Strange audio and date issue with WinDV

[spotty]

I've been trying to use WinDV, but have found a problem capturing. The exact same problem happens with both tapes that I have tired.
When capturing the 1st recording off the tape, the filename sets to todays date, despite the time/date counter working OK while capturing. Also the audio is blank.
All other recordings after the 1st work fine.
Now, if I capture with windows movie maker, everything works fine - but it just doesnt have the features I want - WinDV is all I want except for this problem.

Is there any active support of WinDV?
Are there any other free programs with the same features? (I want to generate separate files for each recording except when they are within 30mins or so of each other - and the program MUST tell me if it dropped frames).
Thanks

[2Bdecided]

No audio under certain circumstances (specific DV type / sample rate) is a known WinDV bug. It can sometimes be cured by re-starting, and it happens most regularly when changinf from one sample rate to another.

Naming the file with the current date/time rather than the shooting date/time happens when the incoming DV stream has no date/time information.


In both cases, I wonder if WinDV is trying to capture before the tape starts? In my set-up, there's no problem hitting "capture" before pressing "play" on the camcorder - the capture doesn't start until something is actually played - but if there's some junk before the real capture, while WinDV is "capturing", it can cause real problems (corrupted footage and dropped frames) until the next scene.

It all depend on what your camcorder send to the PC while it's doing nothing, or playing blank sections of tape.

Cheers,
David.

[spotty]

It does seem as though something wierd is happening at the start.

I found a workaround - press play, wait until the video is playing before starting capture. This does miss a teenie bit of the video, but everything else works fine.

[Gavino]

I found a workaround - press play, wait until the video is playing before starting capture. This does miss a teenie bit of the video, but everything else works fine.

For that reason, I always shoot some throwaway footage for the first few seconds of each tape.
Since I started doing that (and captured with the tape rolling), I no longer experienced problems with WinDV.

[2Bdecided]

Be careful with blank parts in the middle of the tape too.

On camcorders where the start of the tape is a problem, any blank parts during the tape may also trigger a problem on the following scene with WinDV. Sometimes dropped frames, sometimes picture errors, even when what's on tape is pristine.

Cheers,
David.

[spotty]

Yes, I was planning on checking each recording for audio, correct date and of course the dropped frames count.