Can't capture video

[wkadams]

All of the sudden, I can no longer capture video. I am using V4 on windows 7. I have verified that the video source is getting to my computer. I have been capturing just fine for the past few days. In this case I am capturing from VHS tape. I also plugged in my DV camera. Today, I can't capture from either. I have attached a screen shot of what I see. I must of selected something or whatever to disable capturing. As you can see in the screen shot, the caption option section is blank. Any suggestions?

[Ken Berry]

Unfortunately, there is no screen shot. And you also haven't told us what version of VS you are using. Essentially, though, since at least VS X2, when Corel in their wisdom changed the capture module, it has been impossible for most of us to capture VHS via firewire using a mini DV camcorder as a passthrough device. Can we assume you are in fact using firewire throughout (though I know you said you were using a DV camera)?

And Microsoft, in *their* wisdom further complicated things by changing the Firewire driver that comes with Windows 7, which I see you are using. You have to roll back the driver (in Device Manager) to an older version... what they call a legacy driver. That certainly works.

You could also -- as a lot of us did after X2 and its successors produced this problem -- download and use a small freeware product called WinDV which does one job and does it well: capture DV, whether direct from a DV camcorder, or using the camcorder as a passthrough device. If that doesn't work, then there would appear to be something wrong either with your firewire cable or, worse, the firewire port on either your camcorder or PC.

[wkadams]

Ken

Thanks for the reply. I am using VS X4.

I guess I don't how to do an attachment on this forum. What format do we use. I normally just paste a screen shot in a word document. When I try to upload the attachment it says that DOCX is not permitted. So I saved as DOC and got the same result.

In any case, what you would see on the screen shot if I could attach it is that the capture option panel is just blank. Normally you have the selection of Capture Video, DV Quick Scan, etc. This seems independent of even having anything connected to the computer. I should always be able to see the the various capture options. My capture option panel is just blank. I know I can minimize the capture option panel and I have done that and then displayed it again so that is not the problem.

Aside from that, yes I am using firewire to capture. I have a canopus box which takes in the analog video and outputs firewire. Works great if I could just see the capture options. I have done several captures over the past few days.

[Ken Berry]

Thanks for that extra detail. Has there been any Windows update in recent days which might have affected the Firewire driver as described above?

What does Device Manager tell you about your IEEE1394 driver name?

I forgot to give your the URL for WinDV -- it's windv.mourek.cz Give that a whirl. It should work with your Canopus box just as it does with all other DV devices.

[wkadams]

Ken

Device Manager says I have microsoft driver dated 6/21/2006 version 6.1.7601.17514.

I can try WinDV and I suspect it will work fine. However, it doesn't seem to address the issue I am having.

Normally on the Capture option panel you have the following options
1- Capture Video
2- DV Quick Scan
3- Import from Digital Media
4- Import from Mobile Device
5- Stop Motion.

I have none of these selections. My panel is blank. So I can't get past the first step which I think is independent of firewire issues. Aside from not being able to select capture video, I also can't select import from digital media which means I can't capture video from a DVD loaded in my computer which I do on occasion.

I do appreciate your help and the time you take to help tutor those of us with less experience.

[wkadams]

Ken

Thanks for the suggestion on WinDV. That's a neat little utility for capturing video. I have captured a couple of VHS tapes with it now.

As I indicated, my problem was well ahead of any drivers etc. So I uninstalled VS and reinstalled. I now once again have the capture options for selection. So I can capture fine with VS.

So now I have a question. WinDV captures to .AVI files and does multiple small files of 2.66 GB which has some advantages. With VS I can capture to AVI or MPG all in one file. I am having a hard time telling any quality difference between .AVI files and .MPG files. The advantage of .MPG is the smaller size.

Can you help me with the reasons for choosing one versus the other. Thanks for all your help.

[Ken Berry]

The main advantage of DV/AVI is that it is a virtually lossless format. In other words, you can process it repeatedly and it will not lose quality. The downside, of course, is its size. But we generally recommend that people who can use DV, should in fact use it. Do all your editing in DV, and then only when you are satisfied should you convert it to DVD-compatible mpeg-2. (If you are producing a standard definition DVD, then you have no alternative but to convert it to mpeg-2 as that is the international standard format for DVDs.)

That being said, the obvious advantage of capturing direct to mpeg-2 is that it will be DVD-ready. The downside is that all mpeg formats are lossy. In other words, if you process and render it even once, it will lose some quality. Render it again and it will lose more, and so on. But at least the first time round, the human eye is unlikely to pick up any quality loss if the mpeg-2 properties are high quality (i.e. a high bitrate).

Incidentally, capturing DV/AVI with VS, you can also split by scene like WinDV does -- the only major difference being that WinDV allows you to designate a file name whereas VS uses its own strange naming system. If you capture to mpeg-2, you can only split-by-scene after the first capture of the entire video is done.

