Posted on 11/14/2009 6:50:58 AM PST by raybbr
This is a test. A test of the brilliance, perseverance and perspicacity of the tech gurus here on FR.
Whoever gets me working again will get a $20 donation to FR in his/her name.
I have a box I built about two years ago that has Windows XP SP3 on it.
I used to be able to hook up my Canon ZR80 camcorder to it and capture video. I have used Pinnacle's Studio 9 and also Windows Movie Maker.
I haven't tried to capture video in a while and yesterday, well, you guessed it. It wouldn't work. My PC will not detect my camera. I have no other firewire devices to test the cable but I don't think that's the problem because there are other people out there with this problem.
I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling my firewire card. I have tried everything I can think of it will not work.
I have since tried rolling back to SP2. Still no good.
In PC Wizard the info for the Firewire card is as follows:
Bus Information #4 : Device : FW322/323 IEEE1394 OHCI FireWire Controller Device : RT8139 (A/B/C/810x/813x/C+) Fast Ethernet Adapter
The device comes up good in Device Manager.
During my searches I have come across many instances in many forums about this very problem. Apparently the new drivers in SP2 and SP2 create problems in detecting firewire devices. Not all just some.
Microsoft has no fix to this that I can find. Canon does not supply drivers for that camcorder anymore.
My wife taped some things on her vacation with our sons that we want to capture but I cannot.
I tried reloading Pinnacle last night but it still doesn't work.
I am hoping there is someone in FR tech land that can help me.
Thanks your your time.
Oh, and you Mac guys, keep the bashing to a minimum. As they say, "If you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem."
George Soros has infiltrated your machines.
OK, here’s the fixeS. I am a Pinnacle user who has lived through this and come out on the other side with Microsoft XP and Vista.
(1) upgrade to Pinnacle Studio 14. It’s not much money and you’ll really like the new interface, AND the improved HD capabilities ... AND there are no MS-caused Firewire/capture issues AND 14 is compatible with XP, Vista 32/64 and 7. OK OK #2 doesn’t cost any money ...
(2) the workaround if you don’t want to pony up just yet for 14. Have the camera connected to the PC. Start the movie playing on your camera. DO NOT START it from the Pinnacle interface. Once the video is playing on the camera THEN initiate capture in Pinnacle 12. Voila! The video appears in the preview window AND you are actually capturing video. You’ll miss maybe 5 seconds of video, so build a habit of shooting some ‘B roll’ until you upgrade .. so you have a leader you can waste.
You CANNOT reliably control the camera in capture in XP or Vista using Pinnacle 12. It’s also a fault using Windows Movie Maker or Sony software. This *IS* a windows issue that MS WILL NOT respond to.
I *know* this works. It’s also posted on the Pinnacle forums if you dig around.
(3) buy the family pack Windows 7 upgrade and you’ll find that windows 14 + Windows 7 is faster at rendering and editing.
Hope this helps.
p.s. $20 with no attribution AND I’d like you to find at least one G.I. (any branch of service but USMC preferred) and thank them for their service and sacrifice. ;-)
Eagle — MICROSOFT broke this for a number of different video editors, not just Pinnacle.
If you like Pinnacle ver X.XX you’ll love Pinnacle v 14 AND it works with all version of Windows.
Just want to re-affirm that it ain;t the camera or the video software — I have multiple choices of cameras and editors and THEY ALL BROKE AT ONCE after MS offered ‘updates’ to Windows/ SP.
Try www.driverstock.com
I think the camera is too old to use drivers. It was made before drivers were invented. :O)
Thank you. That does not surprise me.. sounds like a time trigger,
I'm looking at Pinnacle Studio Moviebox at best-buy..
the rendering time improvement would be well worth the price..
I have too many vintage VCR events left to convert to stop now..
I may try to reaload 9 and see if I can get an upgrade.
As for the XP family pack I only have one PC with XP.
get Root !
And that would be...?
The workaround works for Movie maker as well. I can verify I am using Pinnacle 14 on a Windows Vista 64 machine and a Windows 7 machine with all my digital cameras w/o issues.
A lot of interesting replies. It sounds like you haven’t captured video for a couple of years. There is a good chance that there is nothing wrong with your system and that you do not need any upgrade to Windows or your video programs. Firewire is not handled the same way as USB in Windows XP. USB devices are meant for plug and play with few options for the user. I am not familiar with your Cannon Camcorder, but with my Sonys the camcorders have to be set up correctly for capture. This means that the Camcorder has to be on and in playback mode and there are several settings within the camcorder’s menu system that need to be set correctly also... all before you plug it in to the firewire.
It could be that when you first got your camcorder... all of the options were set corrrectly for capture but over the past couple of years changes may have been made inadvertantly by you or someone else while trying to access additional features. I know the manual can be a pain, but opening it up while methodically going through the features in the camcorder’s menu may be your best bet.
I have had a lot of cameras and camcorders and used a lot of different video editing programs over the years. None of the difficulties I have had ever had with capture no longer working correctly have ever had anything to do with needing a new driver, an upgrade to a program, or something that Microsoft has done. It has always been some minor detail with my camcorder settings. (Oh, you mean that switch needs to be flicked to the right?)
I just tried on MM. No good.
It's possible its the cable but I can't get it to work.
There really are no setting for this old camera. I actually went through the whole menu. In my searches for this problem I have found where many people have this problem and yet there seems to be no solution other than to reload XP BACK to SP 1. Who wants to do that?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2381078/posts
Sorry, I should have addressed post # 34 to you.
“There really are no setting for this old camera. I actually went through the whole menu. In my searches for this problem I have found where many people have this problem and yet there seems to be no solution other than to reload XP BACK to SP 1. Who wants to do that?”
I downloaded your manual and it does seem rather sparse on capture info.
I have a computer with XP SP3 and previously SP2 which has never had any difficulties with video capture. It is using the cheapest Chinese firewire card that was available when I put the computer together. It is also using a realtek chipset.
A few years ago when I first started using high definition camcorders, commercial capture software for HD was not innitially available. Innitially I had to use a freeware program for capture and then edit using commercial software that I had purchased previously. Instead of spending more money on upgrades, you might try downloading a free copy of VirtualDub, or some of the other widely available free downloads to see if one of them wouldn’t be a work-around. You might also try downloading a trial version of a Ulead, Womble or other commercial product to see if capture works from within one of those programs. Good Luck!
No problem, but if you seriously edit any kind of video content...doing it on a MAC is a welcome relief after the clusterf@*k experience of trying to do it on a Windbowz machine.
The only other simple fix I can think of is to try another brand of card, making sure that the chipset is different. Fortunately, they're pretty cheap.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.