Direct capture to computer

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If my questions seem overly simplistic that is because my knowledge about this setup is very elementary.


Issue: We use a canon xhg1 or xha1 connected to an old computer that was running Win 7 and now Win 10. Sermons are capture directly to a USB drive using HDVSplit. After upgrading to Win 10 HDVSplit all too often fails to recognize the camera. Apple Quicktime was reinstalled in case the CODEC was the issue

I do not know how to determine what is causing the issue (IEEE1394 (Firewire), software, or other). If anyone has suggestions on a fix please suggest away.

I am going to try using VLS as capture software to see if that helps.



Thank you.
 
Reinstalling drivers is always the first move. In this case, the camera seems to have drivers you can download from Canon. After that you need to determine if the camera isn't recognized on its own, or if this is through the software. Troubleshooting is done by moving from one end of the communications chain to the other. I would also recommend attempting to connect the camera to other computers running Windows 10, with or without the ingestion software, and seeing if any errors occur.

Does it happen immediately, or does the camera disconnect? And how reproducible is the problem (every time or...)?
 
Thanks.

It usually connects and records fine. It has never dropped while recording. However, each time HDVSplit is started, even after a reboot, HDVSplit may fail to detect the camera.
That is a good idea to reinstall the Canon drivers. Thanks.
>>Troubleshooting is done by moving from one end of the communications chain to the other.
Agreed, as I see it the chain is: Camera > PCIe card > HDVSplit (excluding drivers).
I don't know how to test the first or second pair, only the first three.

BTW, I tried VLC and while it detected the camera I was unable to capture the recording. So, drivers and PCIe card still seem to be the culprit.
 
No drivers needed for the XHA1. Canon suggested using a capture card. Turns out VLC has two libraries to install.

I must be an idiot as I can't even enter text in this forum!
 
Use a blackmagic intensity capture card and vmix or wirecast, super easy to operate and great results! Best is to use the component output and the analog input of the intensity card. We do it all the time.
 
Ok, not sure if this is the right place to post this. I have 2 Canon XL2 and 2 XH a1s and a XHg1. I still use all cameras for certain events and the age old issue of tapeless and firewire is still bugging people. I have scoured the net and had not found anything suitable without either spending a lot of cash or moving over to other cameras.

I see a lot of Firestore units floating around, but you still need firewire to get the footage to PC. So I decided to strip my FS-100 down to see how it was constructed. Normal 80gig IDE drive, fat32 and when connected to the pc could easily be read. So no odd firmware or formatting. The next stage then I got my hands on an IDE to SD card reader/writer and fitted that to the board, inserted a fast 128 gig sd card Fired up the Firestore and it merely asked to format the card. Telling me I had 7 hours of SD and about 4 hours oh HD. Connect the XL2 and hey presto, play a tape through it and again I can copy the tape direct to card. It will also play back through the veiw finder. Connect an XH and works perfectly. So now how do I make it easy to operate when it is all reasembled. A trawl of the internet and I found a SD card extender, a ribbon cable with a dummy sd card connected to another reader on the end. This is now adhered to the back of the firestore and it all fitted back together, with just a mod to the plastic to allow the ribbon to come outside the unit. The internal parts all sealed to prevent shorting. So all in for the mod it cost me about 12 quid and an hours work.
 
First, connect the camera via firewire cable to another computer, regardless of what version of Windows it's running (as long as it's not Win10). Or a Mac. What's important is that the computer you connect it to is known to have no problems connecting to camcorders via firewire. If the camera is detected, then you know that the firewire port on the camera is good. (It's very easy to blow the firewire port on a camera, computer, or both.) You also know that the cable is good. If the camera is not detected, use a different firewire cable. If the other computer now detects the camera, then it's likely your problem was a bad cable. (If it doesn't, chances are the firewire port on the camera is blown. That's bad.)

Or try connecting a different camera via firewire to your PC. If the PC detects that camera, but won't detect your XHG1/XHA1, then that's also a good indication that the firewire port on your camera is bad.

If, however, the other PC does detect your camera, then the next thing would be to replace the firewire card in your PC -- a fairly inexpensive thing to do.

If the camera is detected on the other PC, and you replace the firewire PCIe card in your computer, but still the camera isn't being detected, then it's likely to be a software issue. You've determined now that the camera, cable and firewire card are not the problem.

The problem could be with Win10 support for firewire devices. This article says that Microsoft "left out" the Legacy firewire driver in Win10, and gives instructions on how to download and install it.

https://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/Firewire-1.htm

What mode is your camera set to playback in? HDV? Or SD? My understanding is that HDVSplit is only for HDV capture, and will not capture SD. I don't know that for a fact, though. But from what I've read, if you're capturing SD footage than you need to use WinDV, not HDVSplit.

Hope some of that helps.
 
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