No video when transferring with Sony HVR-M15U and Scenalyzer?

[Father-of-Ash]

Hello all,

I recently got back to my DV transfer project.
I am transferring mini HDV tapes using the Sony HVR-M15U deck and scenalyzer.
I'm having an issue with seeing the video in scenalyzer, it allows me to control the deck but no video.
I do get video if I turn on "i-link" in the deck, but video is horrible then.
I also tried the legacy driver in device manager and no difference,still no video.
the firewire card I am using does use the Texas instruments chipset.

your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Bill

[lordsmurf]

Does WinDV work instead? Most DV transfer software is buggy.

[Father-of-Ash]

Ok, I tried it and its saying it cant find DV output pin.
Is this a driver issue?
I'm running windows 7 pro x64, and using a 4-pin to 9-pin firewire cable(if that matters?)

[NJRoadfan]

Try capturing with HDVSplit. Most DV capture programs are NOT able to properly handle HDV footage which is MPEG-2 transport streams over firewire ( .m2t files).

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJRoadfan

Try capturing with HDVSplit. Most DV capture programs are NOT able to properly handle HDV footage which is MPEG-2 transport streams over firewire ( .m2t files).

I completely overlooked the HDV aspect.

Yep, you're right as usual.

[Father-of-Ash]

Ok HDVsplit does work for my HDV tapes although it says:

"ERROR: HDVSPlit can't find MPEG1 audio decoder. Try to install and configure ffdshow. Audio is turned off."

is there a way to fix that even though it seems to capture audio just fine?

I also have regular DV tapes (not recorded in HD) and in order for them to play i have to go to the menu in the deck and switch playback from HDV to DV and as soon as i do that HDVsplit doesnt recognize the deck anymore(winDV and scenalyzer also dont recognise deck in DV mode as well)

Thank you.

-- merged --

Well, I did get windows photo gallery to capture my DV tapes but it doesn't separate or recognize the timeline. does anyone have another suggestion? I just need something for DV capture, HDVsplit works for my HDV tapes but not DV. it seems the PC uses 2 different drivers, one for DV another for HDV.

[NJRoadfan]

HDVSplit's preview is buggy and likely doesn't work with Windows 7, hence the error messages. Disable the preview and it should work fine. I never got it working correctly, I just monitor with my camcorder's built in LCD.

The two different drivers thing is normal. My Canon HV20 runs a completely different driver in DV mode. Typically footage isn't mixed between HDV and DV on the same tape, so it never posed a problem for me. I capture DV tapes with WinDV and HDV tapes with HDVSplit.

I'm betting the Sony deck has 3 modes like my Canon HV20.

1. DV playback only
2. HDV playback only
3. Hybrid mode, which transcodes all HDV footage to DV format. (native DV video passes thru unchanged)