Failed to build capture graph

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Ken Berry
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Posts: 22481
Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2004 9:36 pm
operating_system: Windows 11
System_Drive: C
32bit or 64bit: 64 Bit
motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC
processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
ram: 32 GB DDR4
Video Card: AMD RX 6600 XT
Hard_Drive_Capacity: 1 TB SSD + 2 TB HDD
Monitor/Display Make & Model: Kogan 32" 4K 3840 x 2160
Corel programs: VS2022; PSP2023; DRAW2021; Painter 2022
Location: Levin, New Zealand

Failed to build capture graph

Post by Ken Berry »

I have received the following as a private email. I would remind users that they are requested not to contact moderators and other personnel of this Board by email. Others might be having a similar problem and thus could also benefit by answers posted here.

Email begins:
I have a Canon Model ZR85A Mini DV Camcorder and am trying to capture video.

When I go into the capture mode, the software communicates over the fire wire with the camcorder and initiates playback of the tape. However, I get an error message "failed to build a preview graph". The video plays back on the screen of my camcorder, but the video window in the software on the computer remains blank.

Here are the specs on my computer:

Emachines
ACPIx86 based PC
Display Adaptor is Intel 82945G Express Chip Set Family
(The device manager lists no specific video card per se)
ATAPI DVD W DH15W1P ATA DEVICE
IEEE1394 Bus Host Controller
Genuine Intel 3.2GH CPU
512 MB Memory

Can you help?

Regards,

Steve
Ken Berry
User avatar
Ken Berry
Site Admin
Posts: 22481
Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2004 9:36 pm
operating_system: Windows 11
System_Drive: C
32bit or 64bit: 64 Bit
motherboard: Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC
processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
ram: 32 GB DDR4
Video Card: AMD RX 6600 XT
Hard_Drive_Capacity: 1 TB SSD + 2 TB HDD
Monitor/Display Make & Model: Kogan 32" 4K 3840 x 2160
Corel programs: VS2022; PSP2023; DRAW2021; Painter 2022
Location: Levin, New Zealand

Post by Ken Berry »

I really have no idea why this seems to be an increasing problem just in the past month or so, and not just for users of VS9. I recall also seeing similar posts from VS10 and particularly VS11 users as well.

First, we need to know if you previously captured via Firewire successfully through VS9 and how long ago. Have you tried capturing in DV format using Windows Movie Maker or a third party program? If so, what was the result? (I recommend a tiny freeware program called WinDV which you can get at windv.mourek.cz )

Apart from that, though, the only suspect I can think of is a recent Windows update for both XP and Vista. It is strange, however, if that were the culprit since obviously the problem is only affecting certain users.

It has become almost a mantra with me over the past couple of months to suggest people first go to the Microsoft DirectX website and download the latest update patch. The current one is dated November 2007 and can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en
Note that it updates both DirectX 9.0c (XP) and 10 (Vista). The number of your DirectX installation will not change, but the patch gives extra functionality in a number of areas and corrects other faults in VS11 in particular which do appear linked to Windows updates. Perhaps the 'building preview graph' may be one of them.

The only other thing I can think of is that you may have loaded a mega codec pack, which is usually more trouble than it is worth, with conflicts with existing codecs being the usual result. This could also explain your problem. If you have indeed loaded such a codec pack, I would suggest you uninstall it. If you require a specific codec from it, then install just that one and not the whole pack.
Ken Berry
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