Capturing from Sony Camcorders

Donna Novak · Post by **Donna Novak** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:59 am

I am thinking of purchasing Ulead for videos and I was wondering if anyone has any problems capturing from DVD from Sony Handycams. Right now I am pulling my hair out using Adobe. Whenever I burn a DVD it is choppy. Thanks for your info.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:14 am

I have a Sony DCR - TRV255E Camcorder and connect it tothe computer by way of an IEEE1394 (firewire / ilink) cable and have no problems capturing with my ulead software.

I used to use Video Studio 9 to capture but since upgrading to Media Studio 8 I now capture with that instead. Both work fine.

Post by **lancecarr** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:46 am

I have a Sony HC90 and use Ulead to capture via firewire. No dropped frames, camera is contolled fine...no problems.

captainzeb · Post by **captainzeb** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:00 am

I have a Sony DCR-DHC21 MiniDV camcorder. Ulead will not allow me to control the camera from the PC and hence I cannot capture from it. From the 'source' dropdown I have "Microsoft DV camera and VCR" as a choice, yet when I look at the device manager in XP, it says "Sony DV Camcorder." When I try to capture using the Microsoft choice I get the following error message, "Unexpected error. The supplied user buffer is not valid for the requested operation." I click 'OK' to close the window and a second one opens "Capturing failed. The file created is corrupt and unusable. It will be automatically deleted."

When I go to 'Video and Audio Capture Settings" the 'video input source' is blank and greyed out as is the 'TV system.' The 'audio device' and 'Input source' are not greyed out.

I have the camera connected via firewire and it is set to 'Play/Edit' mode (VCR mode). Is this the correct setting?

It would be great to be able to control the camera from Ulead and then to capture the data in that way. Am I asking for too much?

By the way, I am able to transfer the footage from my camcorder to the PC via other programs. I press "record" in their program and then "play" on the camcorder. It does work but its nothing like what ULEAD, Pinnacle, etc. are offering.

Any ideas?

Many thanks!

lancecarr wrote:I have a Sony HC90 and use Ulead to capture via firewire. No dropped frames, camera is contolled fine...no problems.

Post by **lancecarr** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:08 am

What version of Video Studio are you using?

captainzeb · Post by **captainzeb** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:11 am

Version 9

Post by **lancecarr** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:20 am

Under "Tools" "Device control" make sure the "MS 1394 Device Control" is selected.
Under "Format" on the Capture screen make sure "DV" is selected.
And under "Tools" "Change Capture Plugin" tab make sure "Ulead Direct Show Plugin" is selected.
Also make sure DV Type 1 is selected under "Options" in the Capture screen.

captainzeb · Post by **captainzeb** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:36 am

lancecarr wrote:Under "Tools" "Device control" make sure the "MS 1394 Device Control" is selected.
Under "Format" on the Capture screen make sure "DV" is selected.
And under "Tools" "Change Capture Plugin" tab make sure "Ulead Direct Show Plugin" is selected.
Also make sure DV Type 1 is selected under "Options" in the Capture screen.

I chose MS 1394, clicked okay but it says "Unable to open the specified device. Please check if your device is ready."

I chose DV format but it returns to AVI automatically.

Ulead direct show plugin is set.

Unable to select DV type I, likely due to the fact that AVI keeps popping up in the format field.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:09 am

AVI is not a format, it's a container, in this case it will contain DV-AVI. The fact that you cannot select DV type 1 indicates that there is something wrong with your connection.

Is the camera already switched on at this point in time?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:12 am

On second thoughts, WIN Xp SP2 firewall treats the IEEE1394 port as a network port and may prevent certain types of communication via that port, depending on its settings. Briefly disable the firewall and try again.

captainzeb · Post by **captainzeb** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:21 am

I tried that but to no avail. Camera is switched on and in 'Play/Edit' mode or VCR mode as some refer to it.

Post by **lancecarr** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 6:05 am

Hmmmm...Download a tiny program called WinDV (Google it) it is a free standalone capture utility that uses very little resources. Try that and see if you can at least capture. If you can then we can narrow the debug process to VS rather than a host of other possibilities.

captainzeb · Post by **captainzeb** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 2:22 pm

I tried it but it gives me the error message "Can't find I AM Dropped frames".

captainzeb · Post by **captainzeb** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 12:23 am

Sony support says:

"The camcorder has the ability to be controlled via I.Link when connected to another I.Link recording device."

I am using firewire so I assume I should be able to control my camera via my PC / software package (ulead, WINDV, pinnacle, etc.).

Arghh!

Post by **lancecarr** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 1:15 am

Well at least that shows us something! It does not seem to be the software, either, Ulead or WinDV. The problem seems to be either Windows it self doing something weird or you may have a faulty firewire (iLink) cable or a faulty capture card or, finally, the cam itself.
You could:
1. Open the computer if you have a PCI capture card just check to see that it is seated correctly on the motherboard.
2. Check that the cable itself is ok. Try another cam or take your cam to a friends place and try it. Or, try another cable.