I have the current version of kdenlive and I can't get my hv20 connected to capture. I have read other threads about capturing and I watched the tutorial on capturing and it just won't work. Could it be because I am using linux mint?

In http://www.kdenlive.org/user-manual/troubleshooting-and-common-problems,
try: Troubleshooting firewire capture

Does it solve your problem?