Hi gang:

I thought this was cleared up but I'm still having fairly regular firewire problems with my 953 that prevent capture. I have a single firewire port on my laptop and I regularly connect an external DVD burner through an external hard drive and thence to my PC. I also substitute the Canopus ADVC100 for the burner to capture from VHS. I never have problems capturing with Vegas or burning from DVD Architect. I can power the drives on before or after booting my PC and they are always seen by Win 2000.

When I plug the 953 into the hard drive OR directly into the PC, either one, the PC will freeze if I power up the 953 after the PC has booted. If I power it up before the PC is booted, the PC doesn't freeze but it doesn't see the 953, oh, 7 times out of 8 maybe. (I've only done this a couple times. I thought I had a cable problem and tried again today with a different cable.) So I must shut down and reboot and, if I'm lucky, maybe it will see the 953. I've tried a couple of different cables including one I use to connect the Canopus box to the hard drive during capture. No difference.

As far as I can tell from software on my PC I have an OHCI- compatible firewire card built into the PC. I'm beginning to suspect the 953 has a bad firewire port. I'm looking for other tests I can do to nail it before I call Panasonic.

Thanks.

Dennis Vogel

Denis, do you know someone, a friend who has a fire wire port on their PC ? Try it out there , just to confirm!

Yes, thanks for the tip. My wife uses a laptop at work that she brings home occasionally that has a firewire port. I was going to try that when this problem first popped up but then it went away after a few tries and I wanted to try another cable before I got worried. I forgot to go back to that test this time around. I'll have to get her to bring it home tomorrow.

Just out of curiousity, anticipating the worst, has anyone dealt with Panasonic support? How much resistance do they give to customers who suspect problems and wish to exchange their camcorders?

Dennis Vogel

good question, let us know what's cooking

My wife's laptop doesn't have a firewire port. So, tomorrow I plan to call Panasonic support to try to get a solution or replacement. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Dennis Vogel

Talked to Panasonic support about my capture problem. They asked me to change one setting even though they thought it probably wouldn't work (DV OUT). I did and there was no difference. They asked if I could try another camcorder or another computer. I do have one more possibility for a computer and I hope to try that tonight.

If that fails and I cannot think of anyone who has a digital camcorder I plan to package up my 953 and send it in. Panasonic customer support said there was no RMA needed to return it. Only that I send proof of purchase and a description of the problem. They will then advise about cost to repair if it isn't still under warranty (which it is).

I'll keep you posted.

Dennis Vogel

Dennis, can you take your 953 to a Circuit City or Best Buy & see if one of their pc's will detect it? That would at least give you something to compare to.

On one of my pc's, sometimes the scanner doesn't work. When I look @ device manager, one of the usb controls didn't start (yellow exclamation mark). I then manually uninstall the "Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller" & force Windows XP to scan for hardware changes, then Windows reinstalls the USB Controller & everything works.

Good Luck.

I tried a friends PC but it had no firewire port.

He gave me an idea similar to yours. I'm going to call an Internet cafe near me and see if their PCs have firewire ports. Even if I can't do that I still plan on sending it back to Panasonic.

Dennis Vogel