New to capturing video in Ulead VideoStudio

[IMZvonko]

Hello.

I'm new to creating VCDs so please bear with me.

Here's my problem: I have ULead VideoStudio 5.0, an ATI All-in-Wonder card (Radeon 7500) and a Sony Digital8 (TRV330) camera.

I hook up my camera to the ATI card and start VideoStudio. Try and start a new project. Seems that no matter which format I try I cannot get anything other than snow when I try to capture.

Any ideas/hints/suggestions/tips greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

PS - Not sure if I've given enough info so please let me know what else you'd need to be able to answer my question.

[seeker]

IMZvonko,

It sounds like you may have connected your Sony Digital8's digital output to your ATI's analog input. You should not connect your Sony Digital8 I-Link to your ATI All-in-Wonder analog port. For the best results, you should connect your Digital8 to an IEEE 1394 FireWire port. Sony refers to the FireWire connection as an I-Link connection. Most late model computers have a FireWire 1394 port built in.

Also, check to make sure that your All-In-Wonder card does not have a FireWire port (I doubt that it does.) If you don't have a 1394 FireWire port on you computer, you could try to connect the analog output from your Sony camcorder to your ATI card, using the red, white, and yellow coded AV cord that came with your TRV330. It is the same cord you could use to connect your TRV330 to a VCR. Refer to your TRV330 manual for details about connecting the analog AudioVisual cord.

For best results, you should use a 1394 port, because it is digital. If your computer does not already have a 1394 port, you need to purchase and install a FireWire card to connect with your Sony Digital8 camcorder's "I-Link." Specifically, it should be an OHCI-compliant IEEE 1394 card. You can purchase them separately for about $50, or you can get them bundled with video editing software (which you will need anyway) in the $100 to $200 price range. Sonic Foundry's "Video Factory" bundle would be one possibility. Several other companies market low-priced entry level bundles including software and a FireWire card. Not all cards are OHCI-compliant, and those may only work well with the bundled software. You don't want to be limited to using a single video editor, so check that the 1394 card is OHCI-compliant.

The FireWire card will probably come with a 1394 cable, but if it does not, you will need to purchase a 1394 cable. As cables go, 1394 cables are not cheap, and you can expect to pay $20 to $30 for a Belkin 3-foot or 6-foot 1394 cable.

The FireWire connector that fits into your Sony Digital8 will have a four-pin socket. The connector that attaches to your computer FireWire port will be a six-pin connector unless you have a Notebook computer, in which case the computer port will also be four-pin connector. If you are buying a FireWire cable, make sure that the connectors are correct.

The manual that came with your TRV330 should also explain something about the FireWire cable. It would be nice if a FireWire cable came with your camcorder, but I doubt that one did.

Good luck.

[IMZvonko]

That did it!

Getting a FireWire card did the trick.

I was able to capture a few minutes from my camera into VideoStudio.

Thanks!

[seeker]

IMZvonko,

Congratulations! Glad you got your capture to working. Next thing to worry about will be dropped frames. A lot of people have that problem with captures.

-- seeker --

[IMZvonko]

You're right about dropped frames!

I did see a lot of that when I watched the VCD on my DVD player.

Any suggestions or reference material I could read to learn more about this?

[seeker]

IMZvonko,

Dropped frames during capture can be caused by many different things, and many of them are hardware specific. Also, WinME seems to be a bad OS for video capture. You need a big, fast hard drive with at least 7200 RPM. Also it helps if you have more than one hard drive so that one can be devoted to video capture and the other can supply the needs of the Operating System.

Some solutions that have worked for some people are:

"End task" unneeded background tasks and programs before starting a capture. There is a shareware utility to help you do this.

Increase Windows virtual memory to 1.5 times physical memory.

Use the VideoStudio DV capture setting instead of AVI.

If you have a LogiTech USB mouse, remove it from the USB port and put it on a PS/2 port. (USB can conflict with FireWire).

Install the latest DirectX drivers (DirectX 8 is downloadable from Microsoft).

Download and install the latest drivers for your FireWire card. (Do you get an ADS FireWire card? If so, they have new drivers available.)

Resolve IRQ conflicts between your FireWire board and any other device on your system.

Since you are not using the current version of VideoStudio, you might want to upgrade to VideoStudio 6:

http://www.ulead.com/vs/upgrade.htm

You might want to register at the Ulead Support Forums, read the messages in the Ulead VideoStudio forum, and post your specific VideoStudio questions there, as well as here in the Digital Video Forum.

http://news.ulead.com:8080/~Webutilities/newuser

After you get your capture frame drops solved, you may later encounter audio sync problems in your edited videos. Let's hope not, because they can also be quite difficult to track down. There is an awful lot to learn about desktop video, and I am just beginning to learn some of it myself.

-- seeker --