Media Import Crashing With Minidv Camera

[kitykity]

Hi there,

 

I have read through the forums and seen several others with similar problems, but I wanted to describe the details of my own here...

 

I just purchased the new Canon ZR600 camcorder, and it takes great movies. We bought a firewire cable and connected the camcorder up to the computer. I can play, fast-forward, etc. fine--but when it comes to hitting capture, the computer locks up and reboots, or blue-screens.

 

I'm not sure the exact specs of my computer off the top of my head (I'm at work), but it's a very recently updated one, with an ATI all-in-wonder video card and two SATA hard drives.

 

I have read in other forums about making sure your hard drive is set to DMA, but I have also read that Windows XP sets this by default, and with a new, fresh Windows install (including SP2, grussell) I'm pretty sure the drives are already set to DMA.

 

I also read about grussell's suggestion for a firewire driver update, which I will do when I get home; but doesn't it seem that if that were the problem, I wouldn't be able to play, etc at all from the camcorder?

 

I just wanted to start another conversation on this topic and see what other ideas people can give me of things to try to make this work. I know they wouldn't make a million camcorders with firewire functionality if there wasn't any possibility to make it work--somebody out there must be using the firewire successfully. If you are, and you had to do some tweaking to make it work, please speak up!

 

Thanks so much

[kitykity]

In addition, just to throw more info at you, if the video card is AGP, then there should never be any card in PCI slot 1. It will/could cause a shared resources conflict with your video card.

 

Here comes yet more info!

 

We were able to get the firewire capture to work, though only with Roxio 7 for the moment (more details in a second) but you'll never believe how...

 

First, we tried swapping out the video cards as I mentioned... which, by the way, were AGP, and no there wasn't a card in the first PCI slot... same thing happened, computer locked up when trying to capture.

 

So my husband pulled my whole computer apart and gave me his motherboard. Is that love or what? When he installed his motherboard into my case, plugged all my stuff back up to it, powered it on, let everything catch up driver-wise, rebooted, then captured, and it worked fine...

 

...well, that's where the Roxio 8 thing comes in. The error message was along the lines of "failed to create album." That mean anything to you guys? Seemed like it was going to work fine, started playing the tape in the DV camcorder, then popped up with that error message (which, by the way, said "details" but had no details). I booted up Roxio 7 and it captured just fine, though the "scenes" thing I got to play with yesterday in Roxio 8 didn't work.

 

I'm guessing I need to de-install and re-install Roxio 8 at this point? Well phooey--it's 12:30am--I'll do that tomorrow.

 

Thanks again

[james_hardin]

The fact that the computer also freezes using WinDV seems to indicate that the problem is not really EMC 8 related. Does it always freeze at the same point on the tape?

 

A couple of other tests you could try:

1-try to capture using Windows Movie Maker and the software that came with your Canon

2-break out a new tape and record 5 minutes or so and see if you can capture that.

 

Another thought and this should not be causing the problems you are seeing but I will toss it out anyway…

 

Is the tape continuous?

 

If you tape, shutdown, tape more, shutdown, etc., it will often cause a lose of capture.

[ggrussell]

Definitely. Especially if there is blank tape between scenes.

[kitykity]

My motherboard... would you believe? My husband traded out my motherboard with his, and my computer has been importing miniDV movies just fine. So problem solved... kinda... I still wonder what was wrong...

[grandpabruce]

My motherboard... would you believe? My husband traded out my motherboard with his, and my computer has been importing miniDV movies just fine. So problem solved... kinda... I still wonder what was wrong...

 

I don't know, but you better give your husband some high fives. I am glad that you are importing those movies.

[ggrussell]

Glad to hear you're capturing now. Would be interesting to find out what was causing the problems with the otehr motherboard.

[kitykity]

Definitely. Especially if there is blank tape between scenes.

 

Ok, here's the latest:

 

- I went and bought a Pyro 1394 DV capture card:

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4299404?s...CH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Put it in the computer, same problem.

