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  1. Greetings,

    I'm struggling with an old JVC-GRDV-21U Cyber Cam. The unit works perfectly, but forces me to capture via 1394 Firewire.

    I put a brand new PCI-E Firewire card in my Windows 7 64B PC over the weekend and spent over three hours trying to figure out why it won't recognize my JVC camera. I read several posts where it was recommended to revert the Firewire card drivers to legacy - which I did, but still to no avail.

    My biggest confusion? The JVC JLIP application wants me to choose a COMM port. I wasn't aware Firewire was mapped through a Comm Port and was finally able to manually add a Comm Port, but JLIP would not recognize the camera being connected.

    For those willing to assist (and thank you!), here are my questions:

    1. Tapping my memory from years ago, I realized that the new Firewire card I installed is not necessarily a "Capture Card". But with an I7 CPU, an SSD, and 16GB RAM - isn't this more processing power than an old legacy Firewire card? Do I need an actual "Capture Card"?

    2. Finding new capture cards with firewire support seem few and far between. If I do need a capture card, where can I find one that will work with Win 7 64B?

    3. Am I limited to using the very limited JVC "JLIP Software" and "Editing Software" or can I use any software designed to capture from external devices?

    4. Are there stand-alone DV Tape readers I can consider which will allow me to bypass the camera all together?

    Thanks again for considering my inquiries. I'm hoping someone can recommend a good plan of action!
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  2. Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
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    United States
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by fishnmgn View Post
    Greetings,

    I'm struggling with an old JVC-GRDV-21U Cyber Cam. The unit works perfectly, but forces me to capture via 1394 Firewire.

    I put a brand new PCI-E Firewire card in my Windows 7 64B PC over the weekend and spent over three hours trying to figure out why it won't recognize my JVC camera. I read several posts where it was recommended to revert the Firewire card drivers to legacy - which I did, but still to no avail.

    My biggest confusion? The JVC JLIP application wants me to choose a COMM port. I wasn't aware Firewire was mapped through a Comm Port and was finally able to manually add a Comm Port, but JLIP would not recognize the camera being connected.

    For those willing to assist (and thank you!), here are my questions:

    1. Tapping my memory from years ago, I realized that the new Firewire card I installed is not necessarily a "Capture Card". But with an I7 CPU, an SSD, and 16GB RAM - isn't this more processing power than an old legacy Firewire card? Do I need an actual "Capture Card"?

    2. Finding new capture cards with firewire support seem few and far between. If I do need a capture card, where can I find one that will work with Win 7 64B?

    3. Am I limited to using the very limited JVC "JLIP Software" and "Editing Software" or can I use any software designed to capture from external devices?

    4. Are there stand-alone DV Tape readers I can consider which will allow me to bypass the camera all together?

    Thanks again for considering my inquiries. I'm hoping someone can recommend a good plan of action!
    You could try WinDV for capturing the Firewire output from your camera. It has been reported to work with Windows 7 64-bit or 32-bit.
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  3. Member turk690's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    ON, Canada
    Search Comp PM
    Strictly speaking, capture means accepting an analogue signal, passing it through an A-to-D converter to land as a file in a computer drive. The file you need already exists as it is digitally in the DV tape and you merely need to move or transfer it bit by exact bit to your computer hard drive. In that sense, a firewire card therefore is an interface card; not a capture card. Either way, to increase the chances a windoze computer will recognize a DV camcorder and successfully allow transfer of the DV tape contents to a DV AVI file on the hard drive, make sure
    • you get an OHCI (open host controller interface) firewire card, which is distinctly different from UHCI (universal); the latter is good for firewire scanners, printers, external drives (should they still exist), but not for DV camcorders; all-in-one USB & firewire cards are typically UHCI
    • the chipset of the firewire card is Texas Instruments (TI); this seems to be an absolute requirement
    • the firewire card is still strictly firewire400, not 800
    • appropriate stable drivers are loaded for whatever OS it is you have; some cards may not have 64bit drivers, so if it fits all of the above criteria and you can't anything else you have to find a 32bit windoze computer to shove it in
    • you find a way of ensuring the oh-so-fragile firewire connector on the camcorder actually mates well with the cable you are attaching; before powering anything up gently plug and unplug the connector several times
    • some windoze computers have to be jolted into recognizing a DV camcorder by connecting the latter while it is already playing a tape
    • that all is successful upon connecting camcorder because windoze will "ding", then camcorder will appear in device manager under "imaging devices"
    • in the camcorder menu, DV OUT should be enabled (play with all combinations of the settings until one works)
    • that, because you seriously want to get the DV AVI file off that tape, you have to add another internal SATA hard drive to your computer to direct and put the captured files onto; capturing to the system drive C: is a colossal fail
    If all pertinent h/w in the chain from the camcorder to the computer is working, you actually do not need to go far where firewire transfer is concerned because this can be done from windoze movee maker or dvd maker. windv and all others are awesome and come with better features but they can't do any magic if the above requirements are not met to begin with.
    For the nth time, with the possible exception of certain Intel processors, I don't have/ever owned anything whose name starts with "i".
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