Windows XP Professional and my HDV camera

freeLANCEr wrote on 3/30/2009, 5:15 PM
Just a question for the clever forum people.
I just purchased a 3rd Sony HVR A1e camera and captured the first footage. All went well until I wanted to download similar footage from my older Sony HDR FX1e. There was a beep sound on my computer to indicate new hardware was pluged in, but it is nowhere to be found. Sony vegas 8 also indicate that no camera is present. Even the Hi8 camera of my son is not appearing but the computer makes a sound when you plug it in.
My OS is Windows XP Pro. My firewire card and cable is fine as there is no problem when I plug in the new camera.

I have relayed my problem to microsoft - no reply yet.

Did any one have the same problem?

Thanks

Comments

newhope wrote on 3/30/2009, 5:57 PM
Haven't had this experience BUT I have had some strange anomalies with the firewire drivers in XP.

Which Service Pack have you got installed for XP, SP2 or SP3?

Locate the following files in your Windows/systems32/drivers folder on the C: drive,


Rename each one to .old (this makes the file type unrecognisable to Windows)
For example msdv.sys renamed to msdv.old

Now restart your computer and Windows should reinstall the files from the sp2.cab or sp3.cab files.

To confirm this look in the Windows/system32/drivers folder and you should see both msdv.old and msdv.sys files. The old files you renamed may be left there as they won't be active or you can delete them after you test your camera... I'd try testing the HDR FX1e first though not your new camera.

I don't promise this will be a long term fix but if it is a driver conflict it should revert your system to the correct driver versions for 1394 (firewire).

My particualr problem with these drivers is that the newer drivers won't recognise an old Sony DSR-30P DV deck so I have to revert to even older SP1 1394 (firewire) drivers after installing SP2.

While this shouldn't be your problem, making Windows reinstall the drivers may fix it, at least temporarily.

New Hope Media
freeLANCEr wrote on 3/30/2009, 6:54 PM
Thanks New Hope for your speedy reply.

It did not solve my problem. I will be trying some other cameras during the course of the day. Hopefully I can have it solved. I hope my HDV/DV in/out is not faulty on both cameras.

Regards
Laurence wrote on 3/30/2009, 8:21 PM
Be really careful. Hot-plugging in a camera to firewire can blow the firewire interface in the camera and it will no longer be seen by any computer. My guess is that that is your problem: that you blew the firewire interface on your camera by hotplugging it in. I really hope I am wrong because that is an incredibly expensive repair.

I always have at least the camera turned off before I plug it into the firewire computer port. Many people have both the camera and the computer off before they touch this connection. Also, you want to make really sure that your orientation on the plug is correct before you bring the connections near each other. The connection won't actually seat if it is upside down, but often the contacts will get close enough to carry a charge even though the don't fully connect. When the connection is upside down, this means that you are bringing power terminals near data terminals, which is what blows the interface in the camera. This is an incredibly common problem. Again, I really hope that I am wrong about this.
daryl wrote on 3/31/2009, 6:59 AM
Odd that all of the cameras don't show up. If you hear the new connection beep, at least the 'puter knows something is there. This is a long shot, but, do you have any thumb drives plugged in? That has on more than on occasion caused me problems with a camera connection. I've been running XP PRO for years with no problems at all, except when I had a thumb drive in the unit.
Do you have HDVsplit? It is good about finding cameras.
Hope you get it resolved.
Daryl
jrazz wrote on 3/31/2009, 7:02 AM
Just a simple thought- do you have the camera(s) set to play on the rocker?

j razz
tumbleweed7 wrote on 3/31/2009, 8:46 AM

I was thinking along the same line...

Since the A1u works, maybe the other cams need to be setup thru their menu for the correct output?....
rmack350 wrote on 3/31/2009, 10:44 AM
I don't know the answer to this. Can you have several cameras connected at the same time?

Rob Mack
teaktart wrote on 3/31/2009, 11:52 AM
Any chance you could just play back all your tapes with the A1 which is working correctly? While you sort out the mystery of the other cams not being seen..

A while ago I had a similar experience when plugging in my cam to capture. I'd hear the beep sound so I knew the computer 'saw' the camera but it would not show up in the capture app.
It took way too long to figure out that I also had a AV/DV converter plugged into a firewire port and it was turned on. So every time I tried to capture the converter was given priority and the cam was not seen for capturing. Once I turned the AV/DV converter off and unplugged it, the camera showed up as a 'device' and I could finally capture my footage. It might be worth checking to see if any other 1394 devices are in conflict or turned on, unplug those and see if your cams get 'seen' by your capture application....
Spot|DSE wrote on 3/31/2009, 2:51 PM
You should be able to point the device via the 1394 connection to use the Sony HD drivers found in the driver options?
freeLANCEr wrote on 4/1/2009, 2:50 AM
Wow thanks for all the speedy replies guys. I have sent my Sony HDR FXE1 to our local dealer just to have the HDV/DV out/in port checked. If this is ok I will have to get a computer technician to come and have look as I have very little knowledge of OS.

In the meantime, will there be a problem if I capture FX1e footage via my A1e to my computer. Will there be difference in any way. Just a question before I give it a go.
teaktart wrote on 4/1/2009, 10:14 AM
No problem...
Just put the tape in the A1 and capture...data is data
freeLANCEr wrote on 4/4/2009, 2:14 PM
To all on the forum who has been so eager and helpful to get my problem sorted, THANKS SO MUCH. I just receive my camera back from the dealer repairer and and felt like a fool as the camera was always working fine. It was just bad contacts on the fire wire cable as he showed me that I move it slightly it went in and out of contact. I purchased a new one.

Just something interesting I read on this forum: I never new that I can use one camera to download footage from three different Sony HDV cameras (all recorded in HDV on DV tape).

Well this is the reason not a day passes without me reading the forum topics. I must say though that as a novice, certain topics are above my understanding.

Thanks once again