Hair turning white over HD Capture Disaster at DVinfo.net

Thomas Mayo · July 5th, 2010, 06:37 PM

Hello all.
I am new to this board (and new to video) but have spent the last two weeks studying and searching this forum, among other internet resources, trying to find a solution to my problem. I will now explain the situation in as much detail as my knowledge permits me, to anyone who is kind enough to try and help.

What is the problem? . . . . . . . . .

I am working with a Canon XH a1s. I have tried a plethora of suggestions and techniques for capturing HD told about on this board, all of which seem to work for everyone else but me.

I am using a Toshiba laptop with XP installed. Im using a ExpressCard firewire card. The cable is OK. Im using Adobe Premier Pro CS3. I have not been able to capture HD in Premier. Standard Definition captures OK.
I have tried to use HDVSplit to capture, but it tells me that it does not recognize my camera. I tried again after disabling and uninstalling the built in webcam, but still no dice.
I have changed the ieee 1394 firewire device to an OHCI, as someone recommended in an earlier thread. No change.
The camera recognizes that it is connected to the computer (HD DV in). The computer recognizes the firewire and the express card, and in my device controls i see that it also recognizes that a Canon camera is plugged in.
I have connected the camera to a friends computer, who has been able to capture HD no problem from a Sony, but still could not capture in HD using the Canon.
I am at the end of my rope and my hair is turning white and falling out in tufts. I am wondering if my Windows XP could be missing a driver, or if I have not set the controls correctly on the camera, or if the HD gods are only frowning upon me and I the butt of a high quality joke.

I would appreciate any help that the kind folks at dvinfo.net could offer.
Thank you !!

-Tommy Mayo
ix región, Chile

Mike Hammond · July 5th, 2010, 08:10 PM

Hi,

Try CapDVHS (freeware - do a Google search). I had a lot of problems with capture and this program took care of it all. I now have no trouble capturing unless the camera/tape drops frames. Then CapDVHS will stop capturing and I have to hit "Capture" again.

Thomas Mayo · July 5th, 2010, 08:16 PM

Hi Mike

First, thank you for your prompt reply.
Id like to try out this program, but before i go and download it, can you tell me if it captures in HD ?

-Tommy Mayo
ix región, Chile.

Vito DeFilippo · July 5th, 2010, 08:21 PM

If you have HD DOWN_CONV enable in the camera menu, the computer will always capture as DV, and will see your camera as a DV camera. Check your settings in the camera to make sure this is not enabled.

Chris Soucy · July 5th, 2010, 08:47 PM

Sure sounds weird.

I've scoured the A1s manual and can't find any "gotchas" other than the HD Down_Convert that Vito has already mentioned.

Do you have access to any other HDV camera and a 4 pin to 4 pin Firewire cable?

CS

Allan Black · July 5th, 2010, 11:11 PM

Tom .. you didn't say the A1s was yours so someone else might have been playing around? Did you record your program at SP speed? Can you see timecode running on playback on the A1s LCD?

As Vito says .. in the A1s PLAYBACK menu check the settings. Playback STD > Auto (or try HDV),
AV > DV = OFF, HD DOWN-CONVERT = OFF.

If you recorded the audio 16bit 2 track stereo .. while you're in there check the AUDIO SETUP. DV AUDIO = 16bit, OUTPUT LEVEL = 1V rms, OUTPUT CH = CH 1/3 CH 2/4.

HTH Cheers.

Mike Hammond · July 6th, 2010, 10:08 AM

Tom,

Yes, CapDVHS captures HD. I'm using a FireWire to capture from a Canon XH-A1s.

Warren Kawamoto · July 6th, 2010, 01:38 PM

Do you have a dedicated video drive on your laptop? Or are you trying to capture directly to your C drive? This could be the problem if you are.

Thomas Mayo · July 6th, 2010, 04:41 PM

My Signal settings are as follows

TIME CODE
PLAYBACK STD . AUTO
COMP. OUT .... 1080i/480i
AV DV ... OFF
HD DOWN_CONV . OFF
LETTERBOX . OFF

When I connect the camera to the firewire card, PLAYBACK STD, AV DV, AND HD DOWN CONV are greyed out.
I have tried all of your suggestions but still cannot capture HD.

