capturing to studio 9 plus

[littlehawk]

I have recently installed a studio 9 plus editing software. I have a couple of problems 1.when i try to download from a dv camera (via firewire with correct capturing settings) I cannot see preview of what is being downloaded 2. when it finishes capturing the file is sent to a document file and when I try to open it I get an error message saying that the file cannot be opened. what to do? thanks

[tmh]

???? very strange????

I do this all the time with no problems. Have you successfully transferred via firewire with another software, like WinDV ? Does pinnacle "see" your camcorder and control it (it should)? Do you have the camcorder set for "vcr" ?

What are your capture settings? Do you know where it's capturing to?

Unless you have a major software bug, something is wrong in the hooh-up or settings.

[littlehawk]

this is my first project and I have not try capturing from other than the DV camera. and yes pinnacle does see and control the camera. my capture settings are from a dv camcorder and format is mpeg. when it is finished or i stop the process the it looks as if it is capturing to a document file and like I said before it will not open the file. why would i set the camcorder for vcr when i have a dv out? thanks

[tmh]

easy solution - you need to set your capture to "DV full-quality". This will give you a DV-AVI file (13+ gb per hour of video). This should be an exact copy of your camcorder footage. What you're doing now is attempting to encode to mpeg "on the fly" so I'm not surprised Pinnacle chokes on it. I doubt anyone would recommend doing that. DV should be "captured" (actually "transferred") as DV, especially if you plan to edit it much.

Make sure you know where Pinnacle is putting the file - this is set at the top of the "start capture" box - a little envelope/drive icon. Also, you should shut down all unneeded applications and processes during capture or most other video type work you do.

Your next step in Pinnacle would depend on what you want to do with the video after that. If you let us know what your final project will entail, I'm sure someone can help wih the next step. Pinnacle is quite easy to use, but a pain in the arse because it is quite buggy and likes to freeze up. Save your work frequently.

[littlehawk]

thanks i will give it a shot and let you know the results.

[monkeyking]

On my PC, there appears to be an initiialization process to get my Canon MiniDV recognized by Pinnacle. This normally works ...
1) Power up camera in VCR mode (by default the DV output is enabled on mine)
2) Connect firewire cable
3) Let the PC recognize the camera.
4) Open Pinnacle (9,35 plus) and wait for it to start
5) Go to Capture - goofy camcorder screen comes up
6) Select either MPEG or DV and it works.

If I vary this, such as plugging in the camera after starting Pinnacle or power cycling the camera with it attached, or breaking the firewire connection, it may or may not capture, Then the camcorder screen shows the tape moving, but the preview window is black.

However, my PC appears to have no issues saving in MPEG, but I always use DV.

[littlehawk]

thanks. i got it to work by going through a Moviebox DV. i am good to go.