[chenghong]

hi all,
i seem to have a problem establishing a stable connection thru firewire between my DV SE with the Sony DCR-PC5E camcorder that i've ought recently. it only seems to work when i boot up the computer the first time, every time. but after playing back some footage on the monitor thru iMovie, somehow the connection would be lost and an error message would appear. even rebooting the computer is useless. i've tried every sequence possible (plugging the firewire out and inserting it again, switching the camcorder off and on again), but still can't seem to get the connection back.

anyone out there has any idea if there are compatibility issues between the camcorder and the DV SE? the sony sales people assured me that there wouldn't be any problems.......

FYI: i'm running iMovie 1, firewire is version 2.5.

please help, i'm running out of ideas and getting desperate.......

thanx!

[Fredo]

chenghong,
I don't have a firewire camcorder, but I do have a firewire CD-RW and a firewire harddrive, and to get them to work properly I follow the following procedure as follows
Power on both devices, and allow a few seconds.
Plug firewire device into iMac firewire port.
To disconnect: unplug device from firewire port.
Turn off power to device.
Do not power off device that is hooked up through firewire. I think you may be turning off the camcorder while it is still plugged into the iMac. This will cause mucho problems.
Hope this helps.

[Fredo]

PS: you can get firewire extension version 2.7 if you download the 9.1 update.

[CaseCom]

Any compatibility issues would be iMovie vs. camcorder, not iMac vs. camcorder.

iMovie 1.0.x: Compatible Camcorders

iMovie 2: Supported Camcorders

Yours doesn't seem to be on either list, but that doesn't necessarily mean it won't work. Could be a bad FireWire cable.

Transferring this thread to Multimedia & DV...

[dante]

While I can't help you with or firewire problem, wht I can say is get rid of iMovie1 and get iMovie2.
The difference is incredable, iM2 is just so much better. Just being able to import more then 12 clips makes it worth getting.

[chenghong]

thanks y'all,

finally got it to work.