Panasonic VDR M55

NEO · Post by **NEO** » Mon May 08, 2006 9:14 am

Hi
My wife has just bought me a new cam for my birthday, the Panasonic VDR M55 . I use Video Studio 8 for editing , I now conect the cam through a USB cable and not through a firewire as before the problem is when selecting the source for capture the cam is not listed. I have installed driver that came with the cam I can't workthis out any help would be great.

Post by **lancecarr** » Mon May 08, 2006 9:36 am

Hello NEO and welcome to the board.
First, you are the victim of cruel terminology!
The term "capture" refers to the transfer of the digital information recorded on tape in a MiniDV cam. It is a process of connecting the cam to the computer via firewire (IEEE1394/iLink) and using some software to "capture the data and write it to useable files on the computer.
The cam you have is a different type and records directly on to a DVD disc in the the form of MPEG2 files.
The whole Capture/IEEE1394/Firewire thing does not apply to you.
VS is not going to detect your cam as a source for capture because it is not a source for "capture" per se.
The function you are looking for is "Import DVD/VR" and you can get to it by opening VS8 and right clicking to the right of the preview screen and you will get the choice. There are a few other places to get that choice but i can't remember where they all are.
You may be able to navigate to the files on the disc while it is still in the cam through the USB if your cam is detected by windows (I am not that familiar with your cam) or you may need to finalise the disc and place it in the DVD tray of your computer.

NEO · Post by **NEO** » Mon May 08, 2006 5:59 pm

Hi
Cheers for that I managed to import the files from the cam but I have no sound on the DVD, may be I should go back to my old cam.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon May 08, 2006 9:45 pm

No -- the problem is that your camera records sound in Dolby audio format, and VS8 cannot handle Dolby without a US$30 plug-in, which I am not even sure is available anymore. In any case, it would be better to spend the small amount extra and upgrade to VS10+ which comes with the Dolby capacity built-in. As an interim option, you could download a free Dolby AC-3 filter which will at least allow VS8 to 'see' (hear?) the Dolby audio on your disc. However, VS will then need to convert it to another format and burn that new format on your final DVD. In other words, you can download Dolby with it, but you can't then edit or burn in Dolby. That filter can be found at http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=AC3_Filter