How can I get video footage onto my computer?

[gavintarrant]

Hi - I've got a Canon MV830i and couldn't upload onto my old computer as it lacked firewire. My new computer has firewire but also has Vista so I downloaded the necessary extras to make my Canon work with Vista. Or so I thought. It seems my computer won't even recognise the camcorder exists when I plug it in so cannot upload video and allow me to edit it. I'm wary of sending off the camcorder to be fixed as I'm not sure what cost I'm getting into.

Is there another way to get my camcorder tapes onto my portable hard drive or DVDs? I use Mini DV tapes.

I've also got some old VHS C tapes but the camcorder died years ago so I can only access them via putting in a video tape shell and playing them back. How can I get these uploaded?

Many thanks for any advice. I'm not the greatest techie so am feeling very lost as to where to go.

thanks
Gavin.

[drivinscool]

Hi Gavin

There are a couple of options for the MiniDV tapes. You could get hold of a DVD recorder with a DV-in socket. I used a philips one for a short time.
Or there are USB analog devices such a THIS which i've also used in the past. Pick up a used on from ebay, transfer all your tapes and stick it back on ebay again

You can use the Dazzle thing for your old VHS-c tapes too.

Rich.

[senu]

Before you Blame Vista , or your camcorder.. Are you sure the Firewire cable is any good?
Is the firewire in Vista enabled?
I have 3 computers with Vista ( 2 and 3 different MiniDv ( and an Old Sony Digital 8 TRV620) Camcorder which have no firewire probs

It is worth trying the setup in an XP PC and a different firewire cable.
The suggestion to use a DVD recorder with DV in is assuming the Cable and camcorders DV output are in good working order and really using Dazzle should be a last resort coming from DV
You immediately lose all the quality benefits of DV allowing Dazzle to convert from Digital to analogue then back to digital
working fire wire just transfers from tape to PC without any conversion
It is best used for analogue sources

[MarkE19]

As senu has suggested you really do need to find out where the problems with firewire capture lie. The cables are easily damaged and I've even know brand new cables to not work.
When you connect the camcorder to PC you need to put it into playback/VCR mode for the PC to pick it up. Power the cam on after connecting and once it has powered up you should then start the editing program. With a bit of luck the cam will now be detected by the software, but if not try another cable and even connect to another PC if possible.
Go through the setup menu of the camcorder as some of them have an option to turn the DV port on & off.

Originally Posted by gavintarrant

I've also got some old VHS C tapes but the camcorder died years ago so I can only access them via putting in a video tape shell and playing them back. How can I get these uploaded?

If you can get the camcorder connected to the PC via firewire then this can be used to convert the analogue VHS-C tapes to digital. Connect the cam to the output scart on your VCR with the AV lead and a scart adapter (the one supplied with the cam is no good as it works in the wrong direction. Get a switchable scart adapter). Connect the cam to PC via firewire and in the software disable device control. You should now be able to get the VCR to play the tapes and see them on the capture window on the PC.

Mark.

[gavintarrant]

Many thanks to you all for your quick and helpful responses. I'll sit down at the weekend and have a try at your ideas

thanks
Gavin.

[professor_k]

Hi there,

I too have been having a torrid time of late trying to import video from not one but two different models of Samsung mini DV camcoder using firewire (VP-D362 and VP-D381) but believe I have solved this now.

I tried both camcorders on my Vista Laptop using a PCMCIA cardbus firewire adaptor very similar (if not the same) to the type sold in Maplins. Both camcorders were not recognised at all. I then tried the camcorders on my desktop XP machine which has a PCI firewire card and a friends XP machine with onboard firewire port and both camcorders were recognised fine. I immediately thought this was a Vista issue so set about crawling the internet for information on Vista and Firewire incompatbility issues, even trying some registry changes recommended by Microsoft (Vista not emnuerating IEEE1394 devices) and saw that a lot of people have the same issue - The adaptor was recognised and installed fine by the Operating System but any devices attached to it failed to be recognised.

I managed to obtain a XP laptop that conveniently had an onboard firewire socket and tried both camcorders with that and all was fine. I then installed the Firewire PCMCIA adaptor in that laptop and noticed that one of the camcorders (VP-D362) was being recognised but then after about 5 seconds disconnecting and the other camcorder was not being recognised at all. I then did a bit more research and noticed that the chipsets used in Firewire cards by the manufacturers appear to play a big part in devices working or not, especially camcorders.

From the research I perfromed on the web, most success was found with firewire cards based on the Texas Instruments (TI) chipset. The XP laptop I tried has a built in Firewire port with Texas Instruments chipset. Cards with VIA chipsets very much had random results (as I had found) as the two XP desktops I tried had VIA chipsets and worked fine but the PCMCIA card which was based on VIA was no good on Vista or XP.

You can check which chipset you have installed by going into device manager (Control Panel>System>Hardware Tab) and looking under "IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controllers". It should have something like:

"Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller" or "VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller".

There are other Firewire host controllers but these two are the most prevalent.

I've now bought a Belkin PCMCIA Firewire card which is based on the Texas Instruments chipset and tried this on both the XP and Vista laptops and both camcorders are detected very quickly whether in recording or playback mode in both Windows Movie Maker and Cyberlink Power director.

Whilst it may be the case that I had a duff PCMCIA card, there are a fair few people who have been through the same as myself and ended up purchasing some form of Firewire adaptor (Desktop or Laptop cards) based on the Texas Instruments chipset and it's solved their problems as it has mine.

Can't say if this will solve your problem but it is an avenue worth exploring.

Hope this is of use to any other experiencing Firewire camcorder detection issues.

Cheers,

Professor

[senu]

Thanks, a little long, but worthy read for anyone seeking help
but the moral is that
Rather than Blame the OS or Speciifc camcorder firewire port

The cable
and
Firewire interface may be a problem

However.. while I know about the Texas Instrument chipset , ( due to firewire on some creative labs soundcards not working well in the past) being more widely compatible , All my PCs have firewire and not all are TI.. and all work, so it may be that Samsung camcorders are optimised for use with TI firewire chipsets..

[professor_k]

Hi Senu,

It could well be that Samsung camcorders are optimised for TI chipsets but I've read elsewhere about problems with JVC's and Sony's that were solved by this. I would have loved to try other camcorder types but getting my hands on alternative computers proved much easier than sourcing alternative camcorders

I suppose that would be a good test to rule out Camcorder manufacturer inconsistencies. If anyone is kind enough to donate their camcorders to me, I'm willing to do some tests lol

[gavintarrant]

my chipset says .... AGERE OHCI compliant .... is this bad?

[senu]

Originally Posted by gavintarrant

my chipset says .... AGERE OHCI compliant .... is this bad?

Only if it doesnt work wth your firewire camcorder. It seems it matters far less for Fire wire HDDs ect.
The one I have in this PC is a VIA and it works with everything Ive thrown at it.
I had some adaptec cards in the past which boasted universal compatibility due to using TI