Vista + Sony Handycam + Firewire = Problem

[Guest]

Ok so where to start. I have a Sony Handycam (had it for a long time.) Works fine on XP, but I recently upgraded to Vista.
As some of you may know, most versions of Vista do not support Firewire. So I can now not transfer video or stills from the MiniDV tape to the computer through firewire. However, the camera has a USB Stream feature, in which you can stream from the tape through the USB cable to the computer, and transfer the video that way.
The manual of the camera says I can use Pixela ImageMixer 1.0 to do this, but I cannot find a free version of that anywhere, since I lost the disc it originally came on. I have Pinnacle Studio 12, but this can only be used with Firewire, so no dice.
Does anyone have any other software that I could get that can transfer from Mini DV tapes to the computer through USB cable? Or perhaps a solution for Vista to make Firewire work (though that is highly unlikely.)
Thanks in advance.

 

[ghisu]

Hi,i've got the same problem unluckly.Did you find any solutions?

 

[AdioKIP]

I'm having the exact same issue... The worst part is that it was working fine 3 weeks ago. In june i upgraded to vista, between June and December I used Premiere to transfer video from my dv camcorder to the computer. In december I caught pinnacle studio 12 ultimate on sale. Installed it and it worked fine, immediately saw my dv camcorder and transfered fine.

Last week I upgrade my processor to a phenom II. I did a fresh install of Vista and now no matter what I try I cant get the computer to recognize my camcorder. I'm reading alot of places that Vista has firewire issues and issues with Sony camcorders....the only thing is that everything was working perfectly before I reinstalled Vista. If anyone has any advice it would be much apprecitated.

 

[WildHare]

Bumping this one because I have the same issue with a Sony Handycam. It works fine with XP via firewire, but does not import (auto or manual) in Vista (Home Premium SP1). I can see it in device manager though. I looked first under the 1394 device area, but it shows in a separate location, not associated with 1394.

It's on a new build, Intel i7 920, Asus P6T for the firewire port.

 

[pras]

I have the same issue. Adobe premier or Sony Vegas both of them just freeze. They don't even recognize that the camcorder is connected. Win XP was working fine. Got a new system i7 920 with asus p6t deluxe, installed vista 64 bit ultimate and everything stopped working.

pras

 

[cmahendra]

Hi There

I had similar problem with my Sony Digital8 (also called HI8 ) handycam. My vista system was not able to detect my Handycam with a very very cheap FIREWIRE PCI Card I bought in local market for only $4, yes four dollars. It came with 6pin to 4pin Firewire cable(Sony calls it i.Link). I was trying to connect with same cable 4pin at camera end and 6pin on PCI Card, with no luck. It was even showing DV-IN on camera LCD with this 6pin to 4pin cable. I tried everything an expert would do, but got only frustration. Even tried a lot on Internet for the solution but it seems no one knew.

Then I started from scratch, TO DECIDED TO READ MANUAL. While reading the PDF manual found on Sony Support site, trust me, I found those golden words "USE ONLY 4PIN TO 4PIN i.Link Cable for Firewire connection."

I ran back to market and bought 4PIN TO 4PIN Firewire Cable for $1.5

At first trial, trust me, it detected "SONY DV Camcorder" and installed drivