Windows 98SE DV Capture Problem

[Chaoji3791]

Hi folks,

I can control my camcorder with Premiere, WinDV, DVIO, Amcap, STOIK, ALL of the major capture apps, but there's nothing in the preview window!!!

I run Windows 98SE, and I recently did a major Windows Update and bumped DirectX to 9b, and ever since then, my DV capture has been screwed. I use a Panasonic MX500 camcorder and have been happily capturing DV for the last two or three years, until now, so I can't understand what the problem is.

Seeing as I can actually still CONTROL the camcorder, I'm thinking it's probably not a FireWire problem but rather a video overlay problem of some sort. Probably a corrupt Windows driver or something. Has anyone experienced this sort of thing before? I've looked a few forum posts in a similar vein but all anyone ever seems to suggest is "Use WinDV, use WinDV," but I AM using WinDV and there's nothing but black in my preview window. Help!

[Dragonsf]

Have you tried different DV codecs? Install ACEMegacodecs and try them all.

[pchan]

Transfering from DV camera to PC does not need a codec. First, try another firewire cable if you have a spare one. Try uninstall the Firewire driver and plug the firewire card(if it's pci) into another PCI slot(make sure PC is unplug).

PS Note : Win98SE have 2gig filesize limit. It's good time to upgrade to Win XP or Win XP Pro. You fix the filesize limit and Xp pro comes with all the firewire drivers.

[Dragonsf]

It was about previewing, which needs a codec!

[pchan]

I think he is refering to capture where he is able to control the camcorder but the preview window is blank. Based my experience, I am to capture directly without any codec from my Sharp DV camcorder to my PC via firewire.

[Dragonsf]

I think he is refering to capture where he is able to control the camcorder but the preview window is blank. Based my experience, I am to capture directly without any codec from my Sharp DV camcorder to my PC via firewire.

He should tell us (in that case), if he could capture.
But my understanding is, he's trying to rewind/forward the tape and then capture. Seeing a blank screen may be an overlay problem (I had the same with a wrong codec). If it's not hardware caused, it's either a DirectX driver problem (VfW) or a bad codec.

[spectroelectro]

I used to use DirectX 8 on Windows 98SE back in the day when doing DV transfers from my digicam. DirectX 9 may require an aspi layer present in the NT kernel but not there in Win 98SE. In any case, if I were you I'd uninstall Direct 8 and go back to DirectX 8. Either that, or consider upgrading to an NT-based file system like Win 2K or Win XP. You're only going to be able to capture about 16 minuets of video at a time in Win 98SE due to the 5 gig filesize limit.

[ofbarea]

I think there was a MS patch to improve W98 firewire support.

[Chaoji3791]

I tried the Panasonic DV codec but it didn't work, so I went into the Device Manager, deleted the camcorder from under "Imaging Devices" and then rebooted the computer my camcorder switched on and the FireWire cable connected. My PC seemed to detect the camcorder (that little dialogue box with the drum and "Updating Windows Settings" or whatever it says came up on the screen) and next time I tried to capture, everything was back to normal! I suspect one of the mini capturing apps I tested out the other day (WinDV, Stoik, Amcap, DVApp) might have screwed with a crucial .dll or something.

I still have no idea what caused the problem but at least I now know how to fix it. I suspect it was probably some sort of video overlay problem rather than a FireWire problem. If it had a FireWire problem, I wouldn't have been able to play, stop, rewind and generally control my camcorder from my computer, which I WAS able to do.

At any rate, thanks for your suggestions. Hopefully soon I'll have enough money in my piggy bank to buy that 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 beast with WinXP Pro I've been dreaming about and I won't have to face problems like this anymore ...