[hubbz]

I have the Canon HV20 which uses the same format and it works fine. Are you using firewire? Is the HC3 in 'playback' mode? Make sure the camcorder is set to TAPE and not to memory stick.

Oh yeah, I had the Sony HC7 and if I remember correctly, you have to manually set it to HDV playback when capturing. When it is set to 'auto', the computer may not recognize the tape as HDV. See page 65-66 in your manual.

(see page 66) There is also a HDV->DV convert. Where HDV is automatically converted to DV if it is turned on (iLink CONV). Maybe you have that turned on?

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I have the Canon HV20 as well and have been trying everything just to capture the hd video onto my PC so I can then hopefully burn my home videos to a Blu-ray disc......I would love some advice since I keep getting an error message that says "unable to preview the HDV device please ensure that a valid tape is in the device and it is wound to a position that contains material"...... ( which I have done ). I am using a firewire connection and I have hooked my camera up the same way to my friends laptop who has the same Roxio software and it captured fine.......it just won't work on mine and I can't figure out why.....

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.....

[hubbz]

I am trying to capture HD video from my Canon HV20 using a firewire connection to my PC using Roxio Creator 2009 Ultimate software - and I keep getting an error message that reads " unable to preview the HDV device please ensure that a valid tape is in the device and it is wound to a position that contains material" ( which I have ) I have even used the same set-up with my camera into my friends laptop using the same software and it worked fine - it just doesn't work on mine and I can't figure out why..?

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.....( I am running Vista 64bit )

My goal is to then burn my home videos on to a Blu-ray disc that will playback in my Playstation 3.....

[sknis]

I am trying to capture HD video from my Canon HV20 using a firewire connection to my PC using Roxio Creator 2009 Ultimate software - and I keep getting an error message that reads " unable to preview the HDV device please ensure that a valid tape is in the device and it is wound to a position that contains material" ( which I have ) I have even used the same set-up with my camera into my friends laptop using the same software and it worked fine - it just doesn't work on mine and I can't figure out why..?

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.....( I am running Vista 64bit )

My goal is to then burn my home videos on to a Blu-ray disc that will playback in my Playstation 3.....

Give us the information on your computer please. Did you check the Firewire connections on your computer? Does Vista recognize that you have the Firewire connection to your camera? Did you have the camera turned on but paused?

Did you read this to see if there was anything applicable?

This post has been edited by sknis: 28 March 2009 - 04:59 AM

[hubbz]

Give us the information on your computer please. Did you check the Firewire connections on your computer? Does Vista recognize that you have the Firewire connection to your camera? Did you have the camera turned on but paused?

Did you read this to see if there was anything applicable?

It is a new Dell ( running Vista 64 bit )..... and IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers is showing up in the device manager. The camera is in playback mode and I have tried it paused and stopped the same thing happens......The HV20 camera shows up in the device pull-down in roxio and when I select it my camera starts to play and then the error message comes up.......

I have an older Canon Optura SD video camera as well which has firewire so I tried to capture using the same process and it worked......

[ggrussell]

Was the tape ever used to record standard definition DV AVI? When I first got my HV20, I made that mistake. The manual states not to mix modes on one tape. However, you should be able to record over those tapes with HDV format.

[hubbz]

Was the tape ever used to record standard definition DV AVI? When I first got my HV20, I made that mistake. The manual states not to mix modes on one tape. However, you should be able to record over those tapes with HDV format.

No, the tape was just recorded in HDV format.......

[ggrussell]

Doyou have more than one firewire port on the machine? If the port is on the front of the machine, try the one on the back if there is one. Were you using different firewire cable on the other machine? If so, try that cable on your machine. Have you tried a different tape? We need to eliminate if the problem is physical, hardware or software.

[hubbz]

Doyou have more than one firewire port on the machine? If the port is on the front of the machine, try the one on the back if there is one. Were you using different firewire cable on the other machine? If so, try that cable on your machine. Have you tried a different tape? We need to eliminate if the problem is physical, hardware or software.

Yes, I tried the other firewire port and other tapes with no luck.......I think I might have used a different firewire cable with the other machine so I will try that cable tomorrow.......

[ggrussell]

On last thing although it shouldn't make a difference. Your laptop has Vista 64bit. What OS does your friend's laptop have? We have seen some strange problems with 64bit OSes.

[hubbz]

On last thing although it shouldn't make a difference. Your laptop has Vista 64bit. What OS does your friend's laptop have? We have seen some strange problems with 64bit OSes.

I have a Desktop with Vista 64bit and my friend has a laptop with Vista 32bit and when we first tried to capture HD video we were both using the Roxio " light" version ( 10.2 ) that came with our Dell's - it worked on his but not on mine. I thought that maybe the light version of roxio I had was not compatible with Vista 64bit but was with Vista 32bit and thats why it had worked on my friends laptop - so I downloaded the full Roxio Creator 2009 ultimate version with the hope that it would do the trick also because I think I need this version anyway to actually burn my files onto a blu-ray disc.....unfortunately I am still getting the error message which is getting very frustrating. Dell support said it was probably related to my camera - Canon said it is probably Roxio software related....???

[ggrussell]

I'll see if I can get an answer, but I'm afraid it may be a 64bit issue.

[hubbs]

I'll see if I can get an answer, but I'm afraid it may be a 64bit issue.

any word...? still no luck....

[ggrussell]

Sorry... have you tried capturing using Windows Movie Maker in Vista? I think it supports HDV camcorders. See if that will capture for you.