HDV capture woes - blue preview screen

NickHope wrote on 4/6/2011, 12:02 PM

You could try HDVSplit.

diverG wrote on 4/6/2011, 2:41 PM

Had a similar problem awhile back. Clearly camcorder & cable OK so maybe the problem is the 1394 driver. Maybe changing the driver will help.
Instructions for changing driver under W7. Vista should be similar.

•Go to Device Manager and click on IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers
•Click on the device listed underneath this heading. In my case it was NEC 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller
•Right click this device and select 'update driver software' from the shortcut menu
•Then select the option 'browse my computer for driver software'
•Then select the option 'let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer'
•This then gave me three drivers to pick from (make sure the'show compatible hardware' checkbox is ticked
•Select the driver named '1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)'
•Install driver.

Best of luck.

Geoff

Kimberly wrote on 4/9/2011, 12:36 AM

I have noticed a similar behavior on my Sony HC-3 capture from time to time after I rewind my tape to the beginning.

I have found that if I select "play" on the HC-3 and play a few seconds, then select "Stop," I can capture successfully. Not sure why this occurs but it happens every so often. I always assumed it was a quirk in the rewind function on the camcorder.

gilles007 wrote on 4/11/2011, 3:21 PM

I tried the play/stop but still can't capture.

The capture button (red "record") appears depressed, the camera gets into play mode but no frames are captured and the screen still remain blue.

I'm really stuck.

What am I to do?

any ideas anybody?

Gilles

Opampman wrote on 4/11/2011, 4:51 PM

What happened when you tried HDV split as Nick suggested?

Kent

Edited to correct spelling

gilles007 wrote on 4/12/2011, 11:28 AM

Thanks Kent,

I hadn't tried it yet. I was really hoping to keep things simple and use the utility within Vegas and not have to install yet another app.

However, given my predicament, I have no choice and will give it a try.

This has been a frustrating problem with no "Sony Vegas" solution found anywhere.

Thanks again,
G

Former user wrote on 4/12/2011, 11:30 AM

Did you try the firewire driver fix from the above post?

Dave T2

NickHope wrote on 4/12/2011, 1:08 PM

HDV Split works well for most people. It makes a nice job of splitting the clips and with useful file naming. I advise against using its preview feature as this can sometimes contribute towards dropped frames ("lost packets").

gilles007 wrote on 4/20/2011, 11:22 AM

Thanks Dave,

Unfortunately I can`t use this fix as under VIsta-64 doesn`t offer the `legacy` option.

Gilles

gilles007 wrote on 4/20/2011, 11:23 AM

Thanks for the tip Nick,
Gilles

earthrisers wrote on 4/20/2011, 1:23 PM

This may be obvious (but it wasn't to me...)
I initially had the same problem you describe... trying to capture HDV tape (from a Sony FX1000), able to control camera start, stop, etc. from the computer, but no footage appearing on the computer monitor.
Turns out that I didn't have my PROJECT settings in Vegas set properly.
I assumed that the capture utility would capture HDV if I told it to, but it turned out that the Vegas project properties had to be set to match the tape's format. Once I set those properties accordingly, then the video capture worked perfectly.
In other words, telling the vidcap to capture HDV isn't enough, in itself. Vegas project properties are a controlling factor, too.

Steve Mann wrote on 4/20/2011, 3:26 PM

"on my vista-64 machine"

That's your first mistake...

Actually, I don't know if that's your problem here, but why are you still running the second-worst O/S that Microsoft made? Get Windows 7 - you wont be sorry.

On your problem - GET HDVSPLIT. It's free and it's a standalone program. If you don't like it you can easily delete it.

gilles007 wrote on 4/21/2011, 7:17 AM

earthrisers,,, you have given me hope!! :)

Thanks for your response. I'll try that the next time I'm dumping from this HDV camera. It very well could be the same issue here at my end.

Question: When you experienced the problem, you mentioned nothing appeared in the preview window... but were you able to capture anything at all or did the time/clip indicator remain at zero while the tape played on the cam?

