46 replies to this topic

[JustJim]

I too am experiencing a problem trying to import video using Media Import from EMC9. Here are the details. I am trying to save some old analog movies from a Sony CCD-TR81. This is an analog Hi8 camera. To do this, I am running the the analog signal output to the AV input of a Canon Elura 100 using a special cable. The Elura is set to AV-to-DV pass-thru mode and the digital video is ported to the computer thru FireWire. Since I am in pass-thru mode, there isn't a mini-DV tape in the Elura.
To capture the data, I hit the Play button on the Sony and then click the "Capture Now" button in Media Import. After successfully capturing video for anywhere from 1 min 4 sec to 1 min 10 sec, Media Import spontaneously terminates capture and returns to "Ready to Capture" mode.
This happens with every tape I have tried, with either Quality selection, etc. I even tried checking the Set Capture Length checkbox and setting capture time to 1 hour. Still stops after 1 min. The file with 1 minute of video is successfully created and can be viewed with WMP.
Here is some interisting additional detail. If I try to capture digital video directly from a mini-DV tape in the Elura, thus avoiding the Sony analog/digital conversion process, Media Capture works fine and will record video for as long as required. Unfortunately, this process requires me to first capture the analog movie to the digital tape in the Elura, then capture that video to the computer, thus taking twice as long. Another problem is that the max record time of the mini-DV tapes is 1 hour and many of my Hi8 analog tapes are 2 hours. Why the 1 minute limit when capturing video from the Sony analog camera?

[ggrussell]

I haven't tried 'pass thru' capturing with Media Import 9 yet, but with V8, it required a tape in the digital camcorder to 'control'.  I can only assume that the software and camcorder communicate so the software stops if there is no tape. I have a Sony 8mm digital camcorder and here is what I had to do in V8:

Make sure there is a tape in the digital camcorder
Make all connections and turn on all equipment
Wait for Windows to recognize the digital camcorder
Launch Media Import
Start capturing which will start the tape in the digital camcorder
Press the stop button on the digital camcorder
For some reason, Media Import will not recognize this
Start the other tape and pass thru will begin
manually stop capture whenever

There will be some garbage at the beginning of the capture, but easy to edit out.

[JustJim]

ggrussell, on Oct 21 2006, 01:44 PM, said:

I haven't tried 'pass thru' capturing with Media Import 9 yet, but with V8, it required a tape in the digital camcorder to 'control'.  I can only assume that the software and camcorder communicate so the software stops if there is no tape. I have a Sony 8mm digital camcorder and here is what I had to do in V8:

Make sure there is a tape in the digital camcorder
Make all connections and turn on all equipment
Wait for Windows to recognize the digital camcorder
Launch Media Import
Start capturing which will start the tape in the digital camcorder
Press the stop button on the digital camcorder
For some reason, Media Import will not recognize this
Start the other tape and pass thru will begin
manually stop capture whenever

There will be some garbage at the beginning of the capture, but easy to edit out.

Thanks for the input. I have tried what you suggested without success.
When I press Stop on the digital camcorder, the camcorder stops playing the digital tape. At that point, Media Import stops recording the video feed and reverts back to "Ready to Capture" mode. The scene on the digital camcorder display and the scene in the preview window of Media Import are identical - the last frame of video from the mini-DV tape, not the analog tape, which is still rolling.
If there is a mini-DV tape in the digital camcorder this is what happens:
1. I set up the digital camera for A-D pass through and put it in the "Play" position.
2. I launch Media Import and select the digital camcorder as the source.
3. I set the analog camcorder in the "Play" position and start sending video to the digital camcorder.
4. At this point, I see the analog video on the display of the analog camcorder, the digital camcorder,
    and the preview window of Media Import.
5. The instant I click the "Capture Now" button in Media Import, the digital camera switches modes and
    starts to send whatever is on the mini-DV tape to Media Import, not the analog video from the analog
    camcorder.

I don't understand why this happens. Is the Media Import application send camera control messages to the digital videocam? If so, How do I tell Media Import not to do that. It appears that the software is doing what it wants to do, not what I want it to do (sounds like a Microsoft product ).
If the tape is blank, then the whole process stops when I click "Capture Now" since Media Import thinks I want to record the contents of a blank tape.
Any Ideas?

