I have my project setting at HDV 1080i, deck is a Sony HVR M15U, I'm using AXP 5.8, Quicktime 7.3.

I have deck control and can watch my footage in my composer window, but when I try to capture I get

"Exception; Video signal present but not captured.

I then hit "Okay" and get another alert

"Exception: ADVAudioDev: DV Device missed starting timecode."

I hit "okay" on this one, and all my channels on my capture window get turned off. (V, A1, A2)

Any clues as to what is going on here?

I get this sort of response from Avid if my deck is still on its auto settings for detecting DV or HDV tapes and that tends to upset the NLE. Have you tried going through the menu on the deck and checking that all settings are manually set to match the HDV footage?

If you change the settings of the deck whilst still connected to Avid you may need to disconnect the deck and reconnect it to take effect or re-detect the deck in the capture window.

HTH

Nope. Same result.

Are you sure the footage you're ingesting is HDV 1080i or could it be 720p?

What are your system specs?

Footage was shot 1080i

Intel Quad core, 3 ghz, 3 gig ram, video coming in via frewire....

For right now I'm going to have to go and get this footage transferred to DV Cam so I can push this project out of here.

We have always had problem digitizing HDV on the Mac.  We have both the HVR-M10U and the HVRM25U decks.  We are only able to digitze HDV into our Windows MC Adrenaline.  If we turn iLink on it will digitize DV into our Mac Xpress Pro or our Windows MC Adrenaline.  So worst case is you can digitize into your Mac just by enabling the iLink DV downconvert.

Dang, heyriddle that WORKED!!!!!!!

Thanks!

Well now..I spoke too quickly.

I captured one clip as a "test" now I'm trying to capture something I actually need, and it keeps telling me it cannot find the pre roll point, or canot find the coincidence point. Does this happen to you?

Okay..it's working now...thanks!

Yes.  The transport  through the firewire is less than ideal.  I try to avoid batch digitizing for that reason.  I often need to click try again 2 or 3 times before it grabs the timecode.  I usually digitize the whole tape to avoid this problem.  I have found that switching the preroll point to 3 seconds it grabs on a little better.  

That's a pretty ineffeceint way to work. I thought I was the only one who had to do that.

I edit very raw footage, where tape is usually rolling in anticipation of something happening and that "something" only occurrs one out of ten times. In 124 minutes of tape I might have five our six usable minutes, with 40 or 50 tapes used to complete a project. So capturing an entire tape is--for me at least, not a workable solution.

Some "upgrade"....

Welcome to HDV.  At least it is only this format that has been giving us problems.  If you want to avoid batching, I have found hitting the record button while the tape is rolling works great.  If you are just logging a few minutes of each of your tape, this method may work well for you.  

I have to hit the record button twice on EVERYTHING I capture--no matter the format....and that's on a good day!