capture window is blank

[mitcs0ke]

I have downloaded WinDV and the video capture preview works just fine.
I also tried Windows Live Movie Maker and the capture preview worked just fine there also.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

Very strange why VS doesn’t show the video. Maybe it’s a W7 issue.
I have the same camera and have no problems but running XP

Win DV is a nice little program, I now use it mainly cos I can select a name for my captured clips rather than using the date order that Video Studio imposes on us.

[Cirrus]

I got the same problem using vsx4 ultimate.
I can capture successfully, but there's no preview.

Playback Target is set to "preview window"
X4 is up to date.

Camera:
Canon Vixia HF R100

System:
Windows 7 ultimate:
GA-890GPA-UD3h
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T
AMD HD6970
8gb 1600mhz ram
Soundblaster X-fi

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Cirrus

Unless I am mistaken the Canon Vixia HF R100 records video onto a Memory Card.
As such you do not/should not have to use the capture function of X4.
The video files are transferred to the pc in the same manner as you would for images (Jpeg’s)

If you have software supplied with the camera it may be best to use that to import the files to the pc.

The cameras card may also show as a removable drive in My Computer allowing you to drag and drop the files to the pc.

Once you have the files on the pc simply import to Video Studio timeline, right click timeline and select Insert Video

[Cirrus]

Wow what a dumass I can be, the canon is my new camera not the one I'm using for my dv tapes
The camera I wanted to mention is a Sony DCR-HC94E

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi
Not to worry

I know there have been some issues with firewire and Windows 7.
Can you fill in your profile to include your pc details. Thanks.

You may be best to do a search of the forum regarding “Windows 7 firewire”

[Ken Berry]

In brief, Windows 7 installed a new firewire driver, while VS (and other programs) are more suited to the old (legacy) driver.

You can try the following steps to fix the issue,

1- Click the Start Button, type devmgmt.msc in the "Start Search" box and press Enter. (You can also go direct to Device Manager in Control Panel if you know how to find it.)

2- Expand the "IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controllers" node in the device tree by double clicking.

3- Select the Driver tab and the click the Update driver button.

4- Select "Browse my computer for driver software"

5- Select "let me pick from a list of device driver on my computer ..." and Check the box before "Show compatible hardware".

6. Choose the second option---1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy), and click next to update the driver.

[Cirrus]

It worked! great thanks

[countpierre]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread.
I cannot get HDV capture to work at all.

I wanted to import some old footage from my Sony HDR-HC3.

My new computer didn't have a firewire i/f, so I got a 2 port pci-express adapter card ( StarTech ) and installed it.

When I found that VS pro x4 didn't work I tried all the suggestions here (windv, hdvsplit, change to legacy 1394 driver) but to no avail. it just doesn't work.

Did anyone find a solution?

I am using Windows 7 64 bit.

[Ken Berry]

The Star-Tech cards are supposed to be plug-and-play. So when you inserted it, did it go through the usual 'installing new device' routine? In other words, did your computer recognise it, and does it show up under Device Manager, probably the IEEE1394 bus host controller entry -- or is there a cross in a yellow circle against that?

About the only other thing I can think of is to make absolutely certain the card is seated fully in the motherboard. Whatever the case, it seems your problem is clearly a hardware one if none of the usual programs you listed can see the connection.

I see Star-Tech also says this on its website: "Backed by a StarTech.com lifetime warranty and free lifetime technical support". So you might get more luck out of them...

[countpierre]

Yes it installed correctly.
The programs, including VS, identify the camera, indeed VS can control the camera, but capture always fails.
Yes I checked the card was physically installed okay, I even tried another slot, to no avail.

There have been a lot of posts about Windows 7 64 bit not working correctly with firewire, I just wondered if there had been any update.

[countpierre]

Partial success!

After much searching around I finally got to the chipset manufacturer (JMicron.com) site and downloaded drivers of various age.
The one I had most success with was the oldest ( ftp://driver.jmicron.com.tw/1394/Window ... 7_WHQL.zip).

Although this crashes Videostudio pro x4 on capture dv, it sort of works with HDVSplit, in that it actually creates a video file (with M2t extension) on selecting capture. Preview does not work, but tape control does.
Strange that it stores the file as "m2t", as the file is actually mpeg-2.

I can then import that file into the timeline and away we go.

All later drivers from the chipset manufacturer fail (including the latest "legacy" driver).

This is definitely a Windows 7 and/or VS pro X4 issue as the same card running in windows XP works fine with VS 10+ .

[Ken Berry]

Glad you are at least managing to capture HDV -- though that makes it even stranger that you still can't capture DV/AVI!!

Strange that it stores the file as "m2t", as the file is actually mpeg-2.

The extension for HDV is .m2t, so that is correct. You may be thinking of AVCHD mpeg-4 which uses one of two extensions: .mts and .m2ts. (What is far more curious is that AVCHD, in Blu-Ray terms, is considered a subset of 'mpeg transport stream' which is in fact usually mpeg-2!!)

Does Windows Movie Maker or whatever it is now called, still capture in DV format? If so, you could always try that if you have not already done so...

[countpierre]

The extension for HDV is .m2t, so that is correct. You may be thinking of AVCHD mpeg-4 which uses one of two extensions: .mts and .m2ts. (What is far more curious is that AVCHD, in Blu-Ray terms, is considered a subset of 'mpeg transport stream' which is in fact usually mpeg-2!!)

Thanks for the clarification. Videostudio 10+ used to give the captured files a ".mpg" extension!

Does Windows Movie Maker or whatever it is now called, still capture in DV format? If so, you could always try that if you have not already done so...

Yes but not in HD!

To be honest it is much easier to capture with Videostudio 10+ on my XP machine, and transfer the files over. At least I get a preview screen and can determine exactly what I capture.

[countpierre]

Success!!!!!

In my efforts to get this working, I needed to re-install VSPX4 (long story!).

Using the latest legacy driver from JMicron (1.0.23.1, 25/07/2011) , capture works, complete with preview window.

One thing I have to remember, is to ensure the camcorder is turned off before going to the capture screen.
If it's on VSPX4 crashes.