......

Chris - I ought to have access to a Sony HD cam sometime next week. Ill have to try it out on this computer.

Alan - I recorded in SP. It is my camera but ive only bought it recently. Timecode runs when i play back the tape.

Warren - I believe i do have a dedicated video drive, but I could be wrong. In my computer specs it says: Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD with 128MB-
1342MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory.

Mike - I downloaded and installed CapDVHS. In the drop down menu, it recognizes my camera (i think) as "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR Unknown Video Number 1". I select it, then click record but i get an error: Error 80040217. Cannot connect SampleGrabber

Chris Soucy · July 6th, 2010, 06:53 PM

First off, can I ask what may seem a bloody stupid question?

You do actually have a tape in the camera recorded in HDV, don't you?

When you plug the camera into the Firewire link and get the OS generated "dah dum" handshake acknowledgement, do you have something like "HDV 50i" showing on the camera's LCD?

If it shows "DV" instead of "HDV" it isn't a HDV format tape and thus cannot download as HDV.

I'm sure it can't be that simple but I just had to ask.

Moving swiftly on, the reason for my enquiry about another HDV cam and 4 pin/ 4 pin Firewire cable is this:

As it now stands there is no way of knowing what is coming out of that Firewire port on the camera.

With a second HDV cam set up exactly the same as the Canon, ie HDV 50/60i (can't remember what you're on - PAL or NTSC?), by plugging the Firewire cable from the Canon into the second cam, powering up the Canon in VCR mode, then firing up the second cam in the same mode, whatever is playing from the tape in the Canon is going to appear on the LCD of the second cam.

If nothing does then there must be a setup mismatch.

This trick works in any of the shooting modes as well, fire up the Canon in Auto/Manual etc etc mode, fire up the second cam whilst tethered and hey presto, what the Canon sees "live" will appear on the second cam, assuming the camera format settings are identical.

This can go down the plug hole when dealing with 25/ 30 f mode, stick with interlace footage.

I just know this is going to be something real simple.

CS

Allan Black · July 6th, 2010, 06:59 PM

Ha CS

I was just about to ask the same questions and .. I agree it is going to be something simple.

Cheers.

Vito DeFilippo · July 6th, 2010, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Mayo

Alan - I recorded in SP.

Chris and Allan, you beat me to it. When I saw the above quote, I thought "Oh, oh..."

When I google the "Cannot connect SampleGrabber" error, it seems that the problem is either HD DOWN CONV is ON by mistake, or the tape does not contain HDV. You should check again to make sure. I'd be willing to bet it's DV on that tape.

Chris Soucy · July 6th, 2010, 09:10 PM

Go to "Signal Standard" (page 34 of the manual) and set it to HD.

Go to "Selecting the frame rate" (page 42 & 43 of the manual) and set it to 60i.

Connect camera to pc with Firewire cable.

Fire up the camera in any shooting mode you like, wait for the "dah dum" handshake.

Fire up your NLE and wait for it to aquire the camera.

Remove lens cap and point camera at subject.

Click on "capture" in the NLE.

If your NLE has capture preview you should see what the camera is seeing.

That's gotta work (please!).

Manual can be had here if you don't have one:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-xh...s-manuals.html

CS

Giroud Francois · July 7th, 2010, 12:37 AM

you can also check if windows detected the camera as correct device, but going into the hardware manager and see if there is no yellow mark, saying unknown device.
sometime you have to add the device manually.
you can find the procedure by googling a bit.

Per Johan Naesje · July 7th, 2010, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Mayo

My Signal settings are as follows

TIME CODE
PLAYBACK STD . AUTO
COMP. OUT .... 1080i/480i
AV DV ... OFF
HD DOWN_CONV . OFF
LETTERBOX . OFF

When I connect the camera to the firewire card, PLAYBACK STD, AV DV, AND HD DOWN CONV are greyed out.
I have tried all of your suggestions but still cannot capture HD.

In addition to Chris´s very good suggestions, try to manually set - PLAYBACK STD to HDV - before you connect the camera to your computer.
It´s normal that those menu items you mention is greyed out when you connect the firewire cable. You MUST set those variable BEFORE you connect the firewire cable.

