Capturing video from a camcorder

I have a Sony HDD camcorder that comes with Imagemixer software. It worked OK
on XP but not on my new Vista PC. The CD won't load and the PC doesn't
recognise the camcorder when connected. Sony tell me that Vista doesn't
support USB streaming which sounds like a dead end. I can't believe the
latest generation OS can't cope with modern video capture processes. Can
anyone help?

I ran into the same problem myself and I find it very hard to believe that is
something that Vista can't do. I emailed Sony and they told me that the only
current option available is to hook the camcorder up to the firewire port on
my PC and then it would work.

Well that would be great and all.. but my PC doesn't have a firewire input.
I just built a PC and bought a mother board that doesn't have the firewire
interface on it because I didn't think I would need it. I've had one on my
last 3 PCs and never once used it.

I've not got a hdd cam, but when you connect by USB doesn't the hdd just
show up as an external hdd and you "copy" the file over to your internal
hdd?

--

Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.myvideoproblems.com


"brogues34L" <brogues34L@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7B2DB678-5DF1-4A46-B6B9-1FCA97940B57@microsoft.com...
>I have a Sony HDD camcorder that comes with Imagemixer software. It worked
>OK
> on XP but not on my new Vista PC. The CD won't load and the PC doesn't
> recognise the camcorder when connected. Sony tell me that Vista doesn't
> support USB streaming which sounds like a dead end. I can't believe the
> latest generation OS can't cope with modern video capture processes. Can
> anyone help?

PCI firewire adapters are very cheap.

--
I Bleed Blue and Gold
GO BEARS!


"BillMonty" <BillMonty@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9BF80026-6FB5-4B07-92A4-EEFF4F2A545E@microsoft.com...
>I ran into the same problem myself and I find it very hard to believe that is
> something that Vista can't do. I emailed Sony and they told me that the only
> current option available is to hook the camcorder up to the firewire port on
> my PC and then it would work.
>
> Well that would be great and all.. but my PC doesn't have a firewire input.
> I just built a PC and bought a mother board that doesn't have the firewire
> interface on it because I didn't think I would need it. I've had one on my
> last 3 PCs and never once used it.

On Tue, 3 Jul 2007 21:54:02 -0700, BillMonty
<BillMonty@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I ran into the same problem myself and I find it very hard to believe that is
>something that Vista can't do. I emailed Sony and they told me that the only
>current option available is to hook the camcorder up to the firewire port on
>my PC and then it would work.
>
>Well that would be great and all.. but my PC doesn't have a firewire input.
>I just built a PC and bought a mother board that doesn't have the firewire
>interface on it because I didn't think I would need it. I've had one on my
>last 3 PCs and never once used it.

A firewire port is the de facto standard for importing videos from
digital cameras, some may now use USB 2.0, but most still use
firewire. This isn't a Vista issue, rather a missing bit of hardware
issue that you can easily remedy if the interface isn't build into
your motherboard.

Just make sure your camera has a firewire output (most do) and then
buy a firewire external card, drop it in one of your free slots and
you should be all set. Just be sure to match to your system, PCI or
whatever, and also be sure that the firewire card is 100% firewire
compliant, if it isn't, that could open a whole new can of worms
depending on your camera, ie if or not is can be remotely controlled
from within whatever video editing application you are using,
otherwise the stream you are trying to import can get out of sync,
start dropping frames and other bad things you want to avoid.

My camcorder - and most are like this, use digital video tapes. Some
camcorders use DVDs and record straight to the DVD. I haven't looked at
camcorders in about a year or so, but they may have some models out now that
save what you record on an internal hard drive on the camera. Either way,
there are no 'files' to copy for most people using camcorders. We're not
talking about a digital camera where it saves your pictures in a file format
and you can plug your card into a reader and drag and drop. With a physical
tape or a DVD, the recording has to be streamed into your editing program,
either through a USB or Firewire connection.

Anyway, I took the PCI Firewire card route. I didn't even think of it. It
was a nice $20 solution so thanks for the tip.

