Problems capturing 8mm thru Sony mini DV camera

HUGH

Newbie Location: Canada Joined: Jan 26, 2010 23:41 Messages: 15 Offline

Solved by

Mar 20, 2010 10:59

I have been capturing 8mm tapes using the feature on my Sony mini DV camera that allows the signal to just flow thru to my pc succesfully on an iMac with iMovie and on my previous pc - an HP Pavillion with Powerdirector8.

For some reason I can't get it working with my new Dell laptop.

FYI - I have the Canaon 8mm camera plugged into the Sony mini DV camera via RCA and the Sony plugged into the computer via firewire.

I get intermittent errors - gawd I hate intermittent errors.

1) if I have no tape in the sony mini dv camera I get a message in PD8 that there is no tape. This looks like an obvious problem except that in this case the source video is supposed to come from the 8mm camera I have plugged into the Sony. I'm certain I used to leave the cassette blank on the Sony when doing this transfer but my memory is vague.

2) when I first put a tape in, I'll hit play on the 8mm sometimes the 8mm image shows up in the preview window in PD8, sometimes not.

3) when it does and I hit record in PD8, a window comes up in PD8 asking for a file name. By the time I enter the filename and hit enter the recording has stopped and I have 1 second of a black image on a file.

4) I have just let the preview play without hitting record in PD8 and it works just fine.

So, it would seem the connections and hookups for the external camera's are set up properly. I'm just doing a basic capture so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong in PD8????

Anyone seen this before?

Thanks in advance. PowerDirector 8, PowerDVD10
Sony HDR-CX110 Full HD AVCHD
Panasonic DMC-Z3S camera (AVCHD lite - 720p)
Gateway, i3 cpu, ATI 5650 graphics, 4Gig ram, windows 7

And a Sony DV and a Cannon 8mm to boot.

James Dotson

Senior Contributor Location: Tennessee Joined: Aug 24, 2009 20:40 Messages: 3066 Offline

Mar 20, 2010 12:08

I did a capture by feeding a VCR through a Canon DV camcorder. I didn't have those problems, but I could not get the VCR to feed through. PD would try to record the camcorder and ignore the VCR. I ended up using another program to capture and then go back to PD to edit. That was back in version 6. I will be doing it again tomorrow, so I'll see if it works or not.

My problem was that PD would try to control the camcorder, so it would not record unless the camcorder tape was playing. Of course, that blocked any video stream from the VCR. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Mar 20, 2010 14:02

If you have Windows Movie Maker, try using that.
I know, not the answer you wanted. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

HUGH

Newbie Location: Canada Joined: Jan 26, 2010 23:41 Messages: 15 Offline

Mar 20, 2010 17:11

Let me know if you get it working Jamie.

Barry - I'm getting the same errors using Microsoft Movie maker and Photoshop Elements. PowerDirector 8, PowerDVD10
Sony HDR-CX110 Full HD AVCHD
Panasonic DMC-Z3S camera (AVCHD lite - 720p)
Gateway, i3 cpu, ATI 5650 graphics, 4Gig ram, windows 7

And a Sony DV and a Cannon 8mm to boot.

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Mar 20, 2010 18:06

Will it work on a different OS?
HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

HUGH

Newbie Location: Canada Joined: Jan 26, 2010 23:41 Messages: 15 Offline

Mar 20, 2010 20:26

Yes I had it working on the iMac with Leapord. Would like to get it into PD8 without going thru an extra file conversion though. Also had it working on an HP laptop with windows 7 and PD8. Only started having problems when I converted to my Dell laptop with windows 7. PowerDirector 8, PowerDVD10
Sony HDR-CX110 Full HD AVCHD
Panasonic DMC-Z3S camera (AVCHD lite - 720p)
Gateway, i3 cpu, ATI 5650 graphics, 4Gig ram, windows 7

And a Sony DV and a Cannon 8mm to boot.