 

- Then my husband had the idea to take the card out, put it in his computer, and try it (he has Roxio 8 also). It worked just fine. And yes, I have multiple scenes--30 secs here, 30 secs there--and it captured it all fine, into one file, with scenes (that's pretty neat, by the way!)

 

- So what's next? He took the C drive out of my computer, put it into his, booted it up and let it catch up with drivers etc., and used the capture card again. Still worked fine. So it's not my C drive.

 

He thinks it might be my ATI all-in-wonder card. We haven't even had it a year, and I don't have any other problems with it! I'm curious if it's my RAM somehow. I have 1G, and my husband has 512M in the computer that the card worked in.

 

More thoughts? Thanks so much, you guys, for your help...

[ggrussell]

What computer do you have and the model? It sounds more like the motherboard drivers to me. Seems like you have eliminated the camcorder, tape and the firewire cable.

 

It doesn't work with the firewire on the mobo or with a PCI 1394 card. You also applied the Microsoft 1394 update. Give us the above info and we'll see what will turn up.

[kitykity]

What computer do you have and the model? It sounds more like the motherboard drivers to me. Seems like you have eliminated the camcorder, tape and the firewire cable.

 

It doesn't work with the firewire on the mobo or with a PCI 1394 card. You also applied the Microsoft 1394 update. Give us the above info and we'll see what will turn up.

 

Now hang on a sec--I don't have firewire onboard my motherboard.

It works with a 1394 card--inside my husband's computer, but not in mine.

It's a home-brew computer--read above for the basic specs--I'd have to get with him for more detailed info as to the brand of the motherboard, etc.

And he said that he checked the "bios" (which is what he said you are calling the chipset) and it is up to date.

Now here's my latest question: is it possible that the all-in-wonder card is causing the problem? For some reason, are the all-in-wonder card's capabilities conflicting with the DV capture? Or is that just a dumb question? Since that firewire card and Roxio Media Import are working on his computer and not mine, I'm down to trying to eliminate pieces of hardware. I think the next thing we were going to try to do is:

- Put the firewire card and C drive back in my computer (so now they're back to normal)

- Trade out the video cards (give him the all-in-wonder one)

- Try Media Inport and see if it works.

If it does... then it was just some kind of video card conflict the whole time. Also, I can look at updating the drivers for the all-in-wonder card...

[ggrussell]

Sorry , guess I wasn't keeping up with what you were doing. LOL No I wasn't referring to the BIOS. Since you have a home brew computer, your husband probably knows what motherboard is installed. The motherboard has many different chips that do things like send data from memory to the CPU or shuffle data between the CPU cache and teh PCI bus. These are the chips I'm talking about. YES, they have drivers, too! Some mobos use the VIA chipsets, some use SiS, and others may have real Intel. One user here posted that updating his VIA AGP driver solved his video display problem. It's possible that you are having a similar problem just other chips.

 

ALSO -- some motherboards use PCI bus mastering and it is important WHICH SLOT you place the extra cards. With a standard case where the mobo stands on it edge, the TOP most PCI is usually slot 1. YOu didn't mention if your video card was AGP or not. If it is a PCI card, it should be in SLOT 1. I would then insert other cards like 1394 & USB with modem & sound cards last. You need to check the motherboard diagram to see which slot is labelled as #1.

[kitykity]

Still having a freeze-up issue, here's the latest:

 

- I tried installing the firewire update from Microsoft. I also checked that the drives were set to DMA, which they were (it's also an XP default, from what I've read).

 

- I tried using winDV, and it worked the first time I used it--capturing a 1-minute movie off of the miniDV tape. But when I tried to use it again a few hours later (after several reboots etc), it froze up.

 

- By freeze up, what I mean is that while the capture is happening, the screen literally freezes--can see the mouse cursor, but can't move it. At least I'm not blue-screening anymore.

 

- My computer is a 3.0ghz intel pentium 4 with 1gb ddr ram. I have an ATI all-in-wonder 9600 128MB graphics card; and while I haven't tried analog capture yet, I really wanted the firewire to work.

 

Any other advice you might be able to offer? Thanks so much...