If not... it certainly seems like my problem as well and thanks to you I will have a solution... without upgrading my OS.

By the way, I can't speak for others but my Vista-64 has been extremely stable, running all sorts of apps. Lucky me!
G

earthrisers wrote on 4/23/2011, 9:55 AM

I don't recall whether the time-counter was moving while the VidCap monitor remained just blue. I do remember that VidCap was able to control the camera's start/stop, etc. ... but no footage appeared.
Setting the project properties properly in Vegas, and then telling VidCap to capture HDV, fixed everything.

PS: I'm running Win7 32-bit, which some folks also consider not fully up to date (64bit). I stayed at 32-bit because I have so much stuff on my system from vendors who haven't released 64-bit versions.

gilles007 wrote on 4/27/2011, 6:40 PM

Thanks for getting back to me. It sounds promising.

As mentioned, will try it again with the project set correctly to HD when I get the camera back.

Cheers,
G

gilles007 wrote on 5/20/2011, 12:41 PM

Argggghhhh!

I tried this again with the project props set to HD and I still can't capture.

does anybody have any ideas here?

I'm stuck and a bit frustrated.

thanks for any help,

Gilles

JJKizak wrote on 5/20/2011, 12:56 PM

Go to options in the capture utility and uncheck "control the camera " or whatever it says.
Make sure your firewire cable is into the proper jack on the camera. Start the record on the menu and wait about 5 seconds then start the camera playback. If that doesn't work start the playback first then start the record on the menu a few seconds later. You probably will only see a blue window but it should capture. If that doesn't work your missing the HD Cineform codec.
JJK

gilles007 wrote on 5/20/2011, 7:36 PM

Thanks JJKizak,

1. cant' see an option called "control the camera" in the prefs of the HD capture utility. a few checkboxes there but not this one. I tried a variety of settings with no luck.

2. tried starting the cam, then recording, and simply recording... still blue screen, even after waiting a few seconds prior to recording.

strange thing though. when I record, I know have he timecode changing and a file does appear temporarily in the destination folder for the clips. it does disappear when I press STOP.

another strange thing is that I DID get the video showing at some point, for a few seconds but I can not reproduce it.

Also... I tried another shorter cable... no effect, same result.
Also... if I put the camera in "camera mode", that is, not Play/Edit mode, the preview window does show what the camera is viewing, albeit, the image in the preview is somewhat delayed/jittery when I move the camera around.

any other ideas?
Gilles

bsuratt wrote on 5/20/2011, 9:30 PM

Make sure the camera is outputting a HDV signal.... maybe it is set to SD output. Check menus on camera.

gilles007 wrote on 5/25/2011, 4:57 AM

Ensured cam was set to HDV...still no go.

what interesting is that in the prefs, I checked only
1. add new clips to media, and
2. enable hdv scene detection.

I was then able to preview the clip when I clicked on PLAY... BUT... as soon as I used the rewind / ffwd function, the screen turned blue and even hitting PLAY again would not re-establish playing in the preview window. I had to exit VIDEO CAPTURE and start again, with only the first PLAY allowing to preview.

Stringer wrote on 5/25/2011, 2:57 PM

" Any other ideas ? "

Your comment above about the preview being " delayed/jittery ' might indicate a problem with the firewire cable/connection ..

Can you try another cable ?

An add-on firewire card can usually be found for less than $20 -- you might have to try that also ..

P.S.

I see you tried a shorter cable, so it pretty much eliminates a possible cable problem.
Doesn't rule out a port or firewire controller problem..

ushere wrote on 5/25/2011, 6:48 PM

and as mentioned earlier - hdvsplit.

have you at least tried it?

diverG wrote on 5/26/2011, 4:22 AM

Grasping at straws now.
Your first post shows that VP,camcorder work OK on a laptop.

Are you now using a desktop? Reason I ask is that most laptops use a 4 to 4 firewire and todate my experience indicates that most desktops use a 4 to 6 pin firewire cable.
Could be a simple cable fault.