How to make VideoStudio X4 recognise my camera?

[Musicman762]

Using the trial version of VS X4 I am trying to get it to recognise my Panasonic HDC-HS700 video camera so I can use stop motion and onion-skinning. It recognises my webcam straight away but not the video camera.

Have been advised by email from Corel Support that in this case I should "use import from mobile device or import from digital media to capture from this camera." Unfortunately this will only read stored images from the camera's 250GB hard drive, when what we need is for the camera to be in its still picture recording mode so that each one can be checked by onion-skinning before proceeding to the next shot.

Have also seen somewhere that a video camera needs Firewire in order to be able to communicate with VS X4. The Panasonic has a socket marked with the IEEE 1394 three-pronged symbol, but the other end of the supplied lead has a USB plug on it.

Is it going to be possible to get high quality stop-motion videos using VS X4 and the Panasonic HDC-HS700?

There's a whole lot of lost souls on YouTube asking similar compatibility questions on "Corel VideoStudio Pro X4: Stop Motion Animation".

[LarryF]

Hi Musicman,
You do not mention the file format of the video clips you are attempting to capture. My camera does not have a firewire port on it, so I am not speaking from experience here. I stand to be corrected by someone else with more experience. What I have read elsewhere on this forum, is that VS X4 only does the type of importing you are trying to do from a firewire port. This is for DV video. Is that the format from your camera? If so, maybe they purchase of a standard firewire cable and connecting the camera to a firewire port on your PC might be the answer to your problem. As I said, I don't have any first hand knowledge in this area, so if there is someone else that feels this suggestion is incorrect, please step forward and let me know.
I hope this helps,

Larry

[Ken Berry]

Sorry, but I know absolutely nothing about stop motion. However, please note that your camcorder does NOT come with a Firewire port. It has a mini HDMI port, a mini USB port and an AV-Out port. So I assume the cable which came with it has a mini-USB plug at one end and the standard sized USB plug at the other. I assume it would be the mini-USB cable you should be using. But you would not be using the Capture process which the Firewire cable would use if you had a Firewire port on the camcorder. You would instead use the 'Insert Digital Media' command. Your camera's hard drive should show up as any other drive would on the directory tree which appears.

Or you could use Windows to transfer the video to your computer via USB and proceed from there.

[skier-hughes]

I'm thinking the OP is wanting to capture what is seen by the lens live?
Is this so?
In which case, I'd recomend using the software which came with the cam, and then import the resultant file, (files) into VS.

[Ken Berry]

...Told you I knew nothing about stop motion!

[Musicman762]

Thanks for trying, folks, and my apologies for not replying sooner; I was expecting notification that there had been a reply to my original post. I see now that I hadn't ticked the Notify box!

The big thing about stop motion is that it is "live", as skier-hughes suggests. It doesn't involve loading in a pile of shots which are already sitting in the camera or on the computer's hard drive (which is what VS X4 is assuming when it tells you to "use import from mobile device or import from digital media to capture from this camera.") You take a still shot which is passed to the software, then you take another after you have used onion-skinning to make sure that it follows neatly on from the first and you haven't knocked anything over between shots - or had your hand in the picture.

The stills I am trying to capture one at a time will be JPEGs.

I don't have a Firewire port on my computer.

Still open to suggestions,

Geoff