Capture Tape unselectable

Eldebarge wrote on 10/25/2004, 11:19 AM
I have sony vegas 5 running successfully on xp pro, transferring footage from a JVC dv500u. My "capture tape" option is not selectable. If I go to the transport/capture menu, I can choose "capture video" and "capture image" but not "capture tape" (so that I can automatically transfer the whole tape). Do I need a new device control driver?

Thanks
Eldebarge

Comments

r56 wrote on 10/26/2004, 3:40 AM
In Vegas capture application settings (Options/Preferences/General tab) the "Enable DV device control" should be checked.
If it is unchecked the "Capture Tape" option is unavailable.
Eldebarge wrote on 10/27/2004, 9:14 AM
Thank you. I just confirmed that the "Enable DV device control" is indeed checked. Still same error.
Eldebarge wrote on 10/27/2004, 11:05 AM
Is it a problem that my video devise is:

Preferences/Video Device/ OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394/DV

there are other formats available under "Video for Windows Standard"
r56 wrote on 10/27/2004, 1:18 PM
(The Video Device/ OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394/DV is correct)

Sorry can't be of any help. I have tried to reproduce it but the only time I could make the "Capture Tape" button inactive was by disabling DV device control.

You said that "Capture Video" and "Capture Image" are active and DV device control is enabled; this I suppose it means that the camera is responding to Vegas capture transport controls as well and you don't have to start playback from the camera and then hit "Capture Video" to begin capturing right?

If the DV device control is working properly and only the "Capture Tape" button is not selectable maybe you should try the "Start capturing all clips from the beginning of the tape" (the third option) in the "Verify Tape Name" dialog that appears prior capturing a tape.

Hope it helps as an alternative until you find what's wrong.
Eldebarge wrote on 10/27/2004, 2:24 PM
Thank you for the suggestions.

Unfortunately the dv camera is not responding to vegas controls. I have to play the tape manually from the camera vtr controls.

I have only gotten the "Verify Tape Name" dialog prompt to appear once before tape capture. I have varied the order of my operations (power camera first, power computer first, startup vegas then power camera, etc) but I have not been able to get that dialog prompt again. The once instance where I did get that prompt, I was able to successfully use the "capture tape" mode. Do you know the particular order of steps that I should take to possibly get that prompt? I will try to eject the tape and re-insert it while the capture window is up to see if I can get it again.
jetdv wrote on 10/27/2004, 8:14 PM
Unfortunately the dv camera is not responding to vegas controls. I have to play the tape manually from the camera vtr controls.

Do you have device control turned ON in the preferences?
Eldebarge wrote on 10/28/2004, 9:25 AM
If you are referring to "Enable DV device control," the checkbox is checked.

If there is another place to specify in the preferences please let me know.
rt1 wrote on 10/28/2004, 7:48 PM
I had a problem like this once. I had an analog to digital convert (canopus adv100??) pluged into my 1394 card. I had 2 choices for video capture in Vegas in the video menu, but they were both "Microsoft cameras" (it Did not actualy call out the name of my sony camera as I thought it would). I could not make vegas control my camera. Turned off the converter and then there was only one instance of "Microsoft Camera" in the video menu to choose from (still did not say the name of my sony camera). Selected that one instance of "Microsoft Camera" and then Vegas did control my Camera.

Don't know if that helped but I thoght I would mention it.
johnmeyer wrote on 10/28/2004, 9:09 PM
I have sometimes had weird things like this happen when the write-protect tab was enabled. It shouldn't affect capturing, but if you have write protect enabled on your DV tape, try temporarily disabling it.

Second, I have had similar weird things happen if I had the DV In / DV Out setting reversed. This is the setting (at least on Sony camcorders) that controls whether analog pass-through goes one way or the other. Try changing it.

I am not very confident about either of these suggestions.

Is the tape already re-wound? If it is, perhaps Vegas is just "reporting" that fact by graying out the capture tape button. After all, the rewind before capture is really the only difference (I think this is correct) between capture and capture tape.
r56 wrote on 10/28/2004, 9:48 PM
I think that in the "Capture Tape" mode capture stops if a timecode break for some length is encountered.
"Capture Video" on the other hand doesn't care about timecode.

About what rt1 said earlier, I also use the Canopus ADVC100 and it needs to be turned off when it comes to use a camera that is plugged in a different firewire port.
Also Canopus mentions that if you plug a camera in the ADVC100 firewire port you can use the camera but device control will not work.
Eldebarge wrote on 11/4/2004, 5:49 PM
Thank you all. I'll look into the various configuration changes suggested.