capturing video causes lockup

krumpet wrote on 6/15/2002, 7:55 PM
Hi, I am having a problem capturing some video from my sony dcr-trv17. I start the capture program and then connect the camera to the PC, after about 20 seconds with nothing happening it locks up the entire computer. If I then switch off the camera the computer starts responding again.

I am using the firewire port on a soundblaster audigy. I am running win2000 and vegas v3.0a. Does anyone have any ideas?

Comments

seeker wrote on 6/16/2002, 5:18 AM
Alex,

Until one of the Sonic Foundry experts replies, or some of the more knowledgeable participants here, I have a few "basic" comments. First of all, before you set up to start the capture, have you removed all extraneous tasks from your task list? In other words, before you start Vegas Video, you could "prune" your task list to just Explorer and Systray, and then start Vegas Video and Vegas Capture and let them add just the tasks they need to your task list. The idea behind that is to prevent the Capture from competing with extraneous tasks such as an antivirus utility or whatever. If you capture frequently, there is a third party utility to help automate pruning your task list, called "EndItAll". You could download EndItAll by clicking this link:

http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s%253D0%2526a%253D13656,00.asp

I wouldn't download EndItAll just yet, until you get to a point where you want help in closing extraneous tasks. Until you solve your capture problem, you can just manually close the extraneous tasks. It's a little repetitive, but it's simple enough. Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up the Close Program dialog, pick a task, close it, pick another task, and so on. Just don't close Systray or Explorer. After you have pruned your task list you are ready to start Vegas Video and Video Capture. Don't prune any tasks after you have started Vegas, or you might be killing a needed task.

Do you have just one hard drive? How much free space does it have? Do you have DMA enabled for it? Ideally you would have two hard drives, so that one can have your Operating System and your programs (including Vegas) and the other can receive the captured video.

Also, is your computer on a network? If so, you should temporarily disable your network connection. (There are several ways to do that.) Also, is your SoundBlaster Audigy FireWire port OHCI-compliant?

Also, and I know this is very basic, so don't be insulted by it, but did you check to see that your Sony DCR-TRV17 is in the VCR mode, stopped, with the tape positioned at the start, or wherever you want to start the capture? Is your TRV17 attached to its battery charger during the capture? That's not an absolute requirement, but it is prudent to avoid unnecessary drain on your battery. You wouldn't want the battery to die during the capture.

-- Burton --
krumpet wrote on 6/17/2002, 6:48 AM
> Do you have just one hard drive?

I have 3 drives with ample space (> 50gb spare). I am not sure if DMA is enabled.

> Also, is your computer on a network? If so, you should temporarily disable your
> network connection. (There are several ways to do that.)

Yes it is, and it seems to be on the same IRQ as the firewire port. I have tried disabling it and it seems to stop the lockup, but the PC still won't recognise the camera.

>Also, is your SoundBlaster Audigy FireWire port OHCI-compliant?

The driver is listed as OHCI-compliant

> Also, and I know this is very basic, so don't be insulted by it, but did you
> check to see that your Sony DCR-TRV17 is in the VCR mode, stopped, with the
> tape positioned at the start, or wherever you want to start the capture?

Yep, I have it in VCR mode with the tape at the beginning.

>Is your TRV17 attached to its battery charger during the capture?

yep

I don't really have many processes running on the PC, the cpu and memory resources are hardly ticking over at all. Unfortunately this seems to be a difficult problem to solve. Thanks for your help.

Alex