DVCPRO 50 Log & Capture issues

FCP 6.03 QT 7.4.5 Mac G5 Dual Intel Tiger

We received some DVCPRO 50 Standard Def footage and rented a Panasonic AJHD1400 deck to upload the footage into our system. We used the DV50 codec and started the log and capture with a longer firewire cable and got an error code on the deck. We then went to a short 3 foot firewire cable and the error code went away. When we opened the Log & Capture window in FCP, we saw that the communication was working fine between deck and computer. We could click play on the window and control the deck but we would get the color bars with the "preview disabled" prompt. When we went to capture we would get a frame of noise in the capture window and then nothing. We adjusted capture settings and never were able to use the deck for anything except dubbing the footage to another DV deck for capture.

Any ideas as to what the problem is?

Elmer Hilker