July 5th, 2010, 06:37 PM	#1
Thomas Mayo Tourist Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Santiago, CHILE Posts: 4	Hair turning white over HD Capture Disaster Hello all. I am new to this board (and new to video) but have spent the last two weeks studying and searching this forum, among other internet resources, trying to find a solution to my problem. I will now explain the situation in as much detail as my knowledge permits me, to anyone who is kind enough to try and help. What is the problem? . . . . . . . . . I am working with a Canon XH a1s. I have tried a plethora of suggestions and techniques for capturing HD told about on this board, all of which seem to work for everyone else but me. I am using a Toshiba laptop with XP installed. Im using a ExpressCard firewire card. The cable is OK. Im using Adobe Premier Pro CS3. I have not been able to capture HD in Premier. Standard Definition captures OK. I have tried to use HDVSplit to capture, but it tells me that it does not recognize my camera. I tried again after disabling and uninstalling the built in webcam, but still no dice. I have changed the ieee 1394 firewire device to an OHCI, as someone recommended in an earlier thread. No change. The camera recognizes that it is connected to the computer (HD DV in). The computer recognizes the firewire and the express card, and in my device controls i see that it also recognizes that a Canon camera is plugged in. I have connected the camera to a friends computer, who has been able to capture HD no problem from a Sony, but still could not capture in HD using the Canon. I am at the end of my rope and my hair is turning white and falling out in tufts. I am wondering if my Windows XP could be missing a driver, or if I have not set the controls correctly on the camera, or if the HD gods are only frowning upon me and I the butt of a high quality joke. I would appreciate any help that the kind folks at dvinfo.net could offer. Thank you !! -Tommy Mayo ix región, Chile

July 5th, 2010, 08:10 PM	#2
Mike Hammond Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: West Orange, NJ, U.S. Posts: 163	Hi, Try CapDVHS (freeware - do a Google search). I had a lot of problems with capture and this program took care of it all. I now have no trouble capturing unless the camera/tape drops frames. Then CapDVHS will stop capturing and I have to hit "Capture" again. __________________ Mike Hammond http://www.yourcinematicwedding.com \| http://www.storyboardgroup.com

July 5th, 2010, 08:21 PM	#4
Vito DeFilippo Trustee Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Montreal, Quebec Posts: 1,585	If you have HD DOWN_CONV enable in the camera menu, the computer will always capture as DV, and will see your camera as a DV camera. Check your settings in the camera to make sure this is not enabled. __________________ . http://www.nosmallroles.com

July 5th, 2010, 08:47 PM	#5
Chris Soucy Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Fairfield, Dunedin, New Zealand Posts: 3,689 Images: 18	Hi, Tommy................. Sure sounds weird. I've scoured the A1s manual and can't find any "gotchas" other than the HD Down_Convert that Vito has already mentioned. Do you have access to any other HDV camera and a 4 pin to 4 pin Firewire cable? CS

July 5th, 2010, 11:11 PM	#6
Allan Black Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Sydney. Posts: 2,927	Tom .. you didn't say the A1s was yours so someone else might have been playing around? Did you record your program at SP speed? Can you see timecode running on playback on the A1s LCD? As Vito says .. in the A1s PLAYBACK menu check the settings. Playback STD > Auto (or try HDV), AV > DV = OFF, HD DOWN-CONVERT = OFF. If you recorded the audio 16bit 2 track stereo .. while you're in there check the AUDIO SETUP. DV AUDIO = 16bit, OUTPUT LEVEL = 1V rms, OUTPUT CH = CH 1/3 CH 2/4. HTH Cheers. __________________ Drink more tap water. On admission at Sydney hospitals more than 5% of day patients are de-hydrated.

July 5th, 2010, 08:16 PM	#3
Thomas Mayo Tourist Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Santiago, CHILE Posts: 4	Hi Mike First, thank you for your prompt reply. Id like to try out this program, but before i go and download it, can you tell me if it captures in HD ? -Tommy Mayo ix región, Chile.

