Hi there
I hope someone can help me solve a problem I'm having with my camera and PC. I'm new to this and not very technical but here goes with a description:
I have a Canon analogue Hi-8 camcorder which I connect to my XP (SP2) box with a Canopus ADVC-55 DV converter which connects to the PC via Firewire. I use MovieMaker as the capture software.
When I connect the Canopus, XP sees an 'AVC compliant DV tape recorder/player' in Imaging Devices within Device Manager whether the camcorder is connected or not.
When the camcorder is connected, loaded with a tape and powered on I set the camera to record mode (ie I can see the world through the viewfinder even though recording isn't in progress) and MovieMaker fires itself up.
The problem is that whether the live feed comes through on the MovieMaker preview screen or not seems to be entirely random. I've tried switching firewire ports, the order in which I attach things, the order I power them on, re-booting the PC and there seems to be no way of predicting whether it will come alive or not. If the preview screen does come up I switch the camera to playback and MovieMaker captures it ok.
It's really frustrating because I don't know whether the camera signal will be recognised first time or whether I have 20 minutes of fiddling to go through before it works!
Can anyone help?
PC is an Evesham Axis 2600 (AMD Athlon 1.25 GHz). I think the Motherboard is Leadtek with 1 Gb memory, XP Pro with SP2 and all updates, OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 host controller. I use Zonealarm free firewall with NOD32 AV software.
Any suggestions most welcome.
Thanks in advance
I don't use canopus, but a few guesses.
This link speaks of 4pin and 6 pin options - which do you have, and is your camopus powered seperately?
http://www.jigsaw24.com/proddesc.asp?ITEM=X531AGA
(The link has movie maker on the 'ok' list).
It would appear the canopus has no software/driver, so must have some internal electronics to decide, what inputs (composite or s-video) are being used.
Make sure only one of these is plugged in.
I'm guessing the canopus will only give an active signal out when it has an active signal connected. So if connected camera is not turned on, the canopus will behave as a turned off component. Whether camera is in vcr or camera mode shouldn't make any difference, so long as a video signal is being sent to the canopus. Having said that, if it's a dormant blue screen, the canopus could interpret this as no signal to decode and consider itself turned off.
Connect to canopus, then try putting camera in record/pause mode (or even play mode just to prove the point), then turn canopus on, so that on turning on, it will hopefully seek input device, be happy that a signal is there, then give signal to pc to say 'yep I'm an active firewire device that's just been turned on) and then a 'bong'.
Another test would be to experiment with tv plugged to canopus - which will have a constantly streaming video signal (unlike camera in standby etc).
Have you tried both composite and s-video from camera to canopus (but not both connected simultaneously).
Hi Dave
Thank you for your reply and ideas to solve my problem. The Canopus unit itself is powered by firewire so I get the unit powered up and the XP 'boing' at the same time. I connect the camcorder to the Canopus with red, yellow and white composite cables.
When I have had success with getting the preview up in MovieMaker it has always been with the camcorder in paused video mode (if that's the right phrase - it's when I have a moving image in the camera viewfinder but it's not being recorded) connected to the Canopus. I then attach the firewire cable to the Canopus, get the XP 'boing' and then (if I'm lucky) the preview comes up in MovieMaker. It only comes up perhaps one time in fifteen so it's a real pain.
I don't have the option to try it with a TV to check an alternative source.
Could this be an XP driver issue?
thanks again
I seem to remember reading somewhere, that moviestar software has problems with Althlon processors.