[ggrussell]

JustJim, on Oct 23 2006, 01:02 PM, said:

I don't understand why this happens. Is the Media Import application send camera control messages to the digital videocam? If so, How do I tell Media Import not to do that.

Yes, the software communicates with the camcorder. I'll have to try this with Media Import 9. It worked fine with V8.

[rocko14]

ggrussell, on Oct 21 2006, 12:44 PM, said:

I haven't tried 'pass thru' capturing with Media Import 9 yet, but with V8, it required a tape in the digital camcorder to 'control'.

I have a Canon ZR45 DV connected to my Winbook C120 laptop via Firewire.

I was able to successfully convert over 200 vhs tapes to my system using EMC8.05 but I had to remove the tape from cam in order to facilitate the 'pass thru' capture.

[ggrussell]

JustJim, on Oct 23 2006, 01:02 PM, said:

5. The instant I click the "Capture Now" button in Media Import, the digital camera switches modes and
    starts to send whatever is on the mini-DV tape to Media Import, not the analog video from the analog
    camcorder.

Step 6:  Leave everything running as is except physically press the STOP button on the digital camcorder at this point.  Media Import should not recognize that and keep capturing which will then be the pass thru.

That is how most of us had to do it with EMC8.
Rocko - for some reason, that doesn't work with Sony camcorders.

Edited by ggrussell, 24 October 2006 - 08:24 PM.

[John at Roxio]

I got this from an old Knowledge Base article. I think it might help:
1) This function, a.k.a."Pass Through", is only supported with Sony camera's that have AV-->DV Out in their camera settings. This is located in their input/output menu settings in the camera. This setting must be engaged for it to work.

2) There must not be a tape in the machine camera. If a tape is in the DV camera, MyDVD as the program will try to control the tape in the DV camera and will generate errors.

3) If you do not have a compatible Sony DV camera, then you maybe able to dump the analog signal from it's source to the DV camera (Copy the video to a tape in the camera) and then load the video from the DV camera into MyDVD via Firewire.

[ggrussell]

#2 is rather interesting because it has never worked for me 'without' a tape with my Sony TRV740. I just get an error message saying there isn't a tpae in the camcorder.   I'll have to get around to testing this again in V9.

[JustJim]

John at Roxio, on Oct 25 2006, 12:12 PM, said:

I got this from an old Knowledge Base article. I think it might help:
1) This function, a.k.a."Pass Through", is only supported with Sony camera's that have AV-->DV Out in their camera settings. This is located in their input/output menu settings in the camera. This setting must be engaged for it to work.

2) There must not be a tape in the machine camera. If a tape is in the DV camera, MyDVD as the program will try to control the tape in the DV camera and will generate errors.

3) If you do not have a compatible Sony DV camera, then you maybe able to dump the analog signal from it's source to the DV camera (Copy the video to a tape in the camera) and then load the video from the DV camera into MyDVD via Firewire.

John:
First, please notice that my old analog camcorder is the Sony. My new digital camcorder is a Canon Elura 100. The Canon does indeed have an AV -> DV mode, which is what I am using. My Sony has a 3-wire analog audio/video output port that I have cabled to the AV input of the Canon. With the Sony in Play mode it successfully ports the analog video to the Canon. I can watch the same video on the display of both cameras simultaneously so I know this hook-up works. (I explained all this in previous posts but I guess you failed to read the entire history thread.)
As you pointed out, there should not be a tape in the digital camera but you are incorrect about what will happen if there is a tape in the camera. With a tape in the camera, the instant I click on "Capture Now" in the Media Import tool, the camera (Canon digital) drops out of pass-thru mode and the contents of the tape become the input to Media Capture. There are no error messages, it just successfully records the wrong thing.
Like you stated, I could capture the analog video on the digital tape and then use Media Import to capture the digital video from the tape. There are two problems with that approach. One is that I just doubled the time it takes to get my movies transferred and the other is that my analog tapes are 2-hour tapes and my digital tapes (mini-DV) have a max record time of 1 hour. That option is beyond my threshold of pain. I would scrap EMC9 and buy a new set of tools first.
Per Mr. Russell's suggestion, If there is no tape in the digital camera then pressing stop on it either immediatly before or immediately after clicking on "Capture Now" has no effect on the 1 minute time-out. (I use time-out for lack of a better term.) In fact, in the pass-thru mode, there is really nothing "Going" so pressing Stop does absolutely nothing to the digital video camcorder. It doesn't even beep, it just momentarily flashes the Stop icon on the display and continues to pass-thru and digitize the analog video.
If there is a tape in the digital camera, then pressing stop on the camera immediately after clicking on "Capture now" results in a very short piece of video captured from the digital tape in the digital camcorder. It is very clear that EMC9 is causing the problem, not my analog camcorder, not my digital camcorder, ont my firewire cable.
One of the common themes in this forum is comments of things that worked better in older versions of EMC or don't work in EMC9. What is going on at Roxio? Normally, the idea is to release new software that works better than old software...
At this point I would ask for a refund but I purchased EMC9 Upgrade 32 days ago. When I asked "Customer Support" about the 30 day limit they pretty much told me to pound sand.

