Hey Mike, any 1394 cards that I have bought for my PC have the large 6 pic inputs.... are you saying there is way to hook the 4 pin into the six pin slot ? I never even considered trying that ...

No, his computer specs list one 4 pin and one 6 pin.

Mike

Ah, thanks. I haven't bought store bought in years, and build my own and buy cards for it. Sorry about confusion....

Thank you both
 

When I first purchased the camcorder I was planning to start wedding videography, and still do. Also, I learn indian music and I did record about 6 of my teacher's performances which I'll need to edit asap since he's been asking me for a while now.

About the cable, I saw a 4 to 4 pin original cables on ebay for $6 shipped (original sony), I'm gonna get one of those.

Will let you guys know what's up as soon as I get it and start the project.

First challenge
 

I watched through a few Adobe Premier Tutorials on capturing video.
Got an I-link 4 to 6 pin connector connected.
Started AP interface on pc, turned on the FX1 camcorder, but the software interface shows that the device (in device control panel) status is: OFFLINE, which is not allowing me to hit RECORD button. What could be the cause of that? The blue light on camcorder comes on once the cable is connected.
:(
I'm ready to give up.

You've been at this a couple of days, some of us have been trying to figure this stuff out for 15 years or more....

1. When you turn the camera on VCR, and connect the firewire to the computer, which blue light at the Firewire connection lights ? HDV or DV.

2. When you start Premiere to capture HDV you need to select a project that is HDV 1080i 30(Sony60i) If the DV light is on, that means the camera was set to record in Standard definition, or it is set to down convert. In any event if the DV light is on, you need to select DV wide screen.

3. Once Premiere is totally started, select the "File" pull down menu, and select capture. You you should now be able to fast forward and reverse and play footage on the screen that shows by activating on screen camera interface buttons. If you press the red button, it will start recording from the point on the tape you are at.

Chris
 

I hope it doesn't take me 15 years :)

I used regular DV mode to record the event, why would i chose WIDE SCREEN option though if I wasn't recording in WIDE SCREEN?

I'm trying to figure out why it says OFFLINE in camera status.
:(

First you need to make sure your firewire port is working properly. Go to Start, then right click on My Computer and select Properties. Under Hardware go to Device Manager. Are there any question marks in a yellow circle? If so, that device is not working, you have to troubleshoot.

Second, even if your card works properly, having Windows recognize your camera is a hit and miss thing... sometimes Windows is stubborn. Follow this procedure: Power down both computer and camera. Connect camera to PC, then first start the computer, once it's up and running fully, turn on the camera. The PC should come up with "Found new hardware" message, and install the driver automatically, after which the "Your new hardware is now installed and ready to use" message.

Now if you go to My Computer, your camcorder should be listed as Sony Camcorder - and you're in business. If not, you're in trouble... I once had to reformat a PC to have Windows recognize the camera (was working before, then it quit). You may need specialized help...

And don't forget to get some sleep... working till 3 AM (your last post's timestamp is 2.56 AM) is a problem all by itself... a fresh look next day may be just what you need.

K.C.,

It is usually a matter of the order of starting the programs and connecting the camera etc.. For example, PPro usually will not find the camera is it was not hooked up until after the program was started.

Hang in there.................email sent.

Mike

Offline means that the camera is not being read by the program. Usually, in Premiere, that means you camera is set to output one format (HDV or DV), and Premiere is set to receive the opposite. Either that, or you have a bad firewire connection.

I had assumed you shot footage on the FX1 in 16:9, but you can certainly choose the Standard 4:3.

By the way, what is the "newest version" of Premiere ? Pro 2 ? CS3, Elements ?

One more question, is your Windows system up to date. What OS are you in. I assumed XP, and you should have Service Pack 2 installed, if I recall from days of yore, regarding FX1 drivers.

The most common cause of the "offline" message when I use PPro is, as Chris said, I've set up a DV preset project when outputting HDV from the cam, or vice versa. Or, depending on your Premiere version, it's possible you have "capture" or "device control" (page/tab 2 of the capture window) set to "DV" when you need "HDV" or again vice versa. Everything has to match or Premiere gets cranky.

Also make sure not only that all the presets match, but that the cam is turned to VCR mode, not Camera mode. That'll getcha every time...

As I have a desktop PC and power is being carried by the 6-pin FW cable, I always connect everything with all the power turned off at both ends. Then after I power everything on and launch Premiere and hit F5 (for capture) the program almost always sees my cam immediately. On the rare occasions it doesn't, I just close and reopen the capture window and it usually finds it then. If all else fails I power down and then restart the cam (always in VCR mode, natch) and that generally works.

Hi,

I am curious why some of you suggested using a plug in such as (HDVsplit) for capture purposes of HDV. You would think the newest version of Premiere that KC owns would be capable of that on it's own.

Capturing and editing HDV with an FX-1 means being a bit careful. You need to put your camera in VCR mode. Insert tape to be captured, dbl-checking that "HDV 1080i" shows up in the upper left of your viewfinder. That way, you know it actually is HDV footage, because the FX-1 can play and record DV as well.

Next, go to the Cameras' menu and select the 2 way arrows pictogram. Select "VCR HDV/DV">Auto or HDV. Select "i.LINK CONV">OFF and "A/V-DV OUT">OFF. Press the menu button to get out of menu and unplug the ieee 1394 cable from the camera and re-plug in. (Sometimes it won't reset w/out removing the cable, just a quirk). Check that the blue "HDV" is lit up above the shot transitions buttons and that the upper led above the 1394 cable port is lit up.

With the ieee 1394 cable plugged in to both the computer and camera, fire up Premiere, create a new project and, if CS3 is anything like CS2, select the Adobe HDV folder in the preset options window and select either 1080i 25 or 30, (i.e. PAL or NTSC). From there, you should be fine.

If you are not ok, there are threads on installing the "avc/subunit" driver, I believe it is called, that allows the Windows OS to talk to the camera. But that issue is an awfully old one, you should be fine.

There are several reasons why one might want to use HDV Split instead of capturing with Premiere. Here are three of them:

1. I have an old PC that cannot capture using Premiere Pro 2.0 - in fact I can't even install the software because the AMD microprocessor is not SSE enabled. I use this PC to capture to an external USB hard drive, then I edit on my editing PC, which, by the way, does not have a firewire card.

2. If you're capturing with PremPro, you have to stop all other activity on that PC. Using HDV Split, I can continue doing whatever I need to do, while the HDV tape is captured in the background.

3. CPU usage. PremPro is a major CPU user, while HDV Split barely uses a fraction of your CPU - something useful for those with older computers. Before switching to PremPro 2.0 I edited HDV in PremPro 1.5, which needs to decompress to CineForm "on the fly" - the CPU was way to slow, so the whole thing crashed after a few seconds of capturing. Capturing with HDV Split allowed me to capture and then import the file - it was slow, but it worked.

Not everyone uses the latest and greatest computer for editing... And by the way, HDV Split is not a plugin, it's a stand-alone piece of software.

Thanks Ervin,

Then I guess it would be safe to say that HDV split is a more efficient program, particularly for those with slower machines. Does it utilize a different file format, or compression decompression ratio? I can't understand why a relatively expensive full featured program such as Premiere isn't capable of this obviously necessary task, as efficiently as these secondary programs.