Firewire Capture Issue

[wargamer6]

Hello. I'm trying to capture footage from an HV20 camera. For some reason, when I connect with Firewire Vista does not see the camera. At first I thought it was the camera but I tested it on an XP computer and it found it.

I tested my external HDD with firewire on my laptop's port and it worked fine. I have this same problem with Windows 7 too.

What's going on?

[JohnnyMalaria]

Seems a common frustration with the HV20 and Vista (Google: hv20 vista problem).

How are you deducing that Vista doesn't recognize it? Things behave differently compared to XP. Namely, DV cams no longer show up in My Computer (annoying) and they get put in a different category in Device Manager (I may be thinking of HDV mode though). Does Vista do anything (beep etc) when you plug the cam in or unplug it? BTW, one thing to verify is that the camcorder is set to output DV and not HDV via its FireWire. What software are you trying to use with it?

[wargamer6]

When I plugged it in when Vista was on my laptop I didn't get the dings, the hard drive light didn't flash and I didn't get the "connection" icon on the HV20 screen.

[Bjs]

Are you connecting the device correctly?

You connect such devices to their power pack mains adapter, turn it on, connect firewire cable then to firewire connection on pc ... Then turn the pc on ... the "safe" removal of the camera is the reverse method used to connect the camera to systems.

You may find the vista system is using a later improved chipset for firewire than the xp systems which is possibly why the xp system have no problems .

[wargamer6]

Yeah I'm connecting it properly. Where would I update the chipset?

[edDV]

There are two ways to connect an HV20 over IEEE-1394.

1. As a DV device. Switch HV20 play menu to DV output. In this mode MiniDV tapes play direct and HDV tapes are downconverted to DV. The camcorder should be detected by XP/Vista/W7 normally as a DV device.

2. As an HDV device. Switch HV20 play menu to HDV output. In this mode Windows OS does not see the camcorder. You need an application that supports capture of HDV MPeg2 such as HDVSplit, CS-3/4, Vegas Pro, etc.

Try #1 first to test that the port is operational, then experiment with #2.

[wargamer6]

I've done both and no dice. As I stated, the port on the camera works as I can connect on a different PC and the PC's port works as I connected my external HDD to it.

I even bought a firewire express card. Windows 7 and Vista recognize the card but still won't see the camera through it.

[edDV]

I'm out of ideas. Did you call Canon support?

[wargamer6]

They blame Windows even though this has worked on other PCs.

[minidv2dvd]

just a guess but there are different firewire chipsets and it seems not all of them work with the hv series under vista especially the 64 bit version.

one survey i saw on hv20.com was reporting about a 33% failure to work ratio under vista.

some were reporting success after changing firewire cards especially built-in chipsets.

see who's chipset your motherboard uses and check if the same one is used on the express card.

[j.man]

I'm out of ideas. Did you call Canon support?

I would check the device manager, first to look for reports of the card not working correctly, and next to see if the camera shows up there when you switch on its power. Last I would try a different Firewire cable, considering the inexpensiveness of this test, in case the one I'm using has taken damage.