[ggrussell]

The software is NOT designed to do what you want. I have purchased over 6 video editing packages and I don't recall any of them specifically mentioning that they can capture analog pass-thru. Foremost they are designed to capture DV AVI from a digital camcorder using the standard signals through firewire (play, pause, rewind, fast forward). Try using pass-thru on a stand alone DVD recorder. It doesn't work on my LiteOn either because the DVD recorder wants to 'control' a tape in the camcorder which isn't there.  As John pointed out in the KB article, there is a 'work around' that works for Sony digital camcorders and may work for other brands.

Edited by ggrussell, 25 October 2006 - 08:32 PM.

[JustJim]

ggrussell, on Oct 25 2006, 09:28 PM, said:

The software is NOT designed to do what you want. I have purchased over 6 video editing packages and I don't recall any of them specifically mentioning that they can capture analog pass-thru. Foremost they are designed to capture DV AVI from a digital camcorder using the standard signals through firewire (play, pause, rewind, fast forward). Try using pass-thru on a stand alone DVD recorder. It doesn't work on my LiteOn either because the DVD recorder wants to 'control' a tape in the camcorder which isn't there.  As John pointed out in the KB article, there is a 'work around' that works for Sony digital camcorders and may work for other brands.

I'm thinking maybe we have a little communications problem of our own going on here.    Pass-thru may not be the right term. What the Canon does is take analog video in thru its "AV" port, digitize it, and port it out through the firewire cable to the computer. That's why it is called the "AV -> DV" mode. Media Import sees digital video either way. Media Import DOES see the video being sent to it from the Canon camera as digital video and DOES faithfully and correctly record it FOR ONE MINUTE ONLY.    I can send you a file containing one of the one minute captures if you think that might help.
I can do this (AV -> DV pass thru) all day long with Microsoft Movie Maker 2.1 or Pinnacle Studio 9, were either of these in the group of 6 video editing packages you have tried?
By the way, what do you think of Pinnacle Studio? How would you compare its capabilities with Roxio's MyDVD/Media Import/VideoWave tools

[grandpabruce]

JustJim, on Oct 26 2006, 02:21 PM, said:

I'm thinking maybe we have a little communications problem of our own going on here.    Pass-thru may not be the right term. What the Canon does is take analog video in thru its "AV" port, digitize it, and port it out through the firewire cable to the computer. That's why it is called the "AV -> DV" mode. Media Import sees digital video either way. Media Import DOES see the video being sent to it from the Canon camera as digital video and DOES faithfully and correctly record it FOR ONE MINUTE ONLY.    I can send you a file containing one of the one minute captures if you think that might help.
I can do this (AV -> DV pass thru) all day long with Microsoft Movie Maker 2.1 or Pinnacle Studio 9, were either of these in the group of 6 video editing packages you have tried?
By the way, what do you think of Pinnacle Studio? How would you compare its capabilities with Roxio's MyDVD/Media Import/VideoWave tools

Pass-through is the right term.

[ggrussell]

JustJim, on Oct 26 2006, 03:21 PM, said:

By the way, what do you think of Pinnacle Studio?

I owned Pinnacle Studio 7, 8 & 9.  It never did run without crashing and I would lose hours of editing when it did. I wasn't stupid enough to buy V10. As for features, I would say Videowave 9 has better features now like more tracks. I also find Videowave/MyDVD much easier to use. The one thing I hated about Pinnacle was installing features I couldn't use without purchasing like 90% of the transitions installed.

I know that several people posting similar issues were also using a Canon digital camcorder. If Movie Maker works, there is no reason why you can't use that application for capturing.  Just 'save to my computer' and choose DV AVI (NTSC OR PAL according to your location).

