My on-again/off-again relationship with video capture

[EdwardMartinIII]

Howdy!

I'm using Premiere 6.5 on an XP-Pro system. I've made oodles of short movies and had a great time doing it.

About a month ago, my little Sony handicam stopped being recognized by my system, but I didn't follow up on it because we're in production on a big project.

Now, I have access to a Canon XL-1, my Sony Handicam, and a digital high-8 sort of camera.

The handicam just doesn't seem to register a single blip on the system when I attach the firewire. The other two do, and ask if I want to open Premiere to capture video.

Okay, at this point, I'd suspect my handicam ('cause I don't like the look in its eye anyway).

However...

Although I seem to have device CONTROL via Premiere, I cannot SEE the video, nor do I actually capture anything. When I look through the XL-1's eyepiece while I'm playing-via-Premiere, I see the video we shot perfectly, but ain't nuttin' coming in to Premiere.

This has never happened to me before -- I've been doing this for a couple of years and never had this problem. I swear!

So, I try using Windows Movie Maker and I can control all-but-the-handicam (like I said, I suspect the little digital bugger). I can capture video and toss it onto the hard drive hunky-dory.

But when I draw it into Premiere to edit, Premiere works for a while, and then just... hangs.

So, obviously, now I suspect my handicam (see "handicam, darn"), but I also suspect that somehow Premiere has gotten seriously Rumsfelded.

So I re-installed it over the old copy.

No difference.

I'm not entirely sure how to proceed, so I'm open to suggestions. Should I try REMOVING Premiere completely, and THEN re-installing it? Should I explore some issue with my firewire? Should I read my answers in the entrails of a local goat (darn goats)?

Thanks!

Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Well, this is an interesting permutation.

I uninstalled Premiere completely. Stopped the box cold. Turned it back on. Re-installed Premiere.

Now, I can capture video from my Canon XL-1, but it doesn't show me a video preview (annoying) and I still can't get the handicam to even blip on the firewire.

I tried sending a query to Sony, but their version of "Eliza" seems to be mis-programmed, because the reply I received back appeared to be constructed wholly by a not-quite-infinite number of monkeys with refrigerator magnets. So, I'm hanging my hat up on the Sony for now.

Still -- it would be nice to be able to preview the video during capture and I can't figure out how to DO that. There's a little checkbox in the settings labelled "capture video" and it is, of course, checkey-checked.

Ideas?

Cheers,

Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

The result of this:

The Handicam (Sony DCR-TRV30) has probably killed its firewire interface. I have no idea why. It's in the shop.

The high-8 camera was simply incompatible with Premiere.

The XL-1 worked flawlessly once I went into device control and selected the correct device. Silly me.

I have since heard from other folks with Sony products that the firewire appears to be a fine generator-of-income for Sony's post-warranty tech support division.

over and out.

Cheers,


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door