"Graham Hughes" wrote:

> I've not got a hdd cam, but when you connect by USB doesn't the hdd just
> show up as an external hdd and you "copy" the file over to your internal
> hdd?
>
> --
>
> Graham Hughes
> MVP Digital Media
> www.myvideoproblems.com
>
>
> "brogues34L" <brogues34L@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:7B2DB678-5DF1-4A46-B6B9-1FCA97940B57@microsoft.com...
> >I have a Sony HDD camcorder that comes with Imagemixer software. It worked
> >OK
> > on XP but not on my new Vista PC. The CD won't load and the PC doesn't
> > recognise the camcorder when connected. Sony tell me that Vista doesn't
> > support USB streaming which sounds like a dead end. I can't believe the
> > latest generation OS can't cope with modern video capture processes. Can
> > anyone help?
>
>
>

That's odd Bill because you said you had the same problem as the OP who has
a HDD cam, Hard Disc Drive
You can also buy cams with solid state media which you can just plug
straight into a card reader!!!!
--

Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.myvideoproblems.com


"BillMonty" <BillMonty@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1B50E8F7-5C5F-4125-8E95-91630B7F5DEF@microsoft.com...
> My camcorder - and most are like this, use digital video tapes. Some
> camcorders use DVDs and record straight to the DVD. I haven't looked at
> camcorders in about a year or so, but they may have some models out now
> that
> save what you record on an internal hard drive on the camera. Either way,
> there are no 'files' to copy for most people using camcorders. We're not
> talking about a digital camera where it saves your pictures in a file
> format
> and you can plug your card into a reader and drag and drop. With a
> physical
> tape or a DVD, the recording has to be streamed into your editing program,
> either through a USB or Firewire connection.
>
> Anyway, I took the PCI Firewire card route. I didn't even think of it.
> It
> was a nice $20 solution so thanks for the tip.
>
> "Graham Hughes" wrote:
>
>> I've not got a hdd cam, but when you connect by USB doesn't the hdd just
>> show up as an external hdd and you "copy" the file over to your internal
>> hdd?
>>
>> --
>>
>> Graham Hughes
>> MVP Digital Media
>> www.myvideoproblems.com
>>
>>
>> "brogues34L" <brogues34L@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:7B2DB678-5DF1-4A46-B6B9-1FCA97940B57@microsoft.com...
>> >I have a Sony HDD camcorder that comes with Imagemixer software. It
>> >worked
>> >OK
>> > on XP but not on my new Vista PC. The CD won't load and the PC doesn't
>> > recognise the camcorder when connected. Sony tell me that Vista doesn't
>> > support USB streaming which sounds like a dead end. I can't believe the
>> > latest generation OS can't cope with modern video capture processes.
>> > Can
>> > anyone help?
>>
>>
>>

Don't get me wrong I like Vista but your email is just plain not right - I
don't necessarily mean factually but the implication.

Windows XP can do USB streaming, Vista cannot.
The fact of the matter is that many Digital-8 tape camcorders (like my Sony
one) have USB and Firewire connections. Microsoft are not known for following
standards so there is no reason why they should not have included USB
streaming in Vista.

I have a Creative X-Fi Elite Pro which has an external box of tricks to give
you loads of connections - guess what - it doesn't have Firewire (my previous
Audigy Platinum Pro did) so I've been stuffed both ways.

A Firewire add-in card may be cheap but that's not the point. Microsoft
could and should have included USB streaming in Vista, hopefully they will do
in SP1.

"Adam Albright" wrote:

> On Tue, 3 Jul 2007 21:54:02 -0700, BillMonty
> <BillMonty@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >I ran into the same problem myself and I find it very hard to believe that is
> >something that Vista can't do. I emailed Sony and they told me that the only
> >current option available is to hook the camcorder up to the firewire port on
> >my PC and then it would work.
> >
> >Well that would be great and all.. but my PC doesn't have a firewire input.
> >I just built a PC and bought a mother board that doesn't have the firewire
> >interface on it because I didn't think I would need it. I've had one on my
> >last 3 PCs and never once used it.
>
> A firewire port is the de facto standard for importing videos from
> digital cameras, some may now use USB 2.0, but most still use
> firewire. This isn't a Vista issue, rather a missing bit of hardware
> issue that you can easily remedy if the interface isn't build into
> your motherboard.
>
> Just make sure your camera has a firewire output (most do) and then
> buy a firewire external card, drop it in one of your free slots and
> you should be all set. Just be sure to match to your system, PCI or
> whatever, and also be sure that the firewire card is 100% firewire
> compliant, if it isn't, that could open a whole new can of worms
> depending on your camera, ie if or not is can be remotely controlled
> from within whatever video editing application you are using,
> otherwise the stream you are trying to import can get out of sync,
> start dropping frames and other bad things you want to avoid.
>
>