docking station problem?

[mr2mk1g 10]

Tried to capture footage to my PC last night and had difficulties.

Sony PC350 - firewire - Adobe Premier Pro 1.5

Capture box comes up with "capture device offline".

Camera displays "DV in" on bluescreen when I plug the firewire cable in so it recognises the PC at least. I've tried two different firewire cables on two different PC's and have the same results. I've also tried a couple of freeware capture programs and windows moviemaker to ensure it's not just Premier throwing a strop and got the same failure to connect to the camera. I've also used this install of Premier to successfully capture footage in the past, though not for a few months.

And yes, the camera's in play mode .

When I first plugged the camera in, it wasn't immediately recognised by Premier. I moved the cable slightly in the docking station and the capture box then recognised the camera and let me control it from the screen but no picture came up. Then I moved the cable again and Premier crashed. Now I get the above symptoms.

I gave a guy some footage at the weekend via DV out so it was working then... though we had to fiddle with the cable for a second to get his camera to register mine.

I'm leaning towards thinking that my docking station's fucked or has a loose connection somewhere in the firewire port... though I must admit I find it odd that the camera at least appears to recognise the firewire connection.

Does this sound right to you guys or has anyone come up against this problem before with a different solution?

[PharmerPhil 0]

I had a similar problem years ago on a TRV-900. The firewire port either wouldn't work at all, or if would freeze my application (FCP3) until I unplugged the cable. It was an intermittent problem, and wiggling the firewire cable helped sometimes. Ended up getting it repaired and it was a bad lead or ground on the board that held the FW and AV ports.

Did you try another camera with the same computer? With the same docking station?

[frost 1]

There is a good chance you already have or are about to burn your firewire board.

Firewire IS NOT hot swappable, even though it may work and look that way. It may work, then it might present problems like you describe... but a static electricity spark WILL burn the circuit to a crisp and you will be left with no firewire.

ALWAYS turn the camera/PC off before connecting the firewire!

This comes from someone who has burned a PC1000 firewire that way. When it stopped working I did some research on DV info forums and found that a lot of people out there had this issue. It all leads back to the basic RTFM! advice.

[pbwing 0]

Hmm.

Didn't know that!!

Thanks for the tip...