i don't know what's going on. the first time i uploaded my footage, it was automatic. i connected my mini dv camera and open  up the capture tool and started capturing. this time, the capture tool does not seem to be controlling my camera. i'm getting a "no deck" message.

in the deck configuration box i've selected firewire on OHCI and it reads my minidv camera in there. still, i can't capture anything because the capture tool still does not recognize my camera.

how come it worked automatically the first time? what changed?

how do i fix this???

Do you have your camera connected to the firewire port on the motherboard? Is there more than one channel in the deck configuration window? Did you find a machine template that precisely matches your camera's make and model? If not, have you tried an appropriate Generic DV device template?

Do you have your camera connected to the firewire port on the motherboard? yes. i only have two firewire ports and tehy are both on the back of my computer.

Is there more than one channel in the deck configuration window? No

Did you find a machine template that precisely matches your camera's make and model? no

If not, have you tried an appropriate Generic DV device template? yes.

Do you have any other peripheral devices connected and active - like webcams, USB microphones, WACOM tablet, other firewire devices?

nope, but i got it to work. i unplugged the firewire cable and then plugged it back in. i think i have to do that every single time i capture footage. does that sound right? 

also, i notice taht avid tells me that my footage is dv25 footage. how can that be? its not 25p. and i'm currently editing this footage while my settings are 1080i/59.94. will taht cause problems for me in the near future?

There have been issues with whether a firewire connected tape deck was on or off when the application is launched and initializes. The problem would manifest as a flamethrower error when attempting to capture or edit. The solution has been to put the deck in the opposite state from what it was in when launching and getting the error.

You must be working in SD if your footage is dv25, which is a resolution. Isn't your frame rate 30i? If so, you should be working in a 30i NTSC project format.