Need help in basic capturing HDV with Vegas 7
 

I have XH-A1 and shot all in HDV 25p mode. I was wondering if there is any setting I need to do to capture true HDV footage. My footage simply doesn't look HD at all. Just look like better quality SD. Inside window explorer, i see the dimension of all my clips are set at 720 X 576 with 1536kbps bit rate. When using the match media option (vegas->file->properties->match media settings), the project is auto set to PAL DV Widescreen (720x576, 25.000 fps). Does that means my clips are in SD format? What must I do to capture true HDV 720p?

Did you use the INTERNAL capture? Or the EXTERNAL capture app? External captures DV while Internal captures HDV. If you used the external app, you may have downconverted to DV in the camera.

Also, what type of file did you end up with? If you ended up with an AVI file, it's probably DV.

No way 720X576 is HD. If that is how it is coming out of the camera you are either setting something wrong when shooting or when capturing to your computer. I'm not familiar with the XH-A1, but true HD on the HV20/30 is 1440X1080 (1920X1080 via HDMI).

True. He has to be doing a down-convert in camera and using the external capture.

Hi guys, I think all of you are right. I used the sony vegas external capture as the internal capture doesn't seem to detect my camera. It used to be able to. Anyone know what's wrong? I don't know the external capture only capture in DV mode. Anyway to make it capture in HDV? What do you all mean by down convert in camera? My camera has a setting function which set something like DV->AV (something like that). Do I need to do anything to it?

Yes, you need to change a setting in the camera. Right now it's set to convert to DV (which is why the external app is recognizing it and the internal isn't). Change it back to output HDV and then the Internal app will recognize it and the external won't. But you'll be getting HDV again.

I really have problem with vegas capture program detecting my camera. It used to be able to but now it doesn't. It now has this Device error message. With my xh-a1 setting AV->DV set to on, it becomes DV16:9. It doesnt work. Anyone know what's wrong? Or is there a 3rd party hdv software? I tried HDVsplit 0.77 beta but it doesnt recognize my camera too. I'm very sure there is connection between my cam and the pc because window xp alway able to detect the camera when i plug in the firewire.

If it used to work but now it doesn't, then something changed. Even if it's detected, there still could be issues with the connection. Try a different firewire cable. Try a different camera on your current firewire cable. In other words, figure out which pieces do work and which ones do not. Then you'll be able to narrow down if it's a computer problem, a cable problem, or a camera problem.

Managed to solved it. Thank you everyone for the help rendered. :)

For the benefit of those with this problem in the future, what was the solution?

Well, with reference to those suggestions offered above, I need to switched the camera setting output to HDV instead of auto mode or DV mode. My camera was set to auto mode initially and this clearly doesn't work. I also need to off the down convert option and use only vegas internal capture instead of external capture program which only capture DV and not HDV. Its that simple and the problem was just an overlook on my side. :)

Thanks for the update Kenny.