Capturing Video from my Digital Camcorder
 

I just tried capturing my latest vacation video from my Sony digital camcorder. In the past, I had used Ulead Video Studio, but I haven't been very pleased with the quality. So I tried to capture using Virtualdub.. It all looked good..The quality was excellent. Then I took the AVI file that Virtualdub created, and pulled it into Video Studio so I could edit it with a lot of effects. When I finally finished, after about 3 hrs, I tried to create a final AVI file with all the changes. As soon as I tried to create it. it said that the file was possible protected. What gives? I looked at the properties of the file, and it is not hidden, and I see nothing that makes it inaccessable. Is there something I can change in Virtualdub to keep the final file open for editing? Please help.

Which version of Windows do you have?

VirtualDub should not (cannot?) "protect" a file in any way. However, there is a possibility that the operating system has made the file read only, or otherwise altered the file. Then again, that still doesn't explain what you're seeing.

Do you have enough hard drive space?

What was the EXACT error that the Ulead software spit out at you?

Sorry for the delay. I did manage to solve my problem. Here is what I did.

First of all, I have a dual boot system. I can boot into Windows 7 or Windows XP. When I captured the file in Virtualdub, I was using Windows 7. So for the heck of it I decided to boot into Windows XP and try it again. I used the same file that was generated prior using Video Studio. WHen I tried to edit it and then create a file using Win XP, I had no issues at all. And again, that is using the same file that was captured earlier. I have no idea why it worked this time.

As far as questions you asked. I have plenty of disk space...over 500 gig.

The error was "Possible Protected file".

Sounds like a NTFS file rights issue. Very common with dual boot systems. Are you saving your videos to your user folder? (c:\users\username or c:\Documents and Settings\username) Make a folder in the root directory like c:\captures and store the video there. Also, this is a digital camcorder, right? Why the analog capture?

Yes, this is a digital camcorder. WHy do you say Analog? Is Virtualdub only an analog capture program?

For DV transfer ("capture") you'd want to use a special software tool like WinDV (freeware) to transfer the DV video to your computer un-reencoded. And then edit and encode it o something else later, as needed.

VirtualDub is a VFW method analog-in video capture program. I do not believe it captures/transfers DV, no. I've never actually tried it, but I doubt it works as a DV transferrer.