vegas problems detecting my camera

pattywhack wrote on 4/5/2005, 7:22 PM

i am new to video editing and i recieved vegas movie studio 4.0 as a gift. when i run video capture it doesn't detect my video camera, a canon zr85. i have tryed everything i can think of to try and everything that the troubleshooting guide said to try to get it to detect the camera and nothing will work. is this editor not compatible with my camera? someone please help!

Comments

ScottW wrote on 4/6/2005, 7:57 AM

How are you connecting the camera to your computer? You shoud be using the firewire connection.

pattywhack wrote on 4/6/2005, 1:49 PM

i'm conecting using the usb cable that came with the video camera

Steve Grisetti wrote on 4/6/2005, 2:31 PM

A USB connection won't work for true video capture. A firewire is the only way to go -- and for best results, that should be coming from a digital8 or miniDV camcorder.

Most likely you've got a DVD camcorder, which unfortunately don't work well for video editing at all. In order to capture video, you're going to have to work through a bridge similar to what is used for analog video capture. The ADS Pyro AV Link is a great, affordable capture bridge. Canopus makes a more expensive but excellent capture device. Note, however, that if you use these devices you still won't be able to control your camcorder with Vegas. That's a feature unique to miniDV and digital8 cams attached via firewire.

What you DON'T want is to use a bridge designed to capture MPEGs for DVD output. For best results, you should capture your video as DV-AVIs.

IanG wrote on 4/6/2005, 3:21 PM

The ZR85 is miniDV - you should be fine with a firewire connection. If you don't already have one you should be able to pick up a card for less than $20. Installation in your PC is very straightforward.

Ian G.

pattywhack wrote on 4/6/2005, 9:31 PM

thanks everyone youve been alot of help