[wkadams]

Ken

Thanks for the explanation and all your help.

[UncleBoo]

So now I have a question. WinDV captures to .AVI files and does multiple small files of 2.66 GB which has some advantages. With VS I can capture to AVI or MPG all in one file.

With WinDV you can capture to a single file, too. 2.66GB is just the default. To change this, from the main window press the "Config" button. Then change the "Max AVI size (frames)" value from 22500 to something large enough to get to a 13GB (or whatever you need). I use 400000, which gives about 50% headroom to capture a one-hour video. (Why 22500 is the default I have no idea.) If you do split-by-scene of course you'll get multiple smaller files, but split at more logical places than an arbitrary 2.66GB.

HTH,
Uncle Boo

[skier-hughes]

Aso when capturing VHS tapes any glitches will show up as a change of scene and both might start a new file when this happens, but it is quite easy to just drop them all onto the timeline in one go.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi wkadams

If our computer has NO capture devices connected, when we select the Capture tab the list of options should still show:-

1- Capture Video
2- DV Quick Scan
3- Import from Digital Media
4- Import from Mobile Device
5- Stop Motion.

What do you see, if it is simular to the first image, please click the Options word highlighted in red.

select image for larger view

select image for larger view

[Doug2006]

I am having trouble now too. I just built a new computer and went to capture from the Cannon Hv 40 and found Corel says can't find a capture driver. The transport controls work though. This camera worked fine on my other computer. Unfortunately I deleted the hard drive space that had Corel installed on when I put this new computer together. I tried WinDv but it just says it cannot fine the video output pin. I went through this a number of years ago with a Sony camera. I installed a copy of Ubunta and some program and got it to work. I really don't feel like doing that now. My copy of the driver for the firewire is the same as above, somewhere around 2006.

So what do we do? I just bought Corel Video Studio X4 pro which is advertised to capture video. There should be some way to make it work.

I did take a 8 gig mpeg file in HD and transcode it to standard def. On the old computer this would have taken over 2 hours and loused up the sound. This comp did it in 13 minutes with the sound in sync. So we have made some progress.

[Ken Berry]

Do a Google search for a small freeware program called HDVSplit. It's what I use to capture video from my Canon HV-20. As its name implies, it splits your HDV into scenes during capture, and you can also set your own name for the captured files.

If you continue to have problems even with that program, then clearly something is wrong with either your firewire driver; the firewire card or cable; or with the firewire connection on your Canon.

[Rev Apoc]

So now I have a question. WinDV captures to .AVI files and does multiple small files of 2.66 GB which has some advantages.

Hi, my name is Jason and I am a new VideoStudio Pro X4 user. I figured I would post a question regarding WinDV here, being that this thread (Mr. Berry) has me interested in trying the program...

In WinDV, is it possible to change the settings of the "Max AVI size (frames)" to be able to capture and split a one hour length AVI video at say... 10, 20, or 30 seconds per file? Or whatever amount of time I like?

I know that would be an extreme amount of files per video, but I used to use Pinnacle 9 on my old PC, and when capturing video with that you could have it capture into the "project" at 10 second intervals, automatically. That amount of splitting was perfect for me, as when editing I could just browse the 10 second sections of video and pick out certain clips to put in the timeline to work with. Although I haven't captured into VideoStudio Pro X4 yet, I haven't found anything in the program or here on the forums that suggests the same type of function. The closest alternative in Corel VSPX4 is to do the auto "split-by-scene", but that doesn't work with a wedding video that is just continuous shooting for lengths at a time.

Currently, I am capturing using WinMovieMaker on my old PC to a single (big) AVI file, and then transferring that to my new computer via an external HD (my new computer doesn't have firewall ports... yet) and bringing the file into Corel. At that point all I can do with VideoStudio Pro X4 is drop the whole file onto the timeline, and that is extremely overwhelming to work with.

I do wedding and personal music videos that involves a lot of trimming and rearranging. If a free program like WinDV will allow me to browse multiple files to drop into the timeline, this will really make my day. Even my month.

Thank you for any help or advice!
- Jason

[UncleBoo]

So now I have a question. WinDV captures to .AVI files and does multiple small files of 2.66 GB which has some advantages.

In WinDV, is it possible to change the settings of the "Max AVI size (frames)" to be able to capture and split a one hour length AVI video at say... 10, 20, or 30 seconds per file? Or whatever amount of time I like?
[...]
- Jason

In a word, yes. Press the "Config" button (which you've already done, since you can see the "Max AVI size (frames)" label) and change the "Max AVI size (frames)" value to whatever you want. As the label suggests, the value is expressed in frames, not seconds, so you have to do the conversion first, i.e., 30 frames/sec.