Unable to Capture

smiley wrote on 2/20/2005, 12:25 AM
I apologize if this has been posted before, I found a few similar topics, but nothing exaclty the same and none of the fixes seemed to work for me. I am a first time user of Vegas Movie Studio 4.0, just installed it tonight, but am unable to capture as it does not recognize my device. I get the following error:
"The device microsoft AV/Tap subunit device could not be opened. Please make sure it is turned on and is not being used by another application."
I am using a new Dell computer that more than meets all the minimum system requirements. I have also confirmed that the camera shows up in Device Manager, and yes, I have the camera set to VCR.
I am using sony handycam DCR-IP5 (MICROMV) with a 1394 firewire cable connected to MS through an OHCI compliant capture firewire card made by SIIG. (I think I said that correctly?!) I have captured with this camera before on my old computer, but with the supplied software, Sony Movieshaker. However, I could not find the software anymore, so purchased MS instead as it was recommended to me by Sony for DV capture. I have also tried using more than one firewire cable, so I do not believe it is the cable or any of the camera settings. I have not changed any of the preferences in Vegas capture either. I literally opened it for the first time and got this error as soon as I tried to capture. I have even tried turning the camera on before and after hitting capture. I also do weekly virus/spyware/adware scans so do not believe it is a virus or spyware.
I'm sure I am missing something very obvious, but I just can't seem to find it. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Steph aka Smiley

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 2/20/2005, 3:40 AM
I think the problem is that the MicroMV camera doesn't record or transmit DV. It uses MPEG instead. Vegas Movie Studio's capture program is set up to accept only DV through the firewire port and won't recognize any other formats.

SONY Electronic's website is giving me "500:" errors right now so can't do any searching. It seems like you should be able to download the MovieShaker software from their website somewhere when it's working again.
smiley wrote on 2/20/2005, 12:57 PM
Chienworks,
Thank you so much for the response. It makes complete sense, and I will look more into finding the MovieShaker software. I could not seem to find it previously, but I will look again. Perhaps another call into Sony is in order as well. Thank you for the direction!
ak0226 wrote on 2/20/2005, 1:10 PM
I am having the same exact problem as Smiley. I also have a computer that easily meets the minimum requirements, and my camera is a Sony HDR-FX1. Any suggestions on what the problem might be?

I have tried everything that I can think of.

Thanks.
smiley wrote on 2/20/2005, 6:10 PM
ak0226,
I am by no means an expert, but I believe you are having the same issue I am, in that our cameras record and encode in MPEG2 format. I believe your camera is a mini-DV like mine is, which means that Vegas MS cannot capture it. Thanks to the user that posted to my question, I called Sony Electronics for a second time and reached someone more knowledge than the first time who was able to help me track down the original software that came with my camera, MovieShaker. While not the most ideal situation as I would prefer to capture directly into MS, it at least gives me a solution. I have to use the software that came with my camera for capturing and then can import the files into MS. I believe since your camera also encodes in MPEG2, it would also work for you to capture using the included software and then import into MS from there. Try capturing using the included software (I believe it is Edius Pro 3 Software with your camera) and then importing the files into MS. That is what worked for me. Good luck!
Liam_Vegas wrote on 2/20/2005, 6:46 PM
AK0226 - your issue is very different.

The recommended way to work with the FX1 in Vegas is to use the Cineform HD product to do the captures and generate a new intermediate file that is more appropriate for editing than the original m2t files. There is a special price on the product ($150) for Vegas users.

You can also use CapDVHS (a free utility) to capture the raw video as well... but really... to work with the product properly you really do need the Cinceform add-on.