Windows DV preview
 

When connecting a live DV camcorder via firewire to a Windows/XP PC, there will be a notification sound, and the camera will turn up as an icon in "My computer".

Clicking this icon will bring up a live preview of the video.
This also works when more than one DV camera (as is often the case for me) is connected.
I frequently use these previews as a confirmation before running my application that processes the video information.
I have also teached my customers to do the same.

Now that I have been trying out Vista, I find that these previews no longer seem to be available.
No icon in "My Computer".

I do get a box asking me if I want to import video using "Windows import video", but that is of no use to me.

Anyone with insight into this?

Tia,

Johan Stäck
Skellefteå
Sweden

Not sure of the functionality of that feature in Vista but I can recommend this awesome little program that I've used for a while now. Its called WinDV, very small file size, low resource program that can do live preview and even capture from the camera.

Download it here: http://windv.mourek.cz/

Johan -

That functionality was taken out of Vista (it also doesn't exist in XP Pro x64).

As Travis says, WinDV is a very useful and also a very popular program for previewing and capturing from a DV camcorder.

You mention that you often have more than one camera connected. In this situation, WinDV cannot help you because of a common feature of many capture programs - they see all DV camcorders as "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR" and cannot differentiate them. This even includes the high-end pro NLE applications.

If you need to preview two or more camcorders, you can use our software to do that (see profile). On Vista, you may need to adjust the DEP settings to prevent Vista from shutting down the program at launch. This is fixed in an upcoming release.

Note: which ever tool you use, make sure you close it before using your main application otherwise it won't be able to connect to the camcorder(s).

John.

Graphedit perhaps?...
 

John,

My own software can also preview several DV cameras in parallel.

However, in case of trouble, it is good to have a tool that comes from Microsoft.

If windows DV preview does not work, then there is no need to search any further until is does work.
And also, in this case I don't "own" the problem.

I was thinking of including Graphedit in the package and instruct the customers on how to build a simple graph to preview.
It takes only half a minute to add a couple of capture sources and render their output pins. And then, the customer can save the .grf file for use later...

Can't help wondering *why* Microsoft decided to pull DV preview. Do you know?

/Johan

During the beta testing of Vista, I posted a question about this on various Microsoft newsgroups in the vain hope that it was a temporary omission. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. I can only assume that the Vista code base is derived from the XP Pro x64 code base. x64 doesn't have the preview feature either.

I would be cautious about including GraphEdit with your package since it is not meant for public use - only developer use. You could provide instructions to your customers on how to use Windows Movie Maker to check for correct DV functionality. Perhaps a modified version of the DVApp sample in the Platform SDK might work.

John.

Yes, It isn't difficult in itself to write a small "preview-only" app for initial testing.
However, then it would be *my* app, and it in some cases it would be so good to have a "Microsoft-only" way of convincing the customer of the fact that his problem with a non-working DV camera is not in my product.

If the DV preview (in XP) doesn't work, then there is no need to look any further.
The solution to a camera problem (as you must be well aware..) is often as simple as switching a camera off-and-on, not really understanding what the actual problem was.

I really don't want to join the choir of "Vista bashing", but my list of "things that go better with Vista" is at present very short....

I use it for developing only because customers who buy new computers get Vista pre-installed, and I just have to cope with that.

/Johan