Videocapture has been going fine, then suddenly 1 week later the computer does not recognize my A1. I connected my old Sony HC1 without problems so it must be something with the A1. Anybody have any ideas ?

Thanks

Brent

First look carefully, under a light, at the camera end of your firewire cable.

Ensure that there are no bent pins or other damage.

Power off your XH A1.

Shutdown your computer.

Connect the fireware cable to the computer and the camera.

Power up the computer, wait for everything to come up.

Power up your XH A1.

Attempt to capture again.

I turned everything off and rebooted. Canon A1 is still nowhere to be found. My Sony HC1 is identified immediately upon connection. I also did replace the firewire cable as well.

Still puzzled !!!

Brent

Did you shoot anything between the time it worked and the time it didn't? It could be that you shot SD the first time and HDV the second, or vice versa, and didn't change the camera output signal settings. Or, you could have shot 24p and not have your capture set for that mode (FCP, for example, has to be set in the 1080P24 HDV mode to capture HDV 24p, and if you go to any other mode, like SD or 60i or whatever, you have to change the corresponding setups).

I haven't changed any of the settings you mentioned. I do always shoot in HD. I have shot my son's football games for the past 6 weeks and all has gone well. Then suddennly Friday night when I get home and connect the A1 NeoHDV can't find the camera. I use Vegas 7.0e and NeoHDV. Vegas also does not pickup the A1. I did reinstall Neo but have the same results. I checked the A1 manual and the A1 is setup as it should be for HDV output to the computer.

This is truly baffling !

I had a similar problem. My NLE (Edius) didn't see the camera in VCR mode after few days of shooting. Before that everything had been going fine. I was recording in HD 25p. I tried different input settings in NLE, but it didn't help.

Suddenly I found the solution. Some day after shooting I used the HD downconversion option (HD DOWN-CONV) available in VCR mode menu just to test how it works with my HD footage. Then I forgot to turn it off...

When you have your A1 connected via FireWire the HD DOWN-CONV option is grayed in the menu and you can't determine whether it's enabled or disabled. Therefore, if you try to capture footage which is being downcoverted to SD on the fly and your NLE is set to capture HD - your camcorder becomes "invisible" because of signals mismatch.

Try disconnecting the camera and setting the HD DOWN-CONV to OFF, then connecting again.

Hope this helps in your case,
Mateusz

Was just about to mention the same thing.

Been there, done that.

HD DOWN CONV is off. That is what is so strange: I haven't changed anything on the camera. However, thank you for your suggestions.

What about connecting the camera in recording mode? Does Vegas see your A1 or nothing happens at all? If so, it may be a problem with the camera itself (hope not).
Maybe try downloading a trial version of another NLE?

I'm not sure what you mean by connecting in recording mode.
Thanks

Brent

I had the same prob connecting this camera to my big desktop...
XP Pro SP1... HDV no go.. DV downconvert from HDV worked a treat with PILES of dropouts..

I then connected it to my dual core laptop running XP Pro SP2...
SP2 works a treat... SP1 however.. no go... yet.

I might go through the msdv.INF files and copy them across to the SP1 system. They have obviously been updated

Sorry for being unclear. By connecting in recording mode I mean plugging the camera and turning it on not in VCR mode but in one of the shooting modes, i.e. auto, tv, av or manual.

The camcorder should be then recognized and the "live" image should appear in the NLE window. This is how it works in Canopus Edius, so I assume it can be done in Vegas too (I haven't ever used Vegas).

When I had the problem with HD DOWN CONV switched on (as mentioned before in this thread), my camera was "invisible" for Edius in VCR mode, but worked fine in shooting/recording mode.

Good luck!

Maybe this will help: http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=105207

Ok Here we go. Hooked up my Sony HC! and Vegas sees camers both on live feed and VCR. Hooked up A1...nothing. Tried turning camera on first, last, whatever...still nada.
Tried NeoHDV...no A1 to be found. Here's the kicker: Connected HC1 and it didn't show up either.

OK..back to Vegas connected HC1...you guessed it...gone nowhere to be found !

Its like this computer is haunted or something....maybe I should call those TAPS guys who look for paranormal activity !!!!!

Also computer is homebuilt..been doing this for years. I have a quad core 6600 with 2 gb memory. Everything is at stock speed...eg no overclocking or anything crazy. (not to say I haven't overclocked before..but this system is at factory specs.)

I may try a complete reformat and start from scratch as it appears I may have some kind of computer problem...PS I did swap out a core 2 duo for the Q6600 approx 1week ago...but did not reformat windows. Everything else has been working without a glitch.


Any other thoughts ??

Thanks

Brent

One thing that seems to be reasonably consistant when this happens is some sort of software getting added/ loaded that for reasons totally unknown, suddenly kills the camera connect.

If nothing's been loaded between working/ not working, that's out -- although, it's worth checking the Add/ Remove software section in Control Panel to see if Windows Update has downloaded any patches in the intervening days since last working.

You can always uninstall the entire Firewire hardware in Device Manager and let Windows re - build it on re - boot. This may fix it if it's a stuck driver issue.


CS

When a firewire device disappears, one first step is to restart the computer.

By this, I mean, shutdown the computer gracefully, to a full power off condition "Shutdown", not to "Standby". Then power on the computer again.

The above step is very basic in my mind. If one has a problem with firewire, and then goes into "Standby", and then powers back up, the firewire problem may still exist.

I want to be clear, the above may or may not help, but it is a good first step.

Well
I have done a full power down, uninstalled the firewire then let windows reinstall upon rebooting, and installed a trial version of Ulead Media studio pro 8. Media studio can't find my camcorder and Neo picked up yhe HC1 on one of five attempts.

If I ever get thia figured out I'll let you guys know.
I do appreciate the recommendations.

Brent

Brent, I've been pulling my hair out with my a1 for 3 months with ieee 1394 connection issues. bought 2 new 4pinx4pin cables from best buy and zeroed in on connection issues at the a1's dv terminal. I sent the cam to be repair. Sent back with message. "No problem, check cable". I bought a

Belkin IEEE 1394 FireWire Cable - 6'

at curcuit city. It works great now. It really was just the stupid cable in my case. I hope thats your issue too. best of luck

Sometimes, if I switch back and forth between the VCR position on the dial and the next position past VCR, (never use it , not sure even what it is) it'll work. The cam will be magically recognized by my computer. Some days I nmay need to rock it back and forth twice, but it will work.

I know it doesn't make sense that such a thing should have an impact, but....it does work on mine.

Thank you for the suggestions. I have purchased a new firewire cable and a VIA firewire card. My Sony HC1 is initialized every time but nada with my A1. I have read that I TI chipset firewire card will work with the A1. I do have an old TI firewire card but xp pro does not recognize the TI card. I have looked for TI drivers on the web...I found a "ubicore" driver but it crashed my system. I guess I will buy another TI card and try that.