USB Video capture

bw wrote on 1/29/2006, 3:46 AM

Is USB capture not possible in V6?? It works ok in Scenalizer but a friend would like to stert with Movie Studio and not have to instal firewire since his panasonic nv-gs150 has usb. Movie Studio capture will bring in video but no audio on usb. V6 does not even detect a usb camera. Any suggestions???
TIA Brian

Comments

farss wrote on 1/29/2006, 4:02 AM

I'm not familiar with that camera however I can say with 99% certainty that the camera will not send video from the tape down the USB port. It will most likely send stills if the camera does record stills to some form of flash memory. Also you can get some cameras to work as webcams over USB, possibly that's what SCL is seeing.
In short, tell your friend to save himself a lot of grief and get a firewire card and that's regardless of what he uses to edit his video with. Most firewire cards cost about as much as a packet of tapes!
Bob.

GlennChan wrote on 1/29/2006, 11:13 AM

That camera can probably send stills down USB. It might also be able to send MPEG4 video (but only for video recorded specifically in that format).

Sony cameras can actually send MPEG2 video over USB.

In any case, don't do it!!! Save your friend some grief, and get a firewire card. They are like $25 or less (shipped) from newegg.com or other vendors (pricewatch.com, pricegrabber.com, resellerratings.com). MPEG2 and MPEG4 are not formats that are easy to edit.

bw wrote on 1/30/2006, 4:33 AM

Thanks for the replies, it is what I thought. However the camera mentioned is the small 3 chip Panasonic and it definitely downloads full quality avi video with sound into Sclive v4. It also gives full camera control. The download into movie maker is also full quality avi but no sound. Since he wants to use a laptop he will have to weigh the cost of a firewire card against purchasing a Sclive licence.
For myself I would like to see Vegas 7 with Scenaliser , not that there is anything wrong with the vegas capture but Scenaliser is just so good.
Incidently my friend was initially sold Ulead 9 but no one at the computer superstore told him it only edits in mpeg2 or half definition avi.?????
Cheers, Brian

MarkWWWW wrote on 1/30/2006, 6:10 AM

Hang on - something here doesn't add up.

You say "it definitely downloads full quality avi video with sound into Sclive v4". If by Sclive you mean Scenalyzer Live then you must already be using a Firewire connection and be transferring DV - that's all Scenalyzer Live will do as far as capturing video is concerned; to quote the Scenalyzer live manual: "Not supported: TV tuner cards, USB boxes or MJPG/MPEG cards".

So USB doesn't enter into it (and as the others have pointed out, you cannot get good results that way in any case) - just capture into Vegas in the same way as you have been capturing into Scenalyzer Live. (Though if you've already got Scenalyzer Live you may be better off using that since it has more features than the rather more rudimentary ones found in the Vegas capture app.)

Mark

bw wrote on 1/30/2006, 7:02 PM

Mark,
I know it seems wrong but aparently this cam NV-GS150 boasts "USB(hs) DV Data Streaming" so it must be a new feature. When connected via a USB cable Scenalizer Live sees a "USB Video Device" and with full camera control can capture DV. It obviously only applies to this cam and any with this capability but does mean that DV can be captured to a non firewire equiped computer.
For myself I will stick to firewire
My scenalizer is the latest 28/12/05 version and I have fedback to them what I have found.
Brian

Grazie wrote on 1/31/2006, 1:46 AM

I'd also like to know if you are getting the FULL frame. I've done some recent f/w to usb s/w - ie a WebCam s/w interface - and I was only achieving the very middle 1/3 of the frame. You say you are getting the same results as full frame? Interesting.

Grazie

bw wrote on 1/31/2006, 5:04 AM

Have done some experiments.Captured same clip with firewire and usb. Put one above the other on two tracks.By muting and unmuting top track frames could be compared. Not a pixel different in full res video preview.
One little thing though, when expanding tracks to individual frames the firewire clip shows an extra half frame at each end while the usb one shows the cut at the frame mark. It then looks as if the sound is half a frame out of sync. I am sure it is only a quirk of the graphical representation frames and not an issue in practice. Clip detection in both captures seems to be frame identical.
All academic really as I intend to stick with firewire but am sure this is a new feature of the current Panasonics whic they are not pushing at this stage.
Cheers, Brian