DV Camcorder disconnecting during DV capture!?...help pls!!

[ceilingcat]

Hey all!

I need some help and and hopefully some knowledgeable soul on here can answer my pleas!

I have been trying to capture some footage from my DV camcorder (Sony Handycam DCR-HC19E) via firewire/ilink for the first time!..

When plugging the camcorder in xp sp2 picks it up fine and it is listed under my computer..
So i open WinDV and prepare it for capturing, device is recognised fine, good to go - so I begin to capture and all's going swimmingly... BUT for no apparent reason the capture freezes and the camcorder disconnects from the pc?! Sometimes only a few seconds of footage is captured, sometimes more - but never more than a minute!!

Incidentally it appears that i can play footage in WinDV no problems at all - ie the camcorder doesnt disconnect.. I can also capture footage via usb streaming no problem at all other than the quality is absolute BS!! lol

So it appears that the camcorder only disconnects when capturing dv!..

Ive also tried capturing via Windows Movie Maker - same problem! Starts capturing fine but shortly after the camera disconnects!?

Ive tried performing a capture with Windows task manager on screen to monitor the cpu usage levels and it doesnt seem to be under too great a stress..

So im a bit stumped!! And being a bit of a noob at this im out of ideas!

So has anyone come across this problem before or got any ideas of things to try??

Any help much appreciated!

[ceilingcat]

Nobody got any ideas??

[ZAPPER]

Computer Specs?

[JohnnyMalaria]

Do you know anyone with a DV camcorder and/or a PC with Firewire? If so, try their camcorder on your system and your camcorder on theirs - this will help narrow down the problem to either your system or your camcorder.

Other things to consider:

1. Are you using the mains adapter for the camcorder or a battery?
2. Turn off all power saving options on your computer to see if the problem goes away

[Cornucopia]

Do you have a dedicated Video media Harddrive (physically separate from your OS drive)? You should, because you could have pipeline problems that won't show up in the CPU meter.

Do you have an external firewire HD connected to the same PORT Controller (not jack) as your camcorder? That could also cause timing/connection problems. They should be utilizing separate port controllers. This is sometimes hard to tell (without the appropriate utilities).

What other processes are going on simultaneously?

Tell us more...

Scott

[Bjs]

From our unit we got the blue screen and system memmory dump via usb capture , then system restart ... warning ... do not do this again , pc will now reboot .

Hidden in the manual was mentioned that all other usb device's should be disconnected ... which worked , so remove all usb and firewire device's .

Mind you , this info was burried , and in the smallest print available in the whole manual ... about page 21 .

Next .

While pc is off .

1: Connect camera to external power pack
2: Connect cable to pc
3: Connect cable to camera
4: Turn camera on and wait till active
5: Start pc .

Some camera's can be damaged if the connection order according to manual instruction's is not followed correctly .

If manual is not specific , go to manufacturer's web site for proper procedure , usually they have a FAQ somewhere on the main page that should provide straight forward instructions to many issue's .

Firewire cards are another thing ... different companies , and not all are 100% compatable ... belkin firewire card seem's to be dead set perfect .

----------------

Then see how it gose .

[ceilingcat]

Great replies guys!!

ZAPPER: Computer specs and none too impressive - its well overdue an upgrade.. lol

Cornucopia: Nope i only have 1 hdd in at the mo so its capturing to the os drive No external fw hd and no other processes happening at the same time...

Bjs: Nice idea about removing usb devices! My dv card has 2 fw ports and 4 usb ports - only 1 fw port in use (to camcorder ) but i must admit i lazily left all 4 usb ports with things plugged in .. will remove them all and try again see if this helps...
Will also double check the connection procedure...

Many thanks for the replies guys, i'll do some more testing tonight and see what happens... Fingers crossed!

[Cornucopia]

Underspec'd computer = strike 1

No separate media drive = strike 2

Active USB ports = polling. Polling = interrupts. Interrupts = possible buffer problems = strike 3

Just in case, use TaskMgr to kill any non-necessary processes (including "hidden" ones).

Scott

[ceilingcat]

Hello again!

Just thought I would report back with thanks to all those who replied with ideas AS IT NOW WORKS!! Whoooo!

Seems that leaving the other usb devices plugged in was the problem! Whipped them all out and tried it and it worked 100% perfect! Not a single frame dropped! Transferred over 2 hours of footage!

So one final many thanks to all on here that make this place the internets home of videohelp!

[zeek543]

I'm having a similar problem. When i try to capture dv over firewire from a camera, the capture process will always at some point freeze up and so does the capture program, but not the whole computer. I have WINXP PRO SP2, sony DV cam (not sure of model), PCIMA expansion firewire card, Dell600m laptop. Sometimes i am able to capture less than a minute of dv footage, other times i can capture more than an hour. But it will freeze up 90% of the time. Does so in WinDV, Windows Movie Maker, etc. I have no idea how to fix this. I am pretty sure it is not the camera or firewire expansion card, as i was able to capture as much video as i wanted with them on a dell700m laptop. Please help, quickly...this is a very frustrating problem. Thanks a ton.