the camera is a mini dv by sony. the dcr-hc36. this is the cam that i have captured many videos from with no problem. i haven't changed the settings in the editor since the last capture. any ideas on what settings work best? also i haven't reduced the camera capture quality. it is actually the same as always.

I'm wondering if you might have inadvertently added the pixelate fx to either the track's fx (little fx icon on the track to the left), or the video output fx (little fx icon on the preview window)?

Thanks for the input. I checked the channels and there are no video fx on either area. It's the strangest thing. Sony is trying to help, but nothing is working. I haven't changed any settings or input capture settings. When I input video into another program, not Vegas i get the same thing. I'm wondering if there is a setting in the computer messed up that is causing issue with my capture!?

Found the issue if anyone needs the info. here it is. I installed the Google Chrome as my search engine. This somehow reconfigured my settings. After uninstalling Chrome my video capture came back with no issues!! Be careful of your web browsers!!!!!

Good to know. I was actually going to download Chrome today, but I don't feel like troubleshooting. I am sure there is a way they can work together, but I don't feel like getting it to work.

I certainly don't doubt this is a possible issue, though. There is music software I use which conflicts with IE7. But, in that case, I like both applications so much I have figured out the work around so they play nice together.

I HIGHLY dispute this conclusion. A web browser has nothing to do with a firewire port. Maybe sometimes with a USB port, if a nasty bug hits around, but with firewire?? And capture?

Sorry, but your conclusion doesn't make much sense, I am sure something else is going on. I have Chrome installed in our Vista PC and my HV20 HDV captures are just fine.