Solution: miniDV showing up on device manager but not detected by software

[alaska2014]

Folks I am sharing the solution to my days long situation, I bought an IEE1394 card for my old Sony DCR-PC9E PAL camcorder, the device was successfully listed under device manager under Win10 environment but it was not pick up by any other software. Saw a lot of people with similar cases while I was searching online, guess legacy issues require legacy tool.

Solution: Install Windows Move Maker (MM).
Go download the Windows Live Essentials installer and run it. Choose optional download and just the "Photo Gallery and Movie Maker". When it's done, open MM and choose from "import from device", your camcorder device will be listed there, click on it and MM should start capturing the video.

p.s. if it prompt an error in the MM saying "the device is being used", close MM and uninstall all Codec you have, then restart the pc and camcorder to try again, there should be no error this time.

Ref:
https://windowsreport.com/windows-movie-maker-windows-10/?amp

[DB83]

If this works for you then fine.


But a recc to uninstall every other codec in your system is NOT a solution.


Had you actually looked or even asked in this forum you would have received the correct advice which is to install the legacy driver for the 1394 host controller.


So, yes, legacy. Not software but driver.

[dellsam34]

I wouldn't trust movie maker for a DV job, what you will get most likely is a DV to mpeg-2 conversion on the fly, Use the right tools for the right job. For DV use WinDV or ScenalyzerLive, For HDV use HDVSplit.

[DB83]

I seem to recall that Movie Maker only captured as avi or wmv.


But never used it beyond XP (and that was briefly) and since it was no longer shipped with Win7 I had no purpose in downloading it.

[aedipuss]

winDV and it's buddy HDVsplit work when installed in folders other than c: program****** and are run as administrator.

[alaska2014]

Thanks guys I was overjoyed on the issue and forgot to mention this is just my stick and stone method for minimal salvage for starters like me.

@DB83
- Thanks for the heads-up on the legacy controller, once I have back up all the tapes I will try it and see can it prompt a detection of the camcorder in winDV.
- My 1394 firewire card vendor told me it should be able to handle these without the need of a new driver so I didn't start there. I did look into the forum but shy away from asking as I wasn't informed enough to know what to ask. Only have one codec installed on my pc so I was not aware that would be a low hand in the field, my bad.

@dellsam34
@aedipuss
- Thanks for the suggestions, I tried both winDV and HDVsplit but neither was able to detect my DCR-PC9E PAL camcorder, I will try again after installing legacy driver on the 1394 host controller.