Hair turning white over HD Capture Disaster
 

Hello all.
I am new to this board (and new to video) but have spent the last two weeks studying and searching this forum, among other internet resources, trying to find a solution to my problem. I will now explain the situation in as much detail as my knowledge permits me, to anyone who is kind enough to try and help.

What is the problem? . . . . . . . . .

I am working with a Canon XH a1s. I have tried a plethora of suggestions and techniques for capturing HD told about on this board, all of which seem to work for everyone else but me.

I am using a Toshiba laptop with XP installed. Im using a ExpressCard firewire card. The cable is OK. Im using Adobe Premier Pro CS3. I have not been able to capture HD in Premier. Standard Definition captures OK.
I have tried to use HDVSplit to capture, but it tells me that it does not recognize my camera. I tried again after disabling and uninstalling the built in webcam, but still no dice.
I have changed the ieee 1394 firewire device to an OHCI, as someone recommended in an earlier thread. No change.
The camera recognizes that it is connected to the computer (HD DV in). The computer recognizes the firewire and the express card, and in my device controls i see that it also recognizes that a Canon camera is plugged in.
I have connected the camera to a friends computer, who has been able to capture HD no problem from a Sony, but still could not capture in HD using the Canon.
I am at the end of my rope and my hair is turning white and falling out in tufts. I am wondering if my Windows XP could be missing a driver, or if I have not set the controls correctly on the camera, or if the HD gods are only frowning upon me and I the butt of a high quality joke.

I would appreciate any help that the kind folks at dvinfo.net could offer.
Thank you !!

-Tommy Mayo
ix región, Chile

Hi,

Try CapDVHS (freeware - do a Google search). I had a lot of problems with capture and this program took care of it all. I now have no trouble capturing unless the camera/tape drops frames. Then CapDVHS will stop capturing and I have to hit "Capture" again.

Hi Mike

First, thank you for your prompt reply.
Id like to try out this program, but before i go and download it, can you tell me if it captures in HD ?

-Tommy Mayo
ix región, Chile.

If you have HD DOWN_CONV enable in the camera menu, the computer will always capture as DV, and will see your camera as a DV camera. Check your settings in the camera to make sure this is not enabled.

Hi, Tommy.................
 

Sure sounds weird.

I've scoured the A1s manual and can't find any "gotchas" other than the HD Down_Convert that Vito has already mentioned.

Do you have access to any other HDV camera and a 4 pin to 4 pin Firewire cable?


CS

Tom .. you didn't say the A1s was yours so someone else might have been playing around? Did you record your program at SP speed? Can you see timecode running on playback on the A1s LCD?

As Vito says .. in the A1s PLAYBACK menu check the settings. Playback STD > Auto (or try HDV),
AV > DV = OFF, HD DOWN-CONVERT = OFF.

If you recorded the audio 16bit 2 track stereo .. while you're in there check the AUDIO SETUP. DV AUDIO = 16bit, OUTPUT LEVEL = 1V rms, OUTPUT CH = CH 1/3 CH 2/4.

HTH Cheers.

Tom,

Yes, CapDVHS captures HD. I'm using a FireWire to capture from a Canon XH-A1s.

Do you have a dedicated video drive on your laptop? Or are you trying to capture directly to your C drive? This could be the problem if you are.

My Signal settings are as follows

TIME CODE
PLAYBACK STD . AUTO
COMP. OUT .... 1080i/480i
AV DV ... OFF
HD DOWN_CONV . OFF
LETTERBOX . OFF

When I connect the camera to the firewire card, PLAYBACK STD, AV DV, AND HD DOWN CONV are greyed out.
I have tried all of your suggestions but still cannot capture HD.

......

Chris - I ought to have access to a Sony HD cam sometime next week. Ill have to try it out on this computer.

Alan - I recorded in SP. It is my camera but ive only bought it recently. Timecode runs when i play back the tape.

Warren - I believe i do have a dedicated video drive, but I could be wrong. In my computer specs it says: Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD with 128MB-
1342MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory.

Mike - I downloaded and installed CapDVHS. In the drop down menu, it recognizes my camera (i think) as "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR Unknown Video Number 1". I select it, then click record but i get an error: Error 80040217. Cannot connect SampleGrabber

Er, Thomas..............
 

First off, can I ask what may seem a bloody stupid question?

You do actually have a tape in the camera recorded in HDV, don't you?

When you plug the camera into the Firewire link and get the OS generated "dah dum" handshake acknowledgement, do you have something like "HDV 50i" showing on the camera's LCD?

If it shows "DV" instead of "HDV" it isn't a HDV format tape and thus cannot download as HDV.

I'm sure it can't be that simple but I just had to ask.

Moving swiftly on, the reason for my enquiry about another HDV cam and 4 pin/ 4 pin Firewire cable is this:

As it now stands there is no way of knowing what is coming out of that Firewire port on the camera.

With a second HDV cam set up exactly the same as the Canon, ie HDV 50/60i (can't remember what you're on - PAL or NTSC?), by plugging the Firewire cable from the Canon into the second cam, powering up the Canon in VCR mode, then firing up the second cam in the same mode, whatever is playing from the tape in the Canon is going to appear on the LCD of the second cam.

If nothing does then there must be a setup mismatch.

This trick works in any of the shooting modes as well, fire up the Canon in Auto/Manual etc etc mode, fire up the second cam whilst tethered and hey presto, what the Canon sees "live" will appear on the second cam, assuming the camera format settings are identical.

This can go down the plug hole when dealing with 25/ 30 f mode, stick with interlace footage.

I just know this is going to be something real simple.


CS

Ha CS

I was just about to ask the same questions and .. I agree it is going to be something simple.

Cheers.

Chris and Allan, you beat me to it. When I saw the above quote, I thought "Oh, oh..."

When I google the "Cannot connect SampleGrabber" error, it seems that the problem is either HD DOWN CONV is ON by mistake, or the tape does not contain HDV. You should check again to make sure. I'd be willing to bet it's DV on that tape.

Just in case......................
 

Go to "Signal Standard" (page 34 of the manual) and set it to HD.

Go to "Selecting the frame rate" (page 42 & 43 of the manual) and set it to 60i.

Connect camera to pc with Firewire cable.

Fire up the camera in any shooting mode you like, wait for the "dah dum" handshake.

Fire up your NLE and wait for it to aquire the camera.

Remove lens cap and point camera at subject.

Click on "capture" in the NLE.

If your NLE has capture preview you should see what the camera is seeing.

That's gotta work (please!).

Manual can be had here if you don't have one:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-xh...s-manuals.html


CS

you can also check if windows detected the camera as correct device, but going into the hardware manager and see if there is no yellow mark, saying unknown device.
sometime you have to add the device manually.
you can find the procedure by googling a bit.

In addition to Chris´s very good suggestions, try to manually set - PLAYBACK STD to HDV - before you connect the camera to your computer.
It´s normal that those menu items you mention is greyed out when you connect the firewire cable. You MUST set those variable BEFORE you connect the firewire cable.