Pass-through capturing via Sony camcorder - I'm stuck...

[LetsRip]

I've been reading posts and experimenting quite a bit lately with capturing from my Sony TRV-740 D8 camcorder. I've had success capturing from tapes played by the camcorder, but am having a number of issues getting the DV signal captured via the pass-through feature (connected to an S-VHS player). The general issue is the Windows application attempting to control the camcorder for play/record rather than just capturing the pass-through signal (issue with both Ulead Media Studio & Win Movie Maker). Contrary to suggestions I've seen, removing the tape from the camcorder does not make a difference

The only product I've been able to successfully use to capture via pass-through is DVIO, but as far as I know it doesn't allow the tweaking of any settings or inclusion of codecs. I would really like to use VDub, but I keep getting the following error:

"Cannot find a driver to draw this non-RGB image format. preview & histogram functions will be unavailable".

Here is my configuration - your feedback is appreciated:

AMD Duron 1.3Ghz
Windows XP SP1
128 MB RAM
80GB 7200-rpm HD (D: for DV capture)
ADS Pyro DV capture card
Sony TRV-740 (S-video, 16-bit stereo audio, DV link)
JVC S-VHS player

[yg1968]

Vdub cannot capture through firewire. There is little that you can tweek for DV. Remember that the DV is merely transfered through firewire. It isn't truly captured. The DV is actually captured by the camcorder (using a hardware DV codec). However, you can import the DV in Virtualdub if you are using a type 2 DV avi file and that you have installed a vfw DV codec (for example, the Panasonic DV codec).

Another freeware that captures DV is DVapp. You have to press on the play buttton for the passthrough feature to work.

[LetsRip]

Thanks yg1968, but I'm a little confused by your comments or perhaps my terminology wasn't correct...

I didn't realize that VDub could not capture via a 1394 port - that stinks. When you say that "the DV is merely transfered through firewire. It isn't truly captured...", I guess I don't understand your statement. Per my setup, data is captured to an AVI file on my PC, with the camcorder providing the DV signal using the pass-through feature -- the source is an S-VHS analog deck. The camcorder itself is not controlling the play function, and it appears that is why some Windows apps choke, as they think control of the camcorders play/record feature is necessary.

Once I have the information captured, I plan on using Ulead or other retail package for authoring. At this point, I just need to get past the pass-through issue. I will give a try to DVapp as you mentioned -- I'm assuming I can easily find this on the net .

[yg1968]

The terminology gets confusing but, in the strict sense, DV is merely transfered from your camcorder to your PC without modification (when you press the capture button). Your capture software only wraps in into a DV avi file (type 1 or type 2 DV avi). This transfer is made by pressing the capture button but you have no control over the resulting file. DV is set as 720x480 with 32 khz or 48khz pcm audio (sometimes 44.1 khz). You are free to edit the DV after the capturing is done in vdub. However, vdub only accepts the audio of a type 2 DV avi file.

Not all capturing software accepts the passthrough feauture. DVIO and DVapp accept it. But for DVapp, you have to press the play button in order for to get a preview of the video. Taking the tape out is important for DVapp.

I beleive that Ulead VS will also accept the passthrough feature. At least, it does for my Sony camcorder.

DVapp is freeware. Here is the link:

http://noeld.com/dlvconf.htm

[Nolonemo]

Vegas 4 has a capture utility that lets you turn off camera control via software which is what seems to be your problem. There's a free demo on www.sonicfoundry.com. I don't think the demo has limitations on the capture function. Once you have the DV captured to your drive, you should be able to open it in whatever editor you're using.
Try it out.

[Rich927]

Rather than using my Camcorder as a pass thru device, I copy from my VCR to my DV camcorder then I transfer from my DV camcorder to my computer via firewire. I know it's an extra step. There is no loss of quality as opposed to doing it via passthru. I do find that I have no dropped frames and my software controls my camcorder better. Time base code seems more acurate too. Did a bunch of experiments on this. Software I use is Videostudio 6 and Premire 6.5.

[Greg12]

if your having trouble w/ the passthrough, make sure you have no tape in ur DV cam


I found that when i put the camera is VTR mode and set the A-D passthrough on, that it tried to pay a tape, thought for a second and then began recording whatever was coming over the firewire.


I have Pinnacle Studio 8.5

[LetsRip]

Thanks for all of the feedback. Per yg1968's comment about getting pass-through to work with his Ulead product, I decided to revisit this since I have Ulead Media Studio (via the Video Capture component). After some experimentation, I got pass-through to work once I made the following changes to the settings:

1) Setup, Device Control, Current Device: None.
2) Setup, Switch Capture Plug-in, Current Capture Plug-in: Ulead DirectShow Capture Plug-in. I kept getting the error "Failed to build a capture graph" if set to Ulead DSW MPEG Capture Plug-in.

I'm not sure if the 2nd item is related to a different issue, but I was finally able to do a continuous pass-through capture of 90 min using Ulead, with 0 frames dropped. I did notice that I lost some frames on a previous attempt, while I had other applications running. Once I had Ulead running alone during the transfer, no problems.

Per Rich927's comment about his capture method, more power to you man . I guess I just can't deal with the fact that the process described is not only tedious, but unecessarily adds 4 hrs of wear-n-tear on the play/record mechanism for every 2 hrs of VHS needing captured.

A couple of notes regarding software apps - I tried the DVApp program, which appears to be a free Microsoft distributed demo app. In my opinion, don't waste your time -- DVIO is better for this type of function. I was quite impressed with the Scenalyzer product except for one fact - it would occasionally cause my PC to reboot when selecting clips .

Lastly, I appreciate the comment from yg1968 regarding his contrasting the terms "transfer" vs "capture". In other words, that DV data (similar to any digital information) is simply being transferred from the DV camcorder to the PC. The term "capture", as I think of it, describes taking information in one form (analog) and converting it to another (digital). As somewhat a newbie at this process, this really put it into perspective for me. I think this is one of the most confusing issues, as the discussions in the forums and terms used are not always applicable to both processes. I'll just keep learning...

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(3-19-04) A follow-up note for those looking through the archives. I now use Scenalyzer as my DV-AVI software tool of choice, which does not reboot my computer any longer, and provides a nice option for camera control on or off.

[ewingr]

Looks like you are successful with Ulead.

Just thought I'd add: I use Scenalyzer Live very successfully.

Per your note about MPEG failing with Media Studio: Interestingly, I just downloaded the trial of that program this morning and installed it to try, in order ot capture direct to MPEG. It failed, with an error about "Cannot capture to MPEG with Digitial Driver", or something close to that. Doesn't make sense to me.

Nothing...Nothing...every works first time at install. Guess it'd be boring if it did.