Trouble with HDVsplit using Windows 7

[SteveCA]

Has anyone been successful using HDVSplit in Windows 7? I am trying to capture HDV from a sony HC1 camcorder. I have had the most strange sequence of events while trying to do this:

1. The first time I tried HDVSplit, everything worked perfectly. The preview worked, although I did get a warning about my "computer may not be fast enough" for preview. I captured four test clips each of which were perfect. I then closed the program, shut down the computer and went to sleep.

2. The next morning I opened HDVSplit and tried to capture a full tape. Nothing worked, no preview, clips had no data 0Kb captures.

3. After trying everything I could think of, I restored the windows system to a point before I downloaded HDVSplit, downloaded HDVSplit, ffdshow, configured ffdshow as instructed. Voila, everything worked again for one capture. After one capture, nothing worked again. No preview, 0Kb captures. The only thing that worked was control of the camcorder.

4. I did an extensive search for this problem and found two things:

the first was a crazy work around involving the following steps: turn on camcorder, start playing video, then launch HDVSplit. Apparently HDVSplit wouldn't recognize the camcorder properly unless there was video streaming at the point of launch.

secondly, I found a youtube video about windows 7 and 1394 drivers that suggested a change to the legacy driver for the system to work with older 1394 devices. This switch brought back the preview function which would not work when using the default driver.

So now my crazy process is: start playing video, launch HDVSplit, capture video. If there is a pause in the tape (for example, the tape was removed at anytime during the original taping) or interuption in the capture (for example, stopping and fast forwarding to another point in the tape) HDVSplit would stop capturing and the whole shutdown launch sequence would have to be repeated and video captured to a new file name.

The crazy part is that it worked perfectly fine for multiple captures (with starts and stops, fast forwarding, etc) the first time I used it so something must have been written to my system that now prevents that process.

Any help would be appreciated.

Steve

[edDV]

The only time HDVspilt has "stopped working" for me is when I have the camcorder set wrong. HDV camcorder output can be set to DV 720x480i or HDV 1440x1080i. If you can see it in WinDV, it is set to DV.

I've got HDVsplit working in 2 Vista and 2 Win7 machines.

[SteveCA]

The only time HDVspilt has "stopped working" for me is when I have the camcorder set wrong. HDV camcorder output can be set to DV 720x480i or HDV 1440x1080i. If you can see it in WinDV, it is set to DV.

I've got HDVsplit working in 2 Vista and 2 Win7 machines.

Thanks for your reply. Did you have to do anything special with the 1394 drivers? Mine did work flawlessly for one night and then everything got weird so I have no doubt that it can work. Mine just doesnt seem to be stable. Also, it is on a windows 7 home edition. Maybe I'll upgrade to professional or ultimate and see if that helps.

[SteveCA]

The only time HDVspilt has "stopped working" for me is when I have the camcorder set wrong. HDV camcorder output can be set to DV 720x480i or HDV 1440x1080i. If you can see it in WinDV, it is set to DV.

I've got HDVsplit working in 2 Vista and 2 Win7 machines.

Also, What version of HDVSplit are you running? Mine is the .7 beta which was the only one I could find to download.

[edDV]

Nothing special done. Version is 0.77 beta.

Three of my computers have motherboard IEEE-1394. One has an add-in PCI card.

[SteveCA]

Hmm.. pretty sure my Dell has a motherboard 1394 as well. i may upgrade to professional and see if it helps. My current work flow is a royal pain. Whenever the tape has a minor glitch, or a slight pause resulting from having removed the tape and reinserting it during recording different events, the capture stops without warning, HDVSplit stops working and I have to go through the whole sequence of closing HDVSplit and starting over. Inevitably, I lose a few seconds at the start of every capture as HDVSplit wont work unless the tape is already playing (beyond the glitch point).

I takes an average of two hours to capture one hour of tape due to this problem. Hopefully someone has come across this problem and found a system fix. I will keep searching and post any useful info.

[edDV]

...

3. After trying everything I could think of, I restored the windows system to a point before I downloaded HDVSplit, downloaded HDVSplit, ffdshow, configured ffdshow as instructed. Voila, everything worked again for one capture. After one capture, nothing worked again. No preview, 0Kb captures. The only thing that worked was control of the camcorder.

You don't need to upgrade to Professional (Business).

Something happened to corrupt your system. Best strategy is to reinstall Windows 7 from scratch. You will need to install all the latest Win7 version Dell drivers.

Save disk images at various install milestones to speed the process next time.

[aedipuss]

have you tried running hdvsplit as admin? right click on the shortcut, properties/compatibility/privilege level - put a check in the box to let it run as admin. works without a hitch in the win7 comps here that way.

[SteveCA]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think my system must be corrupt as it worked perfectly fine the first night, although there was an automatic windows update that night. I don't think my dell came with disc's so I'll have to figure out something. What fun! Unlike you guys, I am an amatuer at this stuff which why I'm a MAC user. This system is only used by wife for internet and email, until now...

BTW, tried the "admin" mode but still having problems.

[edDV]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think my system must be corrupt as it worked perfectly fine the first night, although there was an automatic windows update that night. I don't think my dell came with disc's so I'll have to figure out something. What fun! Unlike you guys, I am an amatuer at this stuff which why I'm a MAC user. This system is only used by wife for internet and email, until now...

BTW, tried the "admin" mode but still having problems.

You can call Dell about reinstall discs. Many notebooks allow you to create disks from a restore partition.

Short of that, you can try to go back further with system restore. Then immediately update.

[aedipuss]

some dells have a restore partition on the hard drive. reached by hitting f11 or f12 during boot. look up your model and check.

[SteveCA]

some dells have a restore partition on the hard drive. reached by hitting f11 or f12 during boot. look up your model and check.

Ed,

thanks for the tip. i will look into that. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, i did a restore to a point before my first install of HDVSplit and it worked great for one capture, then kaputs so something is happening to my system after the first use.

steve

[edDV]

some dells have a restore partition on the hard drive. reached by hitting f11 or f12 during boot. look up your model and check.

Ed,

thanks for the tip. i will look into that. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, i did a restore to a point before my first install of HDVSplit and it worked great for one capture, then kaputs so something is happening to my system after the first use.

steve

Or it could be an automatic update causing the problem. Make sure all the Dell drivers are up to date. See the Dell support site for your model.