Did you try going through the settings i suggested? If you did then it might be worth trying what Scott said, and try putting in a firewire card. The only problem with firewire I have ever come across was a broken on-board firewire slot.

I wake this thread up since I have the same problem, but also a work-around (more or less).

New HP Pavilion DV7 laptop running Windows 7, 64 bit.
HDVSplit
Canon XH A1

My experience is that controlling the camera (Play, Stop, FF, REW...) works fine, but no video/audio is recorded or shown in the preview.

HOWEVER, if I pull and reinsert the firewire connector while the camera is playing, the video/audio flows in like a charm and can be recorded. Stopping the camera tape takes me back to the initial problem, pressing Play gives no video/audio.

The above can be an inconvenient work-around, but you miss the first seconds on every tape since you need video signal before plugging in the firewire.

Did anyone manage to solve the problem without hardware change?

Using Vegas 9.0C and Windows 7 64 bit I could capture SD video, but not HDV, I had deck control, etc, with HDV but no picture or sound.

The following worked for me:

1. Go into device manager and select 1394 Bus Host Controllers,

2. Click plus sign, which should reveal your firewire card, right click on it and select the update driver, option.

3.Select browse my computer for driver software.

4. Select " let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer",

5.Select 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (legacy)

The only problem is that I use firewire 800 external drives and I have to switch back to the driver for that specific card when editing or the drives perform in a sluggish manner. It did solve my capture problem, though. Do a search on Windows & and the Legacy Driver thing and you will find a lot of reading.

Hi to the OP,

I had the same frustrations as the others listed here. On Vista 64 I tried to capture with Studio when I had that software - no luck. I could capture on an old XP system though. Then tried HDVSplit - no luck. Camera could be operated remotely through HDV but then capture was a black screen and then a stop about 10 seconds in. Then I got Vegas which captured on my Vista 64 but would stop every time there was a missed frame or something. The only way I got it to work was to start the HV30, then start Vegas, wait for it to open, wait for it to initialize the device, and then begin to capture. Needless to say, I missed 15 seconds at a time having to do that.

Then someone suggested CapDVHS (freeware - Google search). No problems with it at all. Captures perfectly and smooth sails over dropped frames where Vegas would freeze.

Check it out and let me know if it works. I hope it does because I truly understand the frustration of being told that your capture should be working with any number of fixes, and then seeing that nothing works. No offense to all the well-meaning people that have offered solutions and suggestions. I just know how it feels.

Again, let me know if this capture program works for you.

I have the same issue HP Pavillion DV7
 

Kinda glad I ran by this thread. I have the exact same capture problem from a XHA1 (and HV40) to a HP pavillion DV7. I can control the camera from Vegas Pro 8 but video will not capture.

Kinda funny that I bought the DV7 based on specs AND having a firewire port just to support my video camera.....and then it doesn't work.....or does it???

Well a few suggestions have been put forth in this thread (like plugging the firewire cable into the camera after it is already playing), other programs, ect.

Other programs didn't work for me (tried Premier Pro CS4, and OnLocation).

However the nugget of gold suggestion here was the plug in the camera firewire after it is already rolling....this got me thinking. First off, it works when I tried it...video appears in the capture window of Vegas and you can begin capturing. My only concern was that I am not a fan of plugging/unplugging live electronics (ie:the camera) for concerns of frying the firewire port.

So...

My two cents is this....you don't need to actually do anything with the firewire cable. Connect it as usual (before or after starting Vegas), with the camera off. Turn on the camera and begin playback. Within the Vegas capture window click on the little "Reconnect to Current Device" button. It seems to have the same result as if you had plugged in the cable after the playback was already rolling on the camera.

As others have already stated it's a workaround, not a fix but it does seem to work.

Again this seems to be specifically affecting HP DV7 laptops (assumingly running a 64bit OS like Vista or 7). Don't have a clue as to why capture doesn't just work like it does on my Vista 64bit desktop machine.

Now I would be interested to see if I can obtain the same results within OnLocation, I expect it will work too.

All the best

Hello! Did anyone solve how to grab the HDV from the beginning of the tape. I have the same problem with sony hdr-hc7e hdv grabbing. My new laptop hp pavilion dv6 windows 7 64-bit. If you remove/reconnect the firewire cable while hdv play is on you can capture from e.g. sony vegas. DV capture no problem.
Would a new firewire card resolve the problem, will there be a problem on a desktop pc? The suggested legacy firewire driver didn't make any difference for me.
Grabbing on old xp laptop/desktop works fine.

pcmcia express firewire 800
 

Aloha,
I still haven't "fixed" this, but found a work around.

I wish I could test out a "pcmcia express dual firewire 800" but i cant waste 60$ testing it out.

I found some really cool cards on newegg, that would be great for adding firewire 800 to the laptop as well, making MBP hard drive swap easy.

If you try it, let us know... id immediately buy it if i knew it worked.

CapDVHS (freeware - Google search).

Make sure your PC Firewire chip is of the TI (Texas Instruments) variety. I went through many iterations of this myself.

Jeff

Same problem with CapDVHS, anyway this seems to loose the original video file format, dates etc, or maybe I just didn't know how to use it.
If I get my hands on some firewire cards (chip TI) I let you know.. otherwise I guess a fix from sony, microsoft or hp might solve the probelm in the future.

You can still capture HDV, but the problem is that there is no 64bit decoder for the live data from the firewire in Sony Vegas 8.1 to 9 64bit so you can't preview your capture, but you can still capture and the m2t will still have data.

I have a 32bit machine with Vegas 7.0e to capture my footage instead of using Vegas 9 on my 64bit machine.

I do have picture and sound when capturing in any version of 9.0 when (a through c-haven't tried capturing with d yet) I install the legacy driver, but I realize this does not work for some.

Disable webcams.
 

I fixed my issue with OnLocation and HDVSplit not recording from my XH-A1 by disabling the built-in webcam and removing the HP webcam s/w (had to do both). I'm using an HP DV8T.