JVC gr-d290aa camcorder...USB drivers

[Joe M.]

Just purchased a JVC GR-290 AA Camcorder ..It is a great, however, when I switch it ver to tape and take snapshots,

Windows XP does not recognize it and i am unable to take the shots off the tape. (Don't want to go into studio 9 or Power director)

All is ok when i use the memory card. Win XP treats it like a hard drive.

Has anyone experienced the same thing..Is there a solution....??

Thanks in advance to all who reply.

I think you're supposed to transfer the snapshots from tape to memory using the tape -> memory COPY function and then read from the memory card with USB.

The other way is to capture the snapshots in movie form with a firewire (DV) cable and software eg. Windows Movie Maker and then capture stills from the recorded movie. As each still lasts for about 6 seconds so its very easy capture each still.

Actually I've just discovered it is possible to capture stills from tape through USB in Windows XP. I could be wrong but I believe your USB port must support "USB 2.0"

When I connected my JVC GR-D290 camcorder to the PC via USB, it self-installed a new driver and appears as "USB Video Device" in "My Computer". If you double click on the "USB Video Device" icon it will open a preview of what is being displayed on the LCD. It looks like you can save each picture as you play through your tape.

Playing a tape makes it appear in the preview pane of the USB Video Device screen although the movie looks all pixelated because its moving fast. This won't happen though with digital stills....

Here's what I did to capture a still image from tape using the USB port:
1. With camcorder OFF and powered by AC adapter (not battery)
2. Set to VIDEO mode and put tape in camcorder.
3. Connect USB cable to PC first then to camcorder.
4. Switch camcorder to PLAY position.
5. Assuming you have a USB 2.0 port, Windows XP should detect the camcorder and self-install drivers and on the camcorders LCD Screen you should see a small PC icon appear in the top right hand corner of the blue screen after brief communication to the PC.
6. In "My Computer" you should see a "USB Video Device" icon. Open this a small preview screen will appear.
7. Press PLAY on tape and you should see it in the preview screen.
8. To capture a still press PAUSE and then click "Take a new picture"

Just an update:
Capture of video through the USB port is also possible. I've read on some forums people saying this is not possible but it is. Obviously if you have a firewire port then you would use that but if you don't it is possible to capture movies through the USB port.

In Windows XP (Service Pack 2), I've tested capturing video being streamed from the camcorder to the PC through the USB port with Windows Movie Maker. I think one of the drivers (that is self-installed by Windows XP -I think it's called USB Composite Video Device driver) treats your camcorder like a webcam and can capture the live video. USB transfer just works in the same way as using firewire (DV) transfer except that firewire is obviously the better quality option.

You can control the camcorder using the controls in Movie Maker. I think the video look a bit pixelated with "Preview during capture" checked so I unchecked it and it seems fine.

The trick is to have Movie Maker control the camcorder. Don't manually press the camcorder controls as this can mess up communication between the camcorder and PC and Movie Maker might get stuck. Once you disconnect the USB cable then you can take manual control of the camcorder.

[MarkE19]

As you say, video capture via a USB connection is possible, though I think it may well be dependent on the camcorder as I'm sure some don't output video via their USB port.
As also stated, firewire is the best option as via USB the PQ wont be much better than that from a webcam. Firewire is the only way to get a 100% quality copy of what is on the DV tape onto a PC or Mac.

Mark.

can somebody please help me. I have a JVC GRD290AA and for some reason i am getting a message displayed on the screen "communication error". is this a fault with the camera or the battery?? Ive tried another battery and although it doesnt turn off, i still see the message, but am unsure as to whether the message is displayed as it was recorded with the previous battery... im confused. please help me