Video Capture Failure - codec problem?

mmk350 · Post by **mmk350** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:56 am

We just got a Panasonic PV-GS31 camcorder for Xmas. We downloaded the USB driver and can successfully capture input from the camcorder to our Win XP PC with the USB cable. Video Studio will capture and create an AVI file. When we try to capture as MPEG, (trying to create a DVD) we get get a failure error saying "MPEG capture does not accept MJPG codec. Please select a suitable codec....use (1) YUV codec first, the (2) RGB-24 codec. [13011:5:3]"

1) Is there some place we can "select a sutiable codec" or is this codec thing something else we have to buy/download?
2) Can we create a DVD using this AVI file instead of having to capture as this MPEG format?

Thanks in advance for any help for the newbies here.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 1:25 am

Your camera has a Firewire port. You should be using that to capture high quality DV/AVI format video on your computer, and not USB. Even though you have a USB 2.0 port and the supplied cable, while no cable was supplied for the Firewire, the USB is meant for streaming/webcam-like (i.e. lower quality) video and the transfer of still images. Of course, your computer will need a Firewire port as well, though you can buy both a Firewire card and cable set quite cheaply these days.

After that, or better, before it, read the top sticky post on this Board, headed 'Recommended Procedure'. That will answer a number of your questions and put your on the right track to producing a DVD. And if you then have further questions, please come back here.

mmk350 · Post by **mmk350** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 4:51 pm

Thanks a bunch for your time on this. We'll go get a firewire cable and make sure we have a firewire port on the PC to do our video downloads instead of USB.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:15 pm

Make sure you get the correct cable if you buy it separately from a Firewire card -- and even then, check. Normally, you will need a small 4-pin Firewire plug at the camera end (it looks a little like the mini-USB plug but without the pronounced phlanges on the top edges). And at the other end is a much larger 6 pin plug to go into the computer. Unless the card you might have to buy comes with 2 cables, the 'usual' Firewire cable is 6 pin to 6 pin.

evan · Post by **evan** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:43 am

Ken, thanks for your answer to the question posed by the other visitor to this forum regarding the error that says "mpeg encoding does not accept mjpg codec." I am having the exact same problem -- and am trying to capture video from a DVC through USB. I am willing to invest in a Firewire card if that will solve the problem. Are you confident that that is what the issue is? Would higher bandwidth eliminate the codec problem?

Post by **Ron P.** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 12:16 pm

Hi Evan,

In regards to the MJPEG codec, getting a Firewire card just using a firewire will not change that. MJPEG codec is a different Compression Decompression (codec) then mpeg. VS9 does not come with that codec. To be able to use the MJPEG codec you have to purchase it, or it may come with some hardware/software package.

What Ken was mainly addressing, is the use of USB cables to capture video. Even though capture device manufacturers, as well as digital camera, camcorders, include a USB cable with their product, it should not be used to capture video. USB is good for transfering still images from a camera to the computer. With USB you can not capture DVD-compliant video.

Firewire on the otherhand is the standard for capturing.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:10 pm

Thanks Vidoman for taking over while I was in bed here downunder!

I am not sure what might have happened in the two cases involved in this post as we don't have the exact information available. But I am surmising that they may have downloaded the MJPEG codec as part of the software which came with their cameras. Then, when they used the USB method toi capture, the MJPEG codec was auto-selected...? But then, when they tried to edit this in VS, the codec mismatch arose... MJPEG is, of course, a very good codec, and was (and still is) highly regarded in the days before the DV format/codec was developed. I thought that today, though, it is used for some digital still cameras which can take limited amounts of video footage. But I confess I don't really don't much more than that, including whether it is used as part of the software accompanying certain video cameras.

But it seems to me that if they use the Firewire route, they will capture using the DV Direct Show codec version of AVI, and that will then be compatible with the mpeg-2 codec used by VS.