capture live video

asdrew wrote on 2/3/2010, 2:25 PM
I dug out my old Sony TRV-20 camera which has a bad tape drive in it to use for recording DV to the computer via dv cable. The camera works fine, it's just that the tape drive wigs out so I can no longer record to tape (or keep one in there without freezing up the camera). Now I have a need to use it somewhere for dedicated video recording to a computer (or DVD recorder). I knew I kept it around all this time for a reason!

I've never needed to record video like that and assumed I could do this easily with Vegas Pro (currently 8.0c) which I've been using for a while. So far I haven't gotten it to work, and haven't found a help or forum topic that deals with it.

If I open Sony Video Capture (6.0e) in Vegas, I have the live video preview showing, but none of the controls work. Is this only for capturing from a tape?

Is there another way I should be capturing or recording my video feed, or is it not possible with Vegas Pro?

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 2/3/2010, 2:29 PM
As long as that camera supports pass-though you should be ok. Since you see the live preview it must be.

Turn off Enable DV device control in options / preferences / general. These controls are only for the tape deck part of the camera. You'll have to start & stop capturing manually.
asdrew wrote on 2/3/2010, 5:29 PM
Thanks. Yes pass-thru is supported (that's why I hung on to this for years), I'm actually sending DV to the computer for recording and also separate video/audio to an RF modulator then out coax to a monitor TV in another part of the building.

The DV device control on/off didn't make a difference, but I found the capture video (or image) buttons in the capture tab and they work. I must have been doing something different before, or just not noticed those buttons.

In the advanced capture tab nothing works though. I wanted to be able to input the clip name, comments, etc. Otherwise the files say (Unknown) - Clip 001, 002, 003... I've changed the folder they are captured to, but haven't found how to set the file names other than re-naming them later.

For now, I can capture/record from the capture tab & change the file names later.

Thanks for the reply!