Firewire capture problem

[Dan Cook]

I'm having a problem connecting my video camera to my laptop. It's not finding the camera. The port itself seems to work as I was able to connect my external hard drive to it and it was found.

It's not the camera (hv20) as I hooked it up to a different PC's firewire port and it was found. Not the cable either.

Any advice? I'm running Win 7 64bit

 

[Lanny Dean]

Dan, I think it may be a win. 64 bit issue with Canon. I have the HV 40 and can not use it with my 64 bit desktop.
After HOURS AND HOURS on the phone with Canon to Microsoft, I have been informed (by Microsoft) that it is a driver issue as far as the Canon equipment.
I have the same exact problem when trying to hook my HV 40 to the desktop via firewire port. It does not and will not recognize the camera/port. I even dumped the money and upgraded to CS4 (Premier PRO for HD purpose) and it still does not see it.

Microsoft informed me that the only thing to do in my situation was to run XP in dual boot mode. I have not tried it because I also have Avid...but, I sure would like to take advantage of the 8G of RAM on the desktop instead of the 2G on the Avid machine.
If and when you find a solution, please let me know!

 

[Dan Cook]

I've been reading the HV20.com forum; people there are able to capture on 64 bit systems.

 

[Wesley Luginbyhl]

Did you ever get it to work?

I have no problems connecting my HV-20 to either of my 64-bit Vista systems. Change the camera output from HDV to DV and connect it, and see if it will pick it up then.

I remember it taking a while getting mine to connect the first time, but I dont remember what fixed it. Are there any HV-20 drivers for download? Is the computer even detecting that something has been plug (or is just not realizing its an HV-20 camera)?

 

[Dan Cook]

Nope.

The computer will detect other things that get plugged into the firewire port, just not the camera.

 

[Jason Foster]

Nothing a chain saw can't fix.

I know you said that you connected other things...but was it with the same wire? Be sure to check the pins and such, as I've had multiple firewire ports break or bend on me.

 

[Dan Cook]

Yes using the same cable.

 

[Jason Foster]

Yes using the same cable.

Sounds like software/driver then..you've pretty much described and eliminated other possible problems off the checklist.

Perhap you and Wes (or someone else with identical set-ups) to go through an A/B comparison. Everything from the sequence you plug in the camera, to the drivers, security settings, etc....many which don't matter, but it might.

 

[Dan Cook]

There are no drivers for the HV20 that I can download.

 

[David Wolfson]

I'm not personally familiar with the HV20, but when I read this kind of legacy device/OS problem, I think first. "What would a recent Linux build do?"

Found this: http://www.kdenlive.org/video-editor/canon-hv20

Someone even has an on-line tutorial, shot with the HV20 per a forum post: http://www.kdenlive.org/tutorial/kdenlive-howto-capture-video-firewire

There may be more from the Google search, "canon hv20 linux capture firewire", but this seems to fill the bill right off the top.

I'm constantly amazed at what is available open-source.

 

[Dan Cook]

I ran Fedora and still had the same problem.

 

[David Wolfson]

How old is your Fedora distro? Found this.... http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/linux-kernel/111165-firewire-fedora-8-a.html. Or I guess if you want to get into the firewire weeds: http://ieee1394.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/FAQ

Linux is pretty talky if you look at the logfiles. Try plugging in the camera and examine /var/log/syslog -- or whatever it's called in your Fedora. Or use the privileged command dmesg > mylog.txt to barf into a file. The logs tell you more than you ever probably want to know about what's happening with the port. FWIW.