Can't Capture using Firewire & TRV22

[DigiEng]

Good day to all,

I am a newbie, having Sony TRV22 and using Dell Note book Inspiron 5150 – P4, 3.06Mhz, 512MB, having USB2.0 and IEEE 1394 port. I have about 30GB free space.

I have a few problems as below:

1) Capturing
Using USB no problem but results no good. Try use Firewire cable but after connection the software does not detect the ViewCam (I tried VirtualDub & Ulead). The ViewCam only comes with USB driver, anyone can help me where to download the firewire driver for notebook and Sony ViewCam connection?

2) Capture Size
What is the best capture AVI size to produce good SVCD quality. Will capture as 480*576 make the same SVCD MPEG quality? Do I always need to capture higher resolution to make better MPEG?

3) AVI file
What is best software to compress the AVI for editing and yet no reduce quality (for making SVCD)

4) Rate Control
I am Using TMPGEnc. What is the best for home event (child running around) : CBR, VBR or CQ_VBR)

I know most of the info have been discussed but at least I found the above is the basic start up for someone who like to ViewCam conversion.

Thank you very much.

[Craig Tucker]

Is your camcorder recognised by your pc when you connect it via firewire.
With firewire you are simply transferring the digital stream so you do not need to worry about resolutions bitrate etc as you are not capturing. Transferring via firewire will give you much better results than capturing via usb.

Give DVIO a try for simply transferring the dv stream from your camcorder to your hard drive.

TMPGEnc is very good for converting your DV stream to mpeg for SVCD or DVD. CQ can offer very good quality but it is difficult to predict the final filesize. If filesize is not an issue use CBR with a high bitrate to maintain the best possible quality, if you are trying to keep the filesize down a bit then a good option is 2 pass VBR.

[DigiEng]

Thank you.
My notebook does not automatic recognize the DV when I connected the firewire. The DV LCD panel do display DV IN.

So you mean firewire connection does not need any driver installation? I will try download the DVIO to check it first, BTW thank you very much

[proxyx99]

Your Firewire card/controller has to be installed properly (check device manager). It may be a FW connection issue (faulty cable - happens often), or bad FW device or driver. New OS'es (like XP) install the driver automatically (built in) Check FW with other input device and see if it works. If recognised you will see a msg "Sony DV cam". Firewire is the only way to transfer your video without loss to your PC (you may try alalog /RCA jacks, you would need capture device/analog-digital converter).

[DigiEng]

ProxyX99,
I am using WinXP, device manager shows FW working fine. it's TI OHCI compliant FW. The driver come together with WinXP dated 7/1/01.
Shall I update & where to get the driver. i check TI web site but dunno which is the right driver.
may be i should check the FW cable first.
Anyway, thanx...

[proxyx99]

TI works excellent. I've had same issue once. It was a cable (those tiny connectors..!). You may right click on the driver , choose uninstall, reboot and XP will reinstall. If cable not the issue and driver is OK then look at the hardware on both ends (FW card/controller or cam's connector). Replacement cable that I bought was faulty as well. 3rd one works flawlessly.

[Craig Tucker]

Might sound obvious but make sure you camcorder is turned on and set to playback not record.