Problem in capturing video in Ulead VisualStudio 9

[Perfectionist]

Hi all,

This is my first post to this forum. And I am posting this thread with a lot of hope to get the solution to my problem.

I am working on the Ulead Visual Studio 9 for the first time. I am trying to capture the video from my camcorder (Sony DCR-TRV285E). However, when I try to do so, a window pops-up with the message:
"Failed to build a graph".

Can anyone tell me what is the solution to this ?

Thanks in advance

[jparnold]

Welcome,

This question has been asked on a few other occasions (posts). Have a look at this previous post

If this doesn't help please reply by giving more details such as your hardware, type of connection for capture etc.

[Perfectionist]

Hi,

I went through the previous post. I believe I need to make some changes in the settings of the Ulead Visual Studio 9 in the 'Capture Video' section. I would appreciate if you could tell me the settings I need to keep.

I am using a Camcoder to USB cable to connect. Hardware configuration of my system -
RAM : 1 GB
HDD( free space): 19 GB
Single Processor with Windows XP SP2, 3 GHz

[lancecarr]

Hi perfectionist.
First, the USB connection on your cam is for the purposes of transferring still images to a computer or for using the cam as web streaming cam.
It is not for the purpose of transferring (capturing) the contents of your tape to a computer.
The firewire (iLink) connection is for that but of course there wasn't a cable included with the cam was there! No! There never is!
Just about every cam manufacturer in the market includes a USB cable but not firewire.
So, for VS9 to correctly detect and capture footage from the cam you will need a firewire card in your computer (cheap these days) and a firewire cable too!
Generally speaking you will need a four pin to six pin cable but check the cam first (should be four pin) and your new firewire card (should be six pin).

By the way, I just noticed your hard drive space. When you capture to DV AVI from the cam you will need about 13gig of reasonably contiguous space per hour of footage on the hard drive. 19 gig free would mean you MAY get an hour on to the hard drive but that leaves VS almost no space to play with if you want to edit, burn DVD's etc.

[Perfectionist]

Ok. I think I'll have to by a firewire cable to capture the video. But I have used this USB to camcorder cable to capture the video earlier. But at that time I used the Picture Package software ( which had come along with the camcorder) to do so.

Doesn't this means I can capture the video using this cable?

[lancecarr]

If you used the Picture Package software successfully before then you could continue to use it for capture through USB.
The Sony products tend to be proprietary in nature and often a USB capture is possible ONLY by using their included software.
Third party software like VS or Pinnacle are unlikely to be able to do a USB capture because Sony has tweaked the software and cam specifically.
Rather than go out and do the firewire thing, if as you say, you have captured successfully before you could use Picture Package for capture to a known location on your hard drive then use VS for editing etc.

[sjj1805]

I have the Sony TRV255E which is similar to yours.
My copy of Sony Picture Package has been consigned to the dustbin.
You NEED a firewire cable/card.

[Perfectionist]

Thanks a lot for all your inputs people. Ok then...I will try capturing the video through the Picture Package Software (hopefully it works). However, if it doesn't then I'll have to buy the Firewire cable.

Does anyone has any idea that -- through the Picture Package software can I capture only some specific clipings from the video rather than first capturing the entire video on my PC and then breaking it into clippings which I will then include in Ulead Visual Studio 9 ? How should I go about it ?

[lancecarr]

The only way to answer your question would be for you to check the documentation of Picture Package to see if it has the ability to scan the tape first, then present you with a feature to choose which clips to capture.
To be honest I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole! My copy of Picture Package went the same way as Steve's.
In the short tem I would give it a go with the USB but in all reality firewire is by far the less troublesome and more reliable method and, by using VS with it, you can scan the tape and select what you want to capture.

[Black Lab]

Maybe that's why Steve relegated it to the "dustbin"

[Perfectionist]

Thanks. So I'll give it a shot and then see what happens. Otherwise, go for the firewire cable.