I am connecting thru Firewire that I just installed yesterday on my Dell Dimension 8200. I succesfully captured a video yesterday but for some reason I am having all kinds of problems today with a new video. I tried putting in a differnt video as well to see if something was wrong withm y MINIDV tape but I had the same problems?
Thanks for the help

is there anything running in the background... antivirus app disabled as well?

Are you capturing to the same drive the operating system is on, or a seperate dedicated drive?

do a search for "enditall" a free app that will help you close background tasks that may be stealing CPU cycles that could cause dropped frames.

I have turned everything off in the background and I am captruing to a dedicated drive. I just downladed ENDITALL as well.....I tried capturing and nothing is howing on the Capture Screen however the tape is rolling as if it was capturing.
Thanks for the help

I just tried capturing using a different program and I am having the same problem....no video is showing onthe capture screen but the tape is rolling. I checked all the settings on the Sony Camera and everything seems okay?
Any thoughts?

Do you think I should re-install Movie Studio? I downloaded ENDITALL and killed everything and then tried to capture to my Extra Hard drive. I was dropping frames like crazy?

If you're getting the same problem with 2 different apps it seems unlikely that one of them is at fault. On the other hand, if you've only just installed the firewire card I'd be looking at that. You could try removing it, cleaning the contacts with a pencil eraser and replacing it - maybe try different slots. Which driver are you using with the card?

Ian G.

Thanks Ian ..... I will try installing the FIREWIRE into another slot. What's strange as that the first time I used it I successfully captured it. In a minutes's span I am dropping close to 500 frames.

Lots of stuff creeps into our computers and cause dropped frames and problems. Two pieces of shareware/freeware are invaluable when it comes to getting rid of junk:

RegCleaner -- Automatically cleans off useless registry entries

SpyBot Search & Destroy -- Gets rid of all those applets that sneak onto our machine when we're cruising the net. These things steal all kinds or resources! (It also cuts way down on the number of pop-ups, many of which actually originate on our hard drive because of spyware that's snuck on.)

Also, be sure to disable your network adaptors and cable modems, if you have a broadband connection. (You can do this easily in the Device Manager -- and you can just as easily re-enable them when you're done.) This, too, will eliminate a lot of resource-stealing, unnecessary chatter.

I will try that....I just tried CAPTURING again and it started to capture for a few seconds and then I get an error of "An error occured while capturing from the device. An invalid argument was specified."
Have you seen this before?

what type of firewire card did you install (make and model)?

Have you applied all the updated drivers and patches for that card?

Is your system fully patched for Windows XP via Windows Update site?

its best to get your platform fully patched if it is not - that will rule out any known issues patches may solve.

The error message you reference sounds to be a hardware issue... the device (firewire card) is not interpreting the capture flow - either from a faulty card, bug in driver, or instruction set from the capture software....hence the invalid argument.

Are you able to capture via Windows Movie maker without an issue?

I intsalled the Western Digital FIREWIRE PCI Adapter.
I just installed the FIREWIRE software the other day...I will check to see if there any updates.

I just tried capturing with Windows Movie Maker and it does capture but you can tell that it is dropping frames. The video is very staggered.

the fact that it is dropping in multiple apps tells me it is most likely hardware related, or system resource related....if you used enditall to kill background tasks, and are capturing to a dedicated drive... then resources are not the issue either.

the only thing I could suggest at this point is to move the card to a different PCI slot, try a different firewire cable, and make sure everything has the most current patches and updates... card, OS, and everything else. Short of that, I'd exchange the card for a replacement.

Have you spoke with WD support yet?

Maybe others here will have ideas?

I am having the same problems as lakers. I am neither able to capture or output to tape in MF3. I am able to do both tasks in ScenalyzerLive however. I am using a Sony DCR-TRV18 camcorder and the firewire port that came installed on my HP Pavilion PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition.

When I was having problems outputting to tape from MF3, Sony tech support blamed WIndows MCE, which is a crock of you know what. XP MCE is merely an app on top of XP pro.

Why am I getting the feeling that here are some problems with MF3 and the Sony techies who are supposed to monitor these forums arent here to help us.

Shades of Pinnacle?????????? I sure hope not!!!!!!!!!

actually... Media Center is not just an app on top of XP. It is also a slight modifcation to the kernal structure. It is based on XP Pro... but has a few differences in the core once the MCE app is applied.

There were extensive portions of class dedicated to addressing MCE in a recent training class I attended to update my MCSD.

How are you finding the stability of MCE? I had a MS staffer tell me it was still full of glitches...but that was about three months ago.

Keep in mind that Sony does not list MCE, Table Edition, or other newer OS flavors under the system requirements... only the plain vanilla OSes:

System Requirements
Microsoft® Windows® 98SE, 2000, or XP
400 MHz processor
40 MB hard-disk space for program installation
128 MB RAM
OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394/DV capture card (for DV capture and print-to-tape tools only)
Windows-compatible sound card
CD-ROM drive (for installation from a CD only)
Supported CD-Recordable drive (for CD burning only)
Supported DVD-r/-rw/+r/+rw drive (for DVD burning only)

>....and the Sony techies who are supposed to monitor these forums

The Sony techies aren't supposed to monitor these forums - it's a community of users. The Sony staff that contribute here do it out of the kindness of their hearts!!

Ian G.

support issues intended for Sony should be submitted at: http://www.custcenter.com/cgi-bin/sonypictures.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php

Ive always had them answer quickly. They have also been very helpful and worked with me until issues were resolved. It averages about 1 business day till I get a reply.

Hi MMREED,
I re-installed the driver software for the WD Firewire Port and inserte dthe card into a new slot.....still no luck. The CAPTURE begins but still dropping frames like crazy. I have sent an email off the WD support.
Any other suggestions? Do you think it might be the cable?

just for testing... have you tried capturing from your cam using a different tape and video recording?

As for if its the cable or not, its too hard to say....in networking when data packets get dropped, its usually the physical layer causing the issue... this isnt much different.

The one way to isolate where the issue is would be to install that card on a different PC and see if it drops frames there too..then you know its the card and/or cable.

the fact that it drops frames in all your apps seems to point to hardware or cable. However it still could be something on your system causing it...something systemwide causing the CPU to drop frames as it gives time to the mystery resource. The only way to rule that out would be to try it on a different pc.

Yes, I tried using a different tape and still had the same problems. I will take your suggestions and install the FIREWIRE card on another PC to see what happens.