capture

miketree wrote on 8/9/2002, 3:51 AM

I was swearing a lot last night. I started a new project and I kept getting the message that my DV device couldn't be found or was busy, when I went into the capture program.
I tried all the usuall reboots & closing runing programs with no joy.

'Hmm!' I thought, 'It worked ok last time.' So I opened the last project I'd done and clicked on capture.

Bingo!! It was working, so I caputured the tape & copied the files to a new directory, created a new project & went from there.

Do other people have this problem? perhaps this will work for you!

Next time I have the problem I'm going to try....
i) create new project
ii) SAVE project (even though there's nothing in it)
iii) capture tape
... and see how that works.

Comments

laz111 wrote on 8/9/2002, 5:59 AM

Yes, I'm afraid I said some rude words too. I hadn't used VF for a month or so, connected up my Sony and tried to ptt. VF couldn't find it. Took 30 mins of muckin' around (rebooting with cam connected and on - visa-versa, various permutations etc) before device was found. I think it's probably just one of those things. It could be device's signals not getting thro either due to the cam or VF, or even down to os. I've also noticed a minor quirk on rendering. If I render using an existing file name (to overwrite) it doesn't always bring an error message 'this file name already exists do you want to overwrite', but it does if I cancel render and start again.

miketree wrote on 8/9/2002, 7:41 AM

Two other things to note ...

i) I tested the connection with VW, which worked ok (well, as well as it ever does)
ii) If the camera is switched off when I run the capture program, then I turn it on, I get a message saying that the camera has been detected. But still doesn't work.

Pity really, apart from that, It's a superb piece of software.

(btw it's a Sony TRV130e camera)

Former user wrote on 8/9/2002, 9:01 AM

this might not necessarily be a VF problem. Windows is the software that detects Plug n Play devices. It could be that windows is not detecting the camera consistently. This is a problem that has come up on every video forum I visit.

Dave T2

hendo wrote on 8/9/2002, 9:30 AM

Hi
I also have been cursing this capture program. It has worked, but with the odd error message under win 2000, until last week. At first I tried rebooting, then starting the program with the camcorder unpluged from the fire wire card, and various other tweaks. Eventually I downloaded a trial program Scenalyzer, which I have heard good reports about, and guess what, it recognized my cam first time.

So that ruled out Win 2000, firewire card, lead, camcorder, it had to be the capture program. I then uninstalled VF, and then re-installed, atached the cam and it recognized it first time, so far so good.

Two days later the same thing happened, I again went through the previous steps, and again Scenalyzer recognized the cam, but not VF. So again I uninstalled, re-installed VF, and since then it recognises the cam, we will see how long it works.

Video factory is a great piece of software, I have said this many times, on this forum and to friends. But the seperate capture program is a piece of crap. Its not the first time problems about this have been aired on this forum, and it was from this very forum that I first heard about Scenalyzer.

Up until this moment I havent bought scenalyzer, it costs nearly $40, but I am getting sick of re-installing VF, perhaps the capture program will settle down who knows.

Andrew

Grazie wrote on 8/11/2002, 2:28 AM

Okay - try loloking at the preferences for Capture [come to that look at the same for Print To Tape when you're doing that as well!] and check to see that the File/Disc managment is still connected to the drive or folder you had before. I've had the drive and folder appear as not being connected to. This then throws VF into a bit of tizzy and comes up with the only option that the Device isn't connected. - Yup tested this through VW5 and Studio7 no problem. Sooooo... if it is Windows then I don't know - But I do know that when VF starts this Device not about, I check to make sure that VF is connected to the Drive and Folder I used last time.

johnmeyer wrote on 8/11/2002, 1:37 PM

I agree with Dave. This is a Windows problem. The solution is to turn off the camera, then disconnect the Firewire/1394 cable from the camera. Turn off the computer. Plug the cable in. Turn on the camera. Turn on the computer and reboot. Long procedure and probably not all of it is necessary. However, it seems to me that sometimes the 1394 chip in the camera, or the 1394 board in the computer gets locked into a state that can only be fixed by removing power from both ends of the cable, hence the procedure that turns off both the computer and the camera. If this doesn't fix the problem, then you need to re-install DirectX (preferably version 8.1).

John

miketree wrote on 8/12/2002, 4:47 AM

Sorry Johnmeyer, I disagree with you. I have two other video capture programs that work OK, but VF doesn't.
I've trieda all the rebooting & stuff & it still doesn't work.

I think Grazie is more likely to be right (in this instance). As I said earlier, I had clicked on 'new project' but hadn't saved it, so that may have caused the problem. After all It worked fine as soon as I loaded a previously used project. I'll test it when I get a moment & let you all know.

miketree wrote on 8/14/2002, 2:46 AM

Oh well, so much for that idea. Last night I created a new project, selected capture & it worked fine! I bet it doesn't work next time, though :(

Grazie wrote on 8/14/2002, 3:29 AM

Miketree,

I'm just interested, did you try my solution? Did that make a difference with your older project? Making a new project could have "kicked-in" the correct drive and path. Only a thought.

Grazie

miketree wrote on 8/14/2002, 4:24 AM

Grazie

Erm, don't think so. I'll try your solution next time it fails (for I am convinced it will...)

Grazie wrote on 8/14/2002, 6:40 AM

Okey dokey

G

SkipWoolwine wrote on 8/15/2002, 8:34 AM

I repeatedly had the same problem: DV cam not recognized after working fine prior to that. I'll remember powering down both Cam and Computer next time. I DID discover that by clicking on "NEW" in the capture software, sometimes things would clear up. You guys are right: While the editing desktop is a nice piece of software, the capture software sucks because of its unreliability. I'm trying to use this for my business, and the technical downtime is KILLING me. (See my separate post about my discoveries on "print to tape" disliking Hard Drives connected to a PCI-IDE card.)