Problem with DV Capture: Timecode leading to Dropped Frames

[DrGonzo]

Hi, wonder if someone here can help me with a very odd problem I have?

I am capturing (or transfering) some holiday footage shot on DV via Sony PC101E. A couple of weeks back I did some tests with capturing the DV via Ulead VideoStudio and I had no probelms at all - the whole tapes captured fine ... but I deleted the captured files as I needed drive space at the time.

Now I've come to capture the tapes again - Videostudio crashes. I have narrowed down the time when the crash happens - it is when the timecoding (which I know nothing about) changes on the DV.

I have tried using Sony Vegas and Screenblast Movie Studio - the first prog crashes and the second one only captures to where the timecoding changes - this makes it impossible to capture an entire tape in one go and even worse leads to dropped frames when the timecode transition is reached.

This is doing my head in!

I am capturing to a separate drive - set on DMA and fully defraged. I have followed all the usual advice - not running Anti-Virus or Firewall or other progs etc.

I'm at a loss to explain why my PC is suddenly 'using' the timecoding on the DV and futhermore - why the timecoding is there in the first place! (it does not change for every scene, just randomly, at arbitrary points).

Hope someone can help ...

[BJ_M]

DV doesnt use timecode but time stamps ... sounds like your tape or camcorder may be damaged or something along those lines -- shouldnt matter what you capture it with (even ms movie maker is fine) as its just a transfer of digital data ..

[DrGonzo]

But I have this problem with all 4 tapes - so we must surely discount that as a problem - one tape I could accept but the chances of all 4 ...

And, the camera has not been touched since the last time I used it.

[BJ_M]

then what have you done different on your pc ?

[DrGonzo]

AHA!, I've done a bit more research and when I get home I think I have the answer (which you have lead me onto - thanks!).

I have device control enabled whereas last time I may well not have done - I've read somewhere that enabling device control can cause problems when DV has a discontinouous timecode?

I reckon a manual capture should sort this out.

Next time I'll 'stripe' the DV first though!