing to check is if your Mac actually
recognizes the camcorder. To do that open System
Profiler (Applications > Utilities) and see if it is
listed under Firewire. If that is not the case (and
you are sure the cable is not the culprit) you might
want to try resetting your FW port.

If the camera shows up, try the following:

. delete the iMovie preference file
(com.apple.iMovie.plist) and empty the trash
. repair permissions with Disk Utility and reboot
. open Garageband and play a few notes, then close
it.
. connect the camera, power it up, then launch iM

hope this helps

mish




iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Jun 11, 2007 9:16 AM in response to JossDrum

This worked perfectly when my Macbook pro/iMovie
setup didn't recognize the canopus signal. Thanks
for the suggestion!

What exactly was messed up, and why did the
garageband step have an impact on solving the
problem? Just curious...

Joss


It resets the Audio MIDI to 44100 Hz which is the proper settings for imovie.


:)Sue

Why won't my Camera Attach with IMovie HD

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