Need help w HDV capture and HVR-A1

Tech Diver wrote on 7/13/2006, 1:43 PM
I desperately need some help from you A1 users who have succeeded in capturing HDV in Vegas (or with other s/w). I have read all the related posts that I could find, but I am still not able to find a solution. Here are my settings:

SONY HVR-A1 CAMERA
Video was recorded in 1080i format
i.Link conversion set to OFF (no down-convert)
VCR HDV/DV set to HDV (also tried auto)
Camera is in PLAY/EDIT mode
Status Check confirms all these settings

SOFTWARE
Vegas 6.0d
New project set to "HDV 1080-60i (1440x1080, 29.970 fps)"
Selected internal capture application
Selected "IEEE 1394/MPEG2 TS Device"

At this point, Vegas does not recognize my camera, I do not get any controls for play-pause-stop etc., and the blue rectangle indicates "Device Not Available". I tried turning the camera on and off several time as suggested in an earlier post to recognize the device, but that didn't work. I tried bringing up things in different orders but that made no difference. I also used HDV Split (version 0.75) but got the message "Camcorder is not recognized or connected".

Very important note:
If I start the Vegas external capture program (used for DV only) I can control the play-pause-stop etc. of the camera perfectly (even if it is outputting HDV data). If I set the camera to down-convert to DV, I immediately see the video image and can capture in DV format. This proves that the communication link does indeed work correctly.

Am I possibly missing some codec or DLL file?

Comments

Jayster wrote on 7/13/2006, 2:16 PM
Please forgive me if this sounds too obvious or dumb, but are you sure the footage was shot in HDV? When you play it back on the camera does the blue HDV light on the camera come on? (Mine is a Z1 but I am assuming the A1 has this too).

Again, pardon me if this seems too obvious, but it would definitely lead to the situation you describe.
Tech Diver wrote on 7/13/2006, 2:34 PM
Every question is a good one even it may seem obvious.

Yes, it definitely is HDV. Instead of a blue light as on the Z1, the A1 has a tiny icon on the upper-left screen that says "HDV1080i". Additionally, the image has a 16:9 aspect ratio. A DV clip has two black bands on either side and the tiny icon says DVCAM.

There is another icon in the upper-right corner that indicates the iLink communication status as either "HDVin", "HDVout", "DVin", and "DVout". I have verified that it says "HDVout". To elimate the question of the recording format, I have also attempted to feed live HDV signals to the capture application but without success. If I switch the format to DV, I can successfully do a live feed to the external capture tool.

Another strange thing is that the internal capture tool does not list a pixel aspect ratio of 1.3333 in the capture preference drop-down list. Does your software list this?
johnmeyer wrote on 7/13/2006, 4:45 PM
What version of Windows XP are you using? Anything prior so SP2 doesn't have the drivers installed. As a result, many HDV products list SP2 as a requirement.

I use SP1 and was able to find instructions (on this forum, I think) on how to make Windows recognize the camera. The problem is Windows, not Vegas.

I couldn't find the instructions, but this post in another forum is pretty much what I remember (go to the last post in the thread):

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/archive/index.php/t-55244.html
Jim H wrote on 7/13/2006, 6:30 PM
You could try a third party capture program like HDV-Split by Paviko. It's got scene detection which you WILL want and WON'T get from the Sony internal device. At least you'll know that your camera is working and my guess is you'll never use the internal device again. I have not.
Spot|DSE wrote on 7/13/2006, 6:45 PM
Techdiver,
you might want to unplug the Ilink cable while you've got the cam turned on, then modify the output format, plug in the iLink, and change it again.
Vegas and a couple other apps are really, really sensitive about some cams. It isn't something that can be traced down easily, because some machines do it and others don't, and some cams do it and others don't. I've got an A1 that sporadically acts this way on my laptop.
Tech Diver wrote on 7/13/2006, 8:04 PM
Jim:
Trying HDV Split (v 0.75) was one of the first things I did when I saw that the Vegas internal app was not working. HDV Split did not communicate with the A1 and gave the message "Camcorder is not recognized or connected".

Doug:
I had already tried unplugging the iLink and reconnecting as you suggested. Unfortunately, it didn't help. Perhaps my unit is out of spec enough to prevent a "handshake".

John:
I left your response for last because I think you may be on to something. I run Win2k Pro and do not run XP. I too came across the same thread that you pointed to. Several posts on various HDV forums mention this problem and the need to have a "Sony D-VHS" driver. It turns out that only XP has this driver and Win2k does not. A link in the HDV-Split readme file points to a site where you can get a Panasonic D-VHS driver, but the author does not know if it will work. I tried to install it but the system does not like the INF file. So now I am still stuck and it does not look very promising. I am rather discouraged at this point.
Jim H wrote on 7/14/2006, 6:05 AM
WINXP Pro - $89 at the Acedemic Superstore if you are or have a student in the family. Kids are finally starting to pay off.
mbryant wrote on 7/14/2006, 7:54 AM
I also found I could not get the drivers installed using Windows 2000. Solution was to buy a copy of XP. I configured my machine for dual boot so I could still use Windows 2000 as well.

Mark
Tech Diver wrote on 7/14/2006, 8:40 AM
I am incredibly surprised about the lack of mention of the apparent fact that you can not capture HDV in any Windows version except XP. I would think that there would be many more posts on this topic or at least it would be common knowledge. Later today I will post a question to see if there is anyone that uses Win2k who has succeeded in HDV capture.

For now, I will set up another computer (with XP) to do stand-alone HDV captures, and transfer the files to my Win2k Vegas workstation through my gigabit LAN.
johnmeyer wrote on 7/14/2006, 9:40 AM
Forgot to mention this site:

Sony HDV Info

Lots of good info about problems like this.

If you browse around, you will find posts that may help, such as this one:

How to capture HDV to a PC

That thread mentions a driver you can download and install that may let you capture in Win2K.
Tech Diver wrote on 7/14/2006, 10:09 AM
Thanks John - those are both good web sites. I tried the driver but it does not work. In fact, I was not able to get it to install because Win2k did not like the INF file. The web site author himself says that he has no idea if it will work.
Tech Diver wrote on 7/15/2006, 9:57 AM
This morning I connected my A1 via 1394 to a computer that runs XP (instead of my Win2k Vegas editing station). The A1 was immediately recognized and the appropriate drivers were automatically loaded. I was easily able to capture my HDV footage to MPG format using CapDVHS, and transferred the file by LAN to my editing station.

The problem I was having was entirely due to the apparent fact the only OS in the Windows family that supports HDV capture, is XP.

By the way, should I be using HDV-Split instead of CapDVHS? I believe the former writes the data in an intermediate format while the later creates an MPG file. What other stand-alone capture tools should I consider (free or otherwise)?
jrazz wrote on 7/15/2006, 10:36 AM
I use HDV Split. Free. Good at what it does. Offers Scene Detection.

j razz
TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/15/2006, 1:23 PM
i don't have an HDV camera to test, but I just downloaded/installed that panasonic driver no problem with Win2K SP4. Just to let you know it worked for someone.
Tech Diver wrote on 7/15/2006, 4:16 PM
Happyfriar, I'm very glad you got it to install. Could you please explain in detail how you did that? Installing drivers is not new to me at all, but I could not get this one to list any of its supported devices.