Canopus ADVC-11 and iMovie '05

sketch

In March, I bought an ADVC-110 video converter to convert my video tapes to dvd via my powerbook. It always worked beautifully with my Mac (powerbook G4, 10.3.9) and it always worked wonderfully with iMovie 05. Until today. Out of nowhere, it just won't capture.

I know there are people here who have this device so I'm hoping someone can help me.

I get the nice big blue screen that says 'camera playing', the settings on my canopus are the same as always, I do have my video camera (analogue) connected correctly but when I clik on the import button on iMovie, nothing. If I keep clicking the buton, I still get nothing. Sometimes the buttons even disappear! That happens when I click on the camera-- it shows the ADVC-110 but the buttons start to disappear. I notice that when I click on that button, the Canopus goes into digital mode (that is, digital in).

I called up Apple Care to ask about this and was told that they never heard of it before. but I'm convinced it's iMovie because I've always been able to capture. AppleCare tried creating a new user on my machine. Still no capturing. Then they suggested I reinstall iMovie. I did and still nothing.

Trashing the plist? Ok... nope, still doesn't work.

This did happen before (back in March when I first connected the device) and was remedied with an archive and reinstall. At least I think so-- I called up AppleCare about another issue which ended with an archive and reinstall, iMovie just happened to work.

The archive and reinstall is my last resort because I really don't want to have to do this every once in a while everytime iMovie takes a hissy fit.

Has anyone else run into this strange little problem? Is there another program I should use to capture?

edit: I just got off the phone with AppleCare and they said the canopus is not on their list of compatible devices. huh?! DVShop.ca (where I bought it) said it was and it always worked. And like I said, I know others on this board have it.

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In case you need to know, I'm using a rev d Powerbook G4 1.67 GHZ 2GB ram OS 10.3.9

Ottawaman

That sucks, I have a Canopus ADVC as well, not having your problem though.
I'll see if google can find some answers.

sketch

Thanks Ottawaman. I tried a search and it pulled up nothing but people saying how great the device is and how they have no problems with it



I called up dvdshop and they said it was a strange problem and couldn't figure out what could be wrong. Perhaps it's ahardware issue in my PowerBook? It was suggested to me to try zapping my PRAM before I try doing an archive and reinstall. I'm a little nervous with doing advanced things like that. What do you think?

Honestly, iMovie captured everything I sent to it and now it won't. ARG!

In case anyone else is hearing this, apparently there may be an issue with Tiger but since I don't have Tiger...

edit: After yet another call to AppleCare but this time speaking to their product specialist who only told me to check with the manufacturer (what else could they do?), feeling totally dejected, for some reason I tried capturing again and the li'l bugger works! I have no idea HOW or WHY but I do hope this never happens again.

__________________
In case you need to know, I'm using a rev d Powerbook G4 1.67 GHZ 2GB ram OS 10.3.9