If it's anything like the DC-10 card, save it for decent kindling on a cold night.

The DC-10 (not sure about yours) converted analog to digital via an mjpeg (motion jpeg?) codec that probably only works with Studio. I stopped at Studio 8 after my ctrl-alt-del keys wore out and I lost all the rest of my hair restarting the PC and losing projects.

Even though it hurts to part with money spent, if the card's compatibility is questionable, look elsewhere for an interface. A few of us still use the Studio software as a host for Hollywood FX, look for JohnnyRoy's excellent tutorial on combining Vegas and HFX here - http://johnrofrano.com/tutorials/hollywood_fx.htm

Good luck and welcome, from a former Studio user...

- David

Ohh man, you've got to be kidding me.

Hmmmm...so there is no way to get Vegas to work with it? That doesn't seem right-an $800 program can't communicate with a capture card that even Windows Movie Maker can.

(My last reply was in response to the first reply.)

Well, I know it's built much better than DC10, but I forget how it works. However, I know that it works with a variety of other programs, including Windows Movie Maker. Seems like Vegas should be able to do the same!

>>...so there is no way to get Vegas to work with it?

Try Scenalyzer

www.scenalyzer.com

Download the demo. It should work. That is the one program I found to work some years ago with the Pinnacle breakout box.

If it does work, use Scenalyzer. It's a terrific app and very inexpensive.

Thanks kentwolf, but I'm probably just going to end up reinstalling Pinnacle Studio 9. But I still want to ask Sony why they can't support it.

Why would Sony WANT to support an inferior codec when theirs is superior? Better still, there are other analog to DV cards/boxes that are superior that are OHCI spec. OHCI is the standard. It may well be that the Pinnacle card is supported. When you launch Sony Vidcap, can you see the Pinnacle 1394 card as an OHCI card? It seems doubtful, being that Pinnacle was one of the last to support the standard, but it's possible.
Another option is to use Windows MovieMaker to capture and convert the file, but it will still be using the Pinnacle compression, which isn't as good as a Canopus, ADS, Datavideo, or any newer box that uses either a Cirrus converter or a TI-based converter. When you edit in Vegas, you'll be recompressing with a much better codec, but you likely won't be able to print back to analog with the Pinnacle card either. The problem isn't the card. It's the hardware-based codec that the card espouses when it converts the analog to digital. There are standards, and there are proprietary codecs. Pinnacle uses proprietary. Again, I could be wrong with this card. I've never used Pinnacle's consumer-oriented tools, only their higher end, professional tools.

What do you mean "can you see the Pinnacle 1394 card as an OHCI card?" When I open Sony Vidcap, it says "The Device Pinnacle DV/AV could not be opened." So Sony recognizes it, it just won't let me do anything. Maybe it only supports the firewire port on the card.

It does only support the Firewire on the card if you can see that, yes.
Canopus, Datavideo, ADS all make fairly inexpensive analog to digital converters that will work with either your Pinnacle card, or you can get a 15.00 OHCI Firewire card. Your video will be better, it will be compliant, and Vegas will love it.

I have a Pinnacle Deluxe AV/DV card, which is a dual DV OHCI firewire and AV analog capture device with a breakoutbox. The analog side uses proprietary drivers but it captures with a DV25 codec just like the Canopus ADVC-110 or ADS Pyro A/V Link.

The problem is, Pinnacle doesn’t supply DirectShow drivers for the card so only it only works with its own software and Scenalizer (because they gave Andreas the specs for capture because there Studio program as too buggy to capture with video and audio in sync). The Canopus ADVC-110 and ADS Pyro A/V Link devices ONLY expose a firewire interface to your PC and so they work with ANY program that supports firewire. Pinnacle chose NOT to do this, instead opting for a proprietary analog interface that only works with their software.

I also have an old Pinnacle DC10+ card which was only analog and used an excellent hardware MJPEG codec. That worked with other programs using VFW drivers before Windows XP but again, Pinnacle never wrote DirectShow drivers for that so it now only works with Pinnacle software in XP.

I’m not sure about the Pinnacle AV/DV card but I think it’s the same as my Deluxe card, just without the breakout box. That means it should be an OHCI compliant firewire device and it should capture analog using the DV25 code.

The problem remains, that Pinnacle does not supply a DirectShow driver for this card and so it requires Pinnacles proprietary software to capture analog. (you can capture DV just fine using Vegas, I’ve done this with my Deluxe AV/DV card). I’m not sure why Windows Movie Maker works with this card in analog mode. Unless Microsoft (like Scenalizer) got the specs from Pinnacle.

So let’s address your questions:

> Hmmmm...so there is no way to get Vegas to work with it? That doesn't seem right-an $800 program can't communicate with a capture card that even Windows Movie Maker can.

What doesn’t seem right is that Pinnacle would NOT supply DirectShow drivers so that Vegas CAN communicate with their card. The whole idea of Windows drivers so that software doesn’t have to support hardware directly. But if the hardware vendors don’t supply the drivers, the software can’t see their hardware. This is a Pinnacle problem NOT a Sony problem.

> However, I know that it works with a variety of other programs, including Windows Movie Maker. Seems like Vegas should be able to do the same!

I would like to see the list. I doubt anything other than Scenalizer and WMM captures with this card. I doubt highly if WMM can output back to analog tape with this card. I know Scenalizer can’t because Pinnacle wouldn’t give Andreas the spec for output (because he asked, and they said NO!)

> So Sony recognizes it, it just won't let me do anything. Maybe it only supports the firewire port on the card.

That’s correct. The fire port on that card is the only thing that is standard. The rest is proprietary.

> But I still want to ask Sony why they can't support it.

Because Pinnacle does want them to. Pinnacle has have their own product (Pinnacle Edition) that competes directly with Vegas so by keeping their hardware proprietary they lock you into their software purchase. When Pinncale acquired Edition, they also stopped making the standalone version of Hollywood FX that use to work with Adobe Premiere. So they basically took back their marbles and said, "we don’t want to play well with others anymore" and now their hardware and software only works with Pinnacle other products.

So you should really be complaining to Pinnacle about adding DirectShow drivers for the analog side of the AV/DV card so that ANY Windows XP video program can work with it. I have complained many times and it fell on deaf ears. That’s when I took their card out and bought an ADS Pyro A/V Link and now I can capture/print analog and DV with Vegas just fine.

My advice to you: Cut your losses and run. Sell the Pinnacle AV/DV card on eBay and get yourself an ADS Pyro A/V Link or Canopus ADVC-110. You will be much, much happier in the end (and I have the scars to prove it). ;-)

~jr