And I am using a firewire(integrated) direct to motherboard

Download the trial version of Scenalyzer and see if that captures OK.
I've had gremlins with VidCap as well on at least one machine, only messing with the audio but why one asks.
What sound card have you got?
Any other 1394 devices?
What deck/camera?

On 2 different machines, when I captured with VidCap, the resulting captures were 720x576 (Some sort of wierd PAL res?) And the first clip of the batch (3 min.) was totally garbage (square artefacts and glitches). I tried this with 2 different cameras on 2 different computers and 2 different NTSC tapes, and the results were the same.

I then tried to capture with Scenalyzer, and it worked great, as usual.

So this is strange to me as well.

Using Vegas 6.0b

The issue you describe is typically the result of starting capture in something other than stable video- hash at the very front to the tape for instance. If you cue in for a couple of seconds to the point where the video is clean and then start capturing, your capture session should go smoothly from then on.

That happens to me too sometimes during instances like the forum admin said, although it can also happen for no reason at all. In version 5, it used to happen to me 1 in about every 15 tapes that I inputed and in the new version (6b), I inputed probably around 100 tapes and it's only happened once.

-Jim

Thanks for that info. I guess it makes sense, but it still seems like a bug. Why would Scenalyzer deal with this issue in an elegant fashion, but VidCap? not so much.

But now at least I can capture in Vegas proper knowing this info.

I've had problems with VideoCap as well. Sometimes, Vegas just ends a capture half way through a scene. It says that no frames were dropped (I have it set to stop on dropped frames)... yet the video scene is not complete. These scenes are very long... some of the them 90 minutes in length. Is this the reason for capture abortion? And why does it say that everything went fine, when it didn't?

Of note: The aborted captures have audio streams that go beyond the length of the video stream.

I worked with a rep at Sony and still could not get it to work... We went through conflicts in IRQ settings with the 1394 and I removed all unnecessary hardware, better capture but still slow, jumpy and with artifacts although a huge improvement in the capture, it was still not professional looking or even amateur looking it was sad psycotic idiot looking. Anyway, issue still not resolved. I have tried multiple computers with the same result, I have tried to capture with Windows movie maker, better video output put it seems to be at a speed over 29.97 fps... I used to capture with no problems in vegas 3 and 5, I even tried reinstalling 5 but the capture was the same cruddy quality. My next step is to replace the video card with an ATI card instead of Nvidia knockoff, it does not seem that it would make a difference since vid cap is through 1394 direct to mother board then to hard drive... I figure that it cannot be the harddrive since I just added a SATA 7200 250G Hitachi... I am capturing to it and it is my OS drive... That should not make a difference in this instance as I have done the same with slower drives in the past??? Any further help let me know.... Thanks!!!!

Does anyone else have integrated firewire??? What motherboard??? Thanks

I have an ASUS P4B533-E MB with NEC IEEE1394 OHCI 1.1 onboard firewire. I have used this with Vegas 4,5,&6. I have had problems with vidcap and strange results at times. Usually they seem more related to a too full hard drive, or a bad tape or trying to capture GL2 video with the JVC deck. I used to have external firewire drives but gave up on them and switched to removable HD cases. That cut down on capture problems. Now whenever I have problems I clear off and reformat a drive so I have a clean disk to capture to. I have not had problems after I do this. I have also run into problems trying to capture at the start of a tape. A recent NTSC tape captured at 25 fps 32KHz 12 bit audio. It was all garbage. I recaptured starting 10 seconds in with no problems at all. The tape was recorded at 29.97 fps 48KHz 16bit. I always use standard play.

I also use Scenalyzer (latest version) but usually save that for capturing 1 frame of 15 to speed the action. It is much easier to just stay within Vegas when I need to capture.

I hope this provides perspective if not a solution.

Charlie

OK.. I tried the lead in for 20 seconds then record, still got garbage... Captures all seem to be at 25fps 32k audio.... Would it make any difference if I put a second 250G hd in and captured to that? SATA 7200... I am capturing to the C drive currently as it is a new drive that I just put in... I also have two other 80G drives that are both nearly full. Should I remove those? Should it make a difference?

Zark

the fact you have tried multiple computers with the same result is pretty important. To me at least that would imply the problem is not with my computer... but with the camera/cables/tapes etc etc.

I have four computers here... and I can capture to all of them with no problem.

On my main editing system I disabled the motherboard firewire and went with a card instead.

I very very rarely capture to a system drive. That's not the recommended way to do things (and you probably know that).

Adding that 2nd hard drive MAY make a difference... but I doubt it (as you found the same problem with other computers)

Generally the only important feature of hard drives that is important for capture is how fast your PC can write to them. Usually not a problem... but there are a few programs you can run to test that out. The Scenalyzer program has such a test.