sony movie studio plat 12 problem on capture

Retired wrote on 9/7/2013, 9:10 AM

I just installed Sony Movie Studio 12 Plat on my new computer (applied new update builds no problems). I have been using a older version on my other computer for years and no problems capturing video from my Pana DV camera. My Win OS on my new system is on a dedicated SSD drive so I installed Sony to a WD hard drive. I'm using windows 7 sp1 64bit all updates current. When I connected the camera to the 1394 port windows installed the camera under imaging device.

When in Sony I change the capture location to another drive and not to C: drive. When I selected 'capture' selected DV camera, and turn on Pana as I did on the other computer (win XP) I get this error. The device 'Microsoft DV camera and VCR could not be opened. With the comment that another app my be using it. No matter what I try it will not capture 'control the pana'. I went to the device manager and disabled the camera thinking this may be the 'other appl' without any success. My older ver. is 6. So what I'm I doing wrong? What have I missed? If I can't capture the video I' doomed. Help Please, CP One other note: When I try to open the help file 'F1' etc I get nothing. I thought the pdf manual was suppose to open. I does on my other version. It's like it can't find it. Thanks

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 9/7/2013, 9:22 AM

Windows 7 has a notoriously buggy FireWire driver. Try this:

The "fix" is to go to Device Management, and locate the driver used for FireWire. One would replace that default driver with the one with the word "Legacy" in its name. Fairly simple to do, and it fixes FW issues for most users.

Click Windows Start orb; type "device manager" into the Search box and select Device Manager (or launch Device Manager anyway you like)
Swivel open the "IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers" item
Right-click on your listed 1394 controller; select "Update Driver Software"
Click the "Browse my computer for driver software" button, followed by the "Let me pick from a list" button
Select the option that has "(Legacy)" at the end of the name; click Next and let the driver be installed
Close out of dialogs and retry captur

Retired wrote on 9/7/2013, 10:02 AM

Thanks Steve. I followed your advice and now have the (Legacy) driver installed. Re booted system and tried again but still is not working. Same error. I'm opened to other suggestions please. Thanks again.

Retired wrote on 9/7/2013, 11:02 AM

Steve
Something I noticed. After I selected the capture icon I clicked on 'File' and at the bottom was this. 1.C:\users\CP\Documents\default.sfvidcap.exe

What is this?

In my Preferences,Video is checked use external video capture application.
J:\program files\sony\movie studio 12\vidcap60.exe

Steve Grisetti wrote on 9/7/2013, 12:51 PM

Capturing is Movie Studio is technically handled by a separate program -- a plug-in called SFvidcap. That is the startup link to it.

Meantime, if you get stuck, you can also capture your video over a FireWire connection to a free program called WinDV. The video it captures will be in the DV-AVI format, which is fully compatible with Movie Studio.

This, of course, is assuming that your DV camcorder is a miniDV tape-based camcorder. Only tape-based DV and HDV camcorders capture video.

Retired wrote on 9/7/2013, 5:10 PM

When I installed the program I also registered it with Sony. If I start over, uninstall, and install again will there be a problem like it is already registered. If not, I will uninstall and reinstall again and see if that helps. I'm thinking of trying to capture a video before I apply any updates. What do you think. Another reason to install is none of my help seems to work. When the screen says Preview is turned off click here for help nothing works. If I try F1 etc it does not work. I think there may be a install issue. As long as I can reinstall on this computer without any registration issues I would like to give it a try.

Steve Grisetti wrote on 9/7/2013, 5:20 PM

You can uninstall and reinstall on the same computer as many times as you want.

Retired wrote on 9/7/2013, 5:36 PM

Thanks. One more item I noted in my preference, when I first installed under VTS Effects, default vst folder was blank. Where should it point to? I do not what any files in C drive. Also, when I go to the updates, it comes up with the 32 bit version but my win 7 home is 64bit. Shouldn't I select the 64 bit version. That is what I did the last time.

Steve Grisetti wrote on 9/8/2013, 8:33 AM

There should be both a 32-bit and 64-bit version of any updated MS12 program.

The preference for VST Effects is for installing additional plug-in effects into your program.

Retired wrote on 9/8/2013, 11:01 AM

I uninstalled 12. Removed all left over folder including hidden ones. Reinstalled 12 and the help files are now working but I still have the same error. I have not updated to new build.

I did note that when I first click on the capture icon it came up with a error: C:\users\cp\documents\default.sfvidcap could not be found. I closed the program and to verify location. The file is located in two places. c:\users\cp\mydocuments\''''' and in the Library - documents folder. I next went to the device manager, selected imaging device update driver and selected Panasonic. It now states Panasonic dv camera can not be found. Going back to the options - preferences- preview device - device OHC Compliant IEEE 1394/DV it shows device is on and hot pluggable. I thought I would create a c:\user\cp\documents folder to copy the default.sfvidcap file into but I get the my documents already exist and will not let me create a new folder named 'documents' so I could copy the default.sfvidcap file into it. When I now click on the capture icon it is not showing it can't find the file. Go figure I change nothing. But it still does not work. Like I said , I have not applied any updates or installed quick time. It is some what discouraging after building this new Hasewell system windows 7 64bit sp1, 16gb ram faster processing and can't get this program to work. I could do the work on my old XP with version 6 without any problems but I built this system mostly for video and photo shop work. It is most likely it is a simple solution that I'm missing. The first time I installed the program and updated to the new build (64bit) all the help files stopped working. Is there a bug in the file. Do you know of anyone who has experienced the same problem?

I think there is a issue with the location of the default.sfvidcap. I don't believe it is launching because it is not in the original c:\user\cp\documents folder. Do you know how this can be corrected? Win 7 is new to me. There must me away to add the 'documents' folder but I can't get it done. Oh yes, these are all hidden folders. Please keep trying to help me. Any suggestion I will try. Thanks again Steve.

Steve Grisetti wrote on 9/8/2013, 12:36 PM

I think you may be digging a hole, trying to tweak files into place. Either something strange is going on with your installation or -- I don't know what.

Either way, rather than banging your head against the wall, I recommend you do your miniDV capture with WinDV. As I've said, the DV-AVIs it captures are a perfect match for your Movie Studio project.

You can get the capture program from
http://windv.mourek.cz/

Retired wrote on 9/9/2013, 4:23 PM

I did another install and I made a mistake on what I said early. The first time I click on the capture icon I stated it could not find the file when it really says 'The file is a unsupported format'. But it only says this the first time you try to capture anything. Still working on it. Trying to contact Sony and in the mean time I'am using my other computer that works fine and copying the captured .avi files to a usb jump drive and into my new computer.