July 6th, 2010, 10:08 AM	#7
Mike Hammond Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: West Orange, NJ, U.S. Posts: 163	Tom, Yes, CapDVHS captures HD. I'm using a FireWire to capture from a Canon XH-A1s. __________________ Mike Hammond http://www.yourcinematicwedding.com \| http://www.storyboardgroup.com

July 6th, 2010, 01:38 PM	#8
Warren Kawamoto Trustee Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 1,435	Do you have a dedicated video drive on your laptop? Or are you trying to capture directly to your C drive? This could be the problem if you are.

July 6th, 2010, 04:41 PM	#9
Thomas Mayo Tourist Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Santiago, CHILE Posts: 4	My Signal settings are as follows TIME CODE PLAYBACK STD . AUTO COMP. OUT .... 1080i/480i AV DV ... OFF HD DOWN_CONV . OFF LETTERBOX . OFF When I connect the camera to the firewire card, PLAYBACK STD, AV DV, AND HD DOWN CONV are greyed out. I have tried all of your suggestions but still cannot capture HD. ...... Chris - I ought to have access to a Sony HD cam sometime next week. Ill have to try it out on this computer. Alan - I recorded in SP. It is my camera but ive only bought it recently. Timecode runs when i play back the tape. Warren - I believe i do have a dedicated video drive, but I could be wrong. In my computer specs it says: Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD with 128MB- 1342MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory. Mike - I downloaded and installed CapDVHS. In the drop down menu, it recognizes my camera (i think) as "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR Unknown Video Number 1". I select it, then click record but i get an error: Error 80040217. Cannot connect SampleGrabber

July 6th, 2010, 06:53 PM	#10
Chris Soucy Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Fairfield, Dunedin, New Zealand Posts: 3,689 Images: 18	Er, Thomas.............. First off, can I ask what may seem a bloody stupid question? You do actually have a tape in the camera recorded in HDV, don't you? When you plug the camera into the Firewire link and get the OS generated "dah dum" handshake acknowledgement, do you have something like "HDV 50i" showing on the camera's LCD? If it shows "DV" instead of "HDV" it isn't a HDV format tape and thus cannot download as HDV. I'm sure it can't be that simple but I just had to ask. Moving swiftly on, the reason for my enquiry about another HDV cam and 4 pin/ 4 pin Firewire cable is this: As it now stands there is no way of knowing what is coming out of that Firewire port on the camera. With a second HDV cam set up exactly the same as the Canon, ie HDV 50/60i (can't remember what you're on - PAL or NTSC?), by plugging the Firewire cable from the Canon into the second cam, powering up the Canon in VCR mode, then firing up the second cam in the same mode, whatever is playing from the tape in the Canon is going to appear on the LCD of the second cam. If nothing does then there must be a setup mismatch. This trick works in any of the shooting modes as well, fire up the Canon in Auto/Manual etc etc mode, fire up the second cam whilst tethered and hey presto, what the Canon sees "live" will appear on the second cam, assuming the camera format settings are identical. This can go down the plug hole when dealing with 25/ 30 f mode, stick with interlace footage. I just know this is going to be something real simple. CS

July 6th, 2010, 06:59 PM	#11
Allan Black Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Sydney. Posts: 2,927	Ha CS I was just about to ask the same questions and .. I agree it is going to be something simple. Cheers. __________________ Drink more tap water. On admission at Sydney hospitals more than 5% of day patients are de-hydrated.

July 6th, 2010, 09:10 PM	#13
Chris Soucy Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Fairfield, Dunedin, New Zealand Posts: 3,689 Images: 18	Just in case...................... Go to "Signal Standard" (page 34 of the manual) and set it to HD. Go to "Selecting the frame rate" (page 42 & 43 of the manual) and set it to 60i. Connect camera to pc with Firewire cable. Fire up the camera in any shooting mode you like, wait for the "dah dum" handshake. Fire up your NLE and wait for it to aquire the camera. Remove lens cap and point camera at subject. Click on "capture" in the NLE. If your NLE has capture preview you should see what the camera is seeing. That's gotta work (please!). Manual can be had here if you don't have one: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-xh...s-manuals.html CS

July 7th, 2010, 12:37 AM	#14
Giroud Francois Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: switzerland Posts: 2,133	you can also check if windows detected the camera as correct device, but going into the hardware manager and see if there is no yellow mark, saying unknown device. sometime you have to add the device manually. you can find the procedure by googling a bit.