[grandpabruce]

Sorry , guess I wasn't keeping up with what you were doing. LOL No I wasn't referring to the BIOS. Since you have a home brew computer, your husband probably knows what motherboard is installed. The motherboard has many different chips that do things like send data from memory to the CPU or shuffle data between the CPU cache and teh PCI bus. These are the chips I'm talking about. YES, they have drivers, too! Some mobos use the VIA chipsets, some use SiS, and others may have real Intel. One user here posted that updating his VIA AGP driver solved his video display problem. It's possible that you are having a similar problem just other chips.

 

ALSO -- some motherboards use PCI bus mastering and it is important WHICH SLOT you place the extra cards. With a standard case where the mobo stands on it edge, the TOP most PCI is usually slot 1. YOu didn't mention if your video card was AGP or not. If it is a PCI card, it should be in SLOT 1. I would then insert other cards like 1394 & USB with modem & sound cards last. You need to check the motherboard diagram to see which slot is labelled as #1.

 

In addition, just to throw more info at you, if the video card is AGP, then there should never be any card in PCI slot 1. It will/could cause a shared resources conflict with your video card.

[bimicher]

Still having a freeze-up issue, here's the latest:

 

- I tried installing the firewire update from Microsoft. I also checked that the drives were set to DMA, which they were (it's also an XP default, from what I've read).

 

- I tried using winDV, and it worked the first time I used it--capturing a 1-minute movie off of the miniDV tape. But when I tried to use it again a few hours later (after several reboots etc), it froze up.

 

- By freeze up, what I mean is that while the capture is happening, the screen literally freezes--can see the mouse cursor, but can't move it. At least I'm not blue-screening anymore.

 

- My computer is a 3.0ghz intel pentium 4 with 1gb ddr ram. I have an ATI all-in-wonder 9600 128MB graphics card; and while I haven't tried analog capture yet, I really wanted the firewire to work.

 

Any other advice you might be able to offer? Thanks so much...

 

Are you always capturing from the same tape or have you tried a different tape?

[kitykity]

Are you always capturing from the same tape or have you tried a different tape?

 

Wow, that was quick! And that's a different question... I'm using the same tape. It's a brand new Fuji, I bought a 5-pack but haven't cracked open any other ones. The movies look beautiful when you play them back in the camcorder...

[bimicher]

Wow, that was quick! And that's a different question... I'm using the same tape. It's a brand new Fuji, I bought a 5-pack but haven't cracked open any other ones. The movies look beautiful when you play them back in the camcorder...

 

The fact that the computer also freezes using WinDV seems to indicate that the problem is not really EMC 8 related. Does it always freeze at the same point on the tape?

 

A couple of other tests you could try:

1-try to capture using Windows Movie Maker and the software that came with your Canon

2-break out a new tape and record 5 minutes or so and see if you can capture that.

[ggrussell]

I also read about grussell's suggestion for a firewire driver update, which I will do when I get home; but doesn't it seem that if that were the problem, I wouldn't be able to play, etc at all from the camcorder?

 

Even if you didn't need it, it wouldn't hurt anything if you did apply the patch. Make sure you do not move the camcorder around while capturing. This can cause the connection to drop.

 

If this doesn't help, it could also be the drivers for the motherboard chipset. Check the website of the computer manufacturer to see if there are any specific updates for that, too.

[bimicher]

Hi there,

 

I have read through the forums and seen several others with similar problems, but I wanted to describe the details of my own here...

 

I just purchased the new Canon ZR600 camcorder, and it takes great movies. We bought a firewire cable and connected the camcorder up to the computer. I can play, fast-forward, etc. fine--but when it comes to hitting capture, the computer locks up and reboots, or blue-screens.

 

I'm not sure the exact specs of my computer off the top of my head (I'm at work), but it's a very recently updated one, with an ATI all-in-wonder video card and two SATA hard drives.

 

You could try capturing with the software that came with the camera or with Windows Movie Maker. If you can't capture with those programs (via Firewire) then there may be something wrong with the Firewire connection/setup.