Can anyone explain why my DV200 works perfectly well with my Sony camera but I cannot even get it to recognise my XL1. My pc just locks up as soon as I connect it to 1394 cable.
At the moment I am videoing with XL1 and then transferring onto a Sony DCR TRV730E Pal to edit.
Do I looses any quality be transferring onto a single chip camera?
Any help or advice appreciated.
Mike.

Is your Sony camera digital? If it is and you are transfering through IEE1395 cable then you wont get any loss as you are transfering digital info.

As for the DV200, I use a DV500 and had problems initially. Make sure you have the lastest driver. I also found that Windows 98 didn't handle the load that was placed on it. I upgraded to Windows 2000 and it's run perfectly since.

Another thing that can cause problems is just using one HDD. For the best performance and reliability, get a second HDD and use it exclusively for video. If a second HDD is out of your budget at the moment, partitioning your HDD is the cheap way to go about it.

Your current DV200 drivers probably do not support the XL1. Shame on Pinnacle for that. It has been my observation that device drivers are a long standing weakness in the Pinnacle product lines. Two examples: It took them well over a year to update drivers LANC drivers to support the Sony EVS7000 in the mid-late 1990s, about a year to address issues with GL1 support in DV500.

Ah, yet another person unhappy with Pinnacle drivers. I had so many problems getting my DV500 to work properly and it took them ages to write the drivers for W2k. On the other side of the coin however, once you get it all working it is really good gear.

When the DV200 was released the XL1 was still in the pipeline, so check to see if you have the lateset driver at http://www.pinnaclesys.com/support/display.asp?ProductID=317&DocTypesID=14

Thanks Guys,
I have installed latest 2.10 drivers and still have the problem. Pinnacle over the phone have told me today that they are awaiting some futher drivers to fix this problem. I am loosing faith now with Pinnacle and was considering upgrading to Pro One.
Any advice on a comparative system would be appreciated.
Mike
PS I am now a true concert to message boards - I have more confidence in this message board than Canon and Pinnacle's on line support service. There are no sales piches here.
Thanks again!

I don't want to get flamed here, BUT Mike...learn your lesson. This is indeed the past track record from Pinnacle. You can turn gray waiting for new drivers. I have been there. I have been thrilled ever since I switched to Canopus

Thanks,
I am now having second thoughts in buying Pinnacle's latest release in Pro one.
Can anyone recommend an alternative.
How does Canopus compare?
I really want to get full use of my XL1 and keep data on miniDV.
Mike.

Mike,
I went trough a large research time about 18 months ago, checking on all the available NLE systems out there that would get me the best bang for the buck. I settled on Canopus and have been thrilled since then. One of the main things I did (and I suggest this for everyone) is I hung out in all the user forums (had to borrow a password or 2 for some) to get the feel of what the users thought after they had made their purchase. You see what I chose. Depending on your needs and budget, I suggest looking at the Canopus Storm or Raptor RT. Go to the Canopus forum (justedit.com and hey...Chris is a big contributor there) with any questions you might have.

The repeated stories about Pinnacle issues are making me steer clear of their DV500 and am putting together a plan for acquiring a Matrox RT2500 on the PC side...it comes w/Adobe Premiere which I need anyway, and looks like the breakout box is just what I need for capturing analog material (which I still receive from the outside). Hopefully the Matrox is more reliable in non-turnkey scenarios.

Whatever you do, don't overlook Canopus: their DVStorm and DVRaptor-RT are superb. Plus, real-time output to FireWire, which the Matrox and Pinnacle cards don't have. See www.justedit.com

At least you have lots of choices on the PC side. As for the Mac platform, you're kind of stuck, it's the Matrox RT and it requires Apple Final Cut Pro (not included). Therefore, what appears to be a real bargain at first --hey! ready to cut videos right out of the box, Firewire built in and free I-Movie!-- becomes the cold reality. I'm not saying it's not a good system, but it forces you into some choices you may not prefer (and not cheap).

I really thought hard about posting again, because I hate to sound like a cheerleader for Canopus but here is one post in the Canopus forum that I copied.

"For over a year ago I was thrilled over what the new Matrox RT2000 seemed could do for the guy with less money. People at the Matrox forum really liked their cards and the support from Matrox. For six months ago I got my eyes on the DVStorm card and immediately focused on that card instead, due to it was obviously more modern e.g scalability.
As I now waiting for UPS to deliver my DVStorm card any day now, I took my time to browsing into the Matrox forum again to watch the status.

It was a chocking experience! For me it look like Matrox ended their support and have no customer relation at all. A LOT of people yelling in the forum about nonfunctional cards/drivers an no response from Matrox. And several of them want to sell their cards in the forum at best bid!
I feel I'm a very lucky bastard to not join that train a year ago..."

There are many more like this one. Do yourself a favor and go to the Canopus site and do a search on the RT2000 or 2500 and get a few reviews from former users.

Excellent advice!
I will take it this evening and have a good look around, especially just edit.com.
I originally chose Pinnacle DV200 on price got totally hooked on editing and now creating some excellent work.
I love working with the XL1 and sometimes with the smaller Sony.
My hobby is starting to turn semi pro and I want to spend about £1000 on next sytem. Real time is a must and at present my tecnique is 'keep it simple'. I tend to use music and sound to create the effect I want with simple transitions. No tack!
Your advice Guys has been valuable and really think I must move away from Pinnacle and have a good look at Canopus Storm.
Mike

i use a dc2000 & dc1000...with an xl1 and i have had no problems, however i suggest you get a minidv edit bay and save your xl1 head...

as for pinn support..it sucks, however there is no better card then the 2000/1000 in there price range, the quality is a lot better the any other pinn card or matrox or canopus...

using your bob inputs on the dc you will get 4:2:2, now i know the xl1 is only 4:2:0 but you will work in higher color space...which makes the diff...as for special effects page curls, or flashy splashy effects see other cards...


(however the color correction on the canopus card is great)

I use a dv500 and it is having troubles recognizing my Xl1s. I had to use my sony DVcam DRV-1000 to capture through the firewire connection.

Is there somebody in this forum sucessful in using the DV500 with the Xl1s

If so what operating system are you using.

Looks like another Pinnacle compatability problem.
I am not sure about DV500 but I resorted ultimately to the telephone support and got some sketchy advise about waiting for driver upgrades for the XL1 with DV200 but they could not tell me when.
I am about to bin my DV200 and would not give it away.
Advice so far is to go with Canopus!
I am awaiting one last check from my supplier before I give up though as I do not have the cash just yet to go for Storm.

You're going to be waiting a while for Pinnacle to support the XL1s for the DV500. They are currently writing the driver for XP so hopefully it will be in there. As far as the card and OS goes, I use it with my Old? XL1 and Win2k and it works a dream.

It's a great card and works well, once you get it sorted, and that takes some doing. I have an IT degree and it took me a while. Unfortunately for us the computer world moves so fast that people, including manufactures just can't keep up with it. Everyone wants the latest and they want it yesterday. I love hi-tech gear, but I'm also a believer in not upgrading just because there is something newer. My point is made by many people unhappy with their XL1s'. If it works well and does what you need, why upgrade.

Cheers, I will heed the advice and look hard before upgrading.
My greatest need is to edit faster without render wait time.
After that I guess the packages out there can satisfy my approach.