Alludo USER to USER Web Board

This is driving me nuts!

Using UVS 11+, capturing from a Sony TRV355E camcorder. I bought this camcorder specifically because, although it is a digital8 camcorder, it can read my older analogue video8 tapes

Using a Digital 8 tape I can capture DV Type-1 to an AVI file no problem.
Using exactly the same setup but with a Video 8 (analogue) tape, I can only capture 9.5 seconds of video (very consistently). File size is about 34MB. After that time, it appears the camcorder is switched off by videostudio.
Using Nerovision Express 3SE I can capture a whole (analogue video8) tape with no problem.
Both programs were set to capture DV Type-1. All setups connected DV output of camcorder to PC via firewire card.

I'm guessing, but it is as if VS times out. Presumably the DV stream generated by the camcorder from an analogue tape does not include any timestamp information, and I'm wondering if VS expects this, whereas Nero is quite happy if that information isn't there? Or something along those lines.

If I try alternative DVD or MPG formats, it stops in the same way (but at around 8 seconds).

Has anyone come across this sort of 10 second capture timeout under any other circumstances, or have any theories? I'd rather keep everything in VS but may have to resort to capturing using Nero.

Many thanks in advance.

Martin

I am afraid it is a very specific failing of VS11/11.5+. With VS 11, which was written for Vista, Corel changed the previous capture plug-ins used in VS to a single InterVideo one. And it cannot capture specifically from a Digital 8 which is playing analogue tapes via Firewire. I, and a few other users here, are in that situation too.

Initially, VS11 would also not capture from firewire analogue capture devices such as the Canopus or Plextor range, or from a mini DV camera being used as pass-through for capture from an analogue camera or VCR. But that was fixed with the 7 November 2007 update patch available on the Ulead.com website. But it did not fix the Digital 8 situation. Corel is, as far as we know, aware of this but have done nothing to correct the situation. And I don't know if it will be corrected in VS12.

But there is a simple work-around. Use another program, like Windows Movie Maker or a small freeware program called WinDV (from www.mourek.cz ) to capture in DV format, then simply open the captured files in VS for editing. As a matter of fact, I use WinDV in any case for my DV captures, not only from my own Digital 8 DCR-TRV480E, but also from my Canon mv930i mini DV camera. And a few other users here do the same as it is a very solid, trouble free program which is good at what it does.

To capture video:
1. Click the Capture Step then click Capture Video.
2. To specify a capture duration, enter the values in the Duration box in the
Options Panel.
3. Select your capture device from the Source list.
4. Select a file format to use for saving your captured video from the Format list.
5. Specify a Capture folder in which to save video files.
6. Click Options to open a menu for customizing more capture settings.
7. Scan your video to search the part to capture.
8. When you get to the part of the video that you want to capture, click Capture
Video to start capturing.
9. If you specified a capture duration, wait for the capture to complete. Otherwise,
click Stop Capture or press [Esc] to stop capturing.