Capture Nightmare

[Tony Nguyen]

Hey guys. Just got my A1 this week. I've been trying to connect my a1 to capture with Vegas Pro 8 and Premier. When I hook up the wire (tried both 4-6pin and 4-4pin) the computer doesn't even recognize it, thus, the NLEs as well. I made sure to set the setting to capture in HDV in both the a1 and NLE. No luck. I capture with my Canon XL2 with no problems though. Usually when I hook things up I usually would hear that 'tone' that there's a new device connected. Not the case for the a1. The other video outputs work fine (rca, composite, etc). Is there something else I need to do? Thanks.

[Luke Ross]

After hooking up the firewire, just make sure your camera is in VCR/Play mode and Windows should indicate that it has found new hardware or just a beep indicating that you connected something. You can look to see if the hardware exists in your device manager by right-clicking on my computer and choosing "Manage". Once in there go into device manager and look for your canon. If it is there, and the NLE's are still not showing the device, then there is something else going on.

[Tony Nguyen]

It doesn't show up. This confirms that it's a camera hardware issue?

[John Estcourt]

hi tony, I think the canon drivers are a bit flakey so although annoying try installing dedicated firewire card instead of m/b firewire port or reinstall windows..this should sort it out for you..had a similar prob recently.

[Tony Nguyen]

I have a separate port (non m/b) for the firewires. No luck.

[Igor Babic]

Put your camera in DV mode first, then connect it to a pc, after it has been recognized, switch off, disconnect all and power on again, switch to HDV and connect again to PC.

If none of this works try different FireWire cable. If this dont help, try another PC. After that you know what...

[Tony Nguyen]

Tried... fail. Well, I guess its official. Off it goes to Canon. Thanks guys.

[Ian Wright]

I managed to "blow up" my firewire port, presumably by plugging it in when the camera was switched on. I had it repaired under warranty.

This is very bad design. All modern electronics ports are designed to survive this sort of action. Indeed, the firewire on the computer is hot plug/plug-and-play and has never had a problem. Imagine having to switch off a pc just to plug or unplug a device.

Ian
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[Bill Pryor]

You should always turn off the camera or any hard drive before plugging or unplugging it into a computer. I've had firewire drives fried from being unplugged while turned on, as well as the firewire card of a new computer. Just because they say you can doesn't mean you should. Canon is no different from any other camera in this regard.

[Ian Wright]

I still think it is bad design. As an engineer I have designed and programmed many computer interfaces. I always ensured that the designs were short and open circuit proof, which is standard practice.

Ian
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[Douglas Joseph]

I always forget those steps - it's easy to get confused. Turn off your cam, plug into the firewire in the camera, then plug it into your computer, right?