Help - capturing from my miniDV sony camcorder to HDD

[mlsoares]

Hi
I'm having trouble in capturing my films from my miniDV camcorder (Sony DCR-TRV16E) to my HDD. I'm using a DV/Ilink (firewire) cable to connect camera to computer. Using several types of software (Adobe Premiere; Nero Vision Express 3, etc) I can control the camera remotely, i.e. play, stop, rewind, etc, which shows the connection is established and OK, but I can't get any image playing on the computer , nor can I capture since there's no image. I can see the image on the LCD of the camcorder, though. I went through the menu of the camcorder to see if I needed to enable anything (like the output), but I can't find anything of that sort. Could it be that the cable is not good (I had used it before with other camcorder)? Or the camcorder itself?
Please help! Many thanks.
Any suggestions would be most welcome

[Greenbag]

Is the camera being recognised as a device on whatever software you are using? Go into the capture setting on the software and check to see if your camera is there, make sure it is switched on and the cable is plugged in fully to the pc and camera.

[mlsoares]

The camera is being recognised properly: "Sony DV device". Not only that, but I can control the camera though the computer. I just don't get any image (has I got before with another Sony camera).
Thanks

[Greenbag]

Hi

Sorry to hear you are still having problems. The only other thing I can think of is the preview is switched off in the software. If you are getting a picture on the LCD and can control the camera using the software everything sounds alright so maybe it's a setting for the preview screen is switched to off instead of on. Try connecting to another computer to see if the same thing happens.

[smarty]

I'm having the exact same problem.
I have a JVC GRD-72U which I have connected to my PC via Firewire.
My PC motherboard (ASUS A7N8X) came with a dedicated Firewire hardware. There are 2 ports on the Motherboard which are connected to 2 sockets on the back - one is a small socket (ie the same as the camcorder end) and the other is the larger PC type socket. I bought a Firewire cable that has a small socket on one end and large on the other so they're the one's I'm using.

I'm trying with Ulead Moviefactory 4 and also Imagemixer (came with camera) - both have the same response. Can operate camera (rewind, play etc) through software but when trying to capture it doesn't actually capture anything (and nothing is seen in the preview screen).
I have captured video before with this camera and the Imagemixer software using USB but everyone says Firewire is the way to do it so that's why I'm trying. It therefore must be a Firewire problem but I don't know what.
I'm using Windows XP Pro and my PC is 3.2 Ghz with 1MB RAM so it is plenty good enough.
Are there any drivers I need?
In system settings it says the JVC DV device is working properly.

Help!!!!!!!!

[mlsoares]

Hi,

Sorry you're having this anoying problem. I haven't been able yet to solve my problem, but I think drivers are not the problem. The reason being because I have used my computer before with 2 different Sony camcorders via firewire (one being the same camera model I currently have, although not the same exact device) and it worked just fine, without having to install any drivers (unless these were already in the computer before). On the other hand, I have recently changed my hard drive and had to install everything from scratch, and I think this is the first time that I use the DV with a camcorder after that. Am I missing something?

(Let's hope someone out there will be able to help us).

Miguel.

[smarty]

Someone else must have come across this before or are we the only 2 people?

Please help!

[smarty]

Just a thought - seems the only thing we have in common is that we are both using the onboard Firewire as opposed to a PCI Firewire card.
I've e-mailed ASUS' helpline and they've sent me a new driver for the IEEE 1394 controller. I'll try this and then report back. If this doesn't work I think the next step would be to buy a Firewire card and disconnect the onboard one.

I'll let you know how I get on.

[AndrewB]

You will probably find that installing a separate firewire card will sort out your problems. You may need to disable the onboard one too.

The other thing is to check which firewire driver you have in the system. I remember that in an early version of XP you had to make sure that you didn't use the Texas Instruments device driver but had to use a firewire driver supplied by MS instead. This was an issue with Adobe Premiere anyway. Look here:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/325937.html

Andrew

[smarty]

Finally, I think I've managed to sort the problem out.
Tried updating to the ASUS drivers they sent me for the on-board Firewire but the instructions(from someone in the Far East!) were not exactly straight forward. I gave up in the end (having a 4 week old baby doesn't help my concentration or patience!). I then bought a Firewire card from PC World for £29.99 that included the card (with 3 ports), a lead and ULEAD Video Studio 8 software.
I installed the card and connected up using the lead that I'd previously bought from Dixons for £20. Same problem as before, could control the camera but no picture was captured.
Than I tried the lead that came with the card and it worked!

The main culprit seems to be the lead, so if you've got the receipt take it back and get a new one (unlike me!). If this works then all well and good. If not then get a seperate card incl lead and software (I was going to buy the software anyway so I actually saved money).

Good luck. Let me know how you get on.

[andyrich]

http://support.microsoft.com/default...6327#appliesto