Edited by ggrussell, 26 October 2006 - 02:04 PM.

[craigintexas]

Here is a new wrinkle on this problem. I installed Creator 9 and used to it capture analog video passed through my Sony DCR VX2100 for about a week with absolutely no problem, creating some huge, long files. I used that video to make a DVD. I then installed a new hard drive to give me more room and sat down to do it all again. This time the capture always stops at 1:03. It does that no matter which of my hard drives I'm saving to, but it does not do it when I capture DV video direct from the camera.

[jaydav]

This is unreal !!   I just bought easy media 9 so I could copy my old 8mm analog videos to digital.  I just want to copy the whole tape to avi dv for making DVDs later.  So I select "capture entire tape" and after 200 mb or 1:03 minutes , the camcorder pauses and it stops importing.  Click capture now and the tape starts again but 1 minute later it stops again.  I am using the Sony dcr-trv740 which converts the analog signal to digital before it is captured in the computer.

If I use a pure digital recording (not an old Hi8 tape that is being converted) everything works fine and I can capture the entire tape.

Is there a work around for my situation -- because if there isn't, I still have 2 weeks to return it.

Thanks

Jay

[jaydav]

  Wow thanks for the quick reply and all the help ... Ridiculous  

[grandpabruce]

jaydav, on Dec 27 2006, 04:53 PM, said:

  Wow thanks for the quick reply and all the help ... Ridiculous  

If you would have read the thread that you posted to, you would see that there are no other solutions to offer than what has already been suggested.

BTW, this is a users forum, and answers are not owed to you, me, or anyone else.

Edited by grandpabruce, 27 December 2006 - 03:08 PM.

[RDEM]

Well as much as I have read and reread this topic.  I am stunned.  I purchased EMC9 because once I downloaded the new version of IE features of my prior version of Roxio did not work...thought that was a bit odd that there was no patch, but oh well I'll give a pass there.

However, after getting the newest version and successfully capturing a digital tape via my sony video camera (TRV460), I moved on to an older analog tape.  The capture of this stopped at 1:03.....so after reading a bunch of people with the same problem and then reading possible solutions, I am sitting here feeling that the company is not addressing a real problem.  I appreciate all the folks here trying to help out with suggestions, but this is ridiculous that a problem this wide spread does not have a definitive solution from Roxio.  I have not read one person (maybe I missed it) who had the problem solved.  

Someone please let me know if I have missed something here.  So far, this is a very disappointing experience.  Sure I was able to use another program to capture then switch to EMC for editing/burning, but it leaves me feeling cheated as this is not what I thought I purchased.

Thanks!

[grandpabruce]

RDEM, on Dec 27 2006, 08:39 PM, said:

Well as much as I have read and reread this topic.  I am stunned.  I purchased EMC9 because once I downloaded the new version of IE features of my prior version of Roxio did not work...thought that was a bit odd that there was no patch, but oh well I'll give a pass there.

However, after getting the newest version and successfully capturing a digital tape via my sony video camera (TRV460), I moved on to an older analog tape.  The capture of this stopped at 1:03.....so after reading a bunch of people with the same problem and then reading possible solutions, I am sitting here feeling that the company is not addressing a real problem.  I appreciate all the folks here trying to help out with suggestions, but this is ridiculous that a problem this wide spread does not have a definitive solution from Roxio.  I have not read one person (maybe I missed it) who had the problem solved.  

Someone please let me know if I have missed something here.  So far, this is a very disappointing experience.  Sure I was able to use another program to capture then switch to EMC for editing/burning, but it leaves me feeling cheated as this is not what I thought I purchased.

Thanks!

I wouldn't be happy, either.  It is a bug that hopefully will be fixed with a patch.

[Bill A]

I have the same problem with EMC9, it only captures 1 to 1mintue 4 seconds of video then resets to capture.  I have about 40 8 mm analog tapes that I want to put on DVD's.  I'm using a Sony DCR-TRV730 Digital8 camcorder convert the analog tapes to digital.
MS Movie Maker will capture the whole tape so I can use that program for the project.  I wanted to save the video in MPEG2 format, which Movie Maker won't do.  So I either leave it in the AVI format or perform another step to do the conversion.
The problem is I bought a program for a feature I can't use.

Hope they fix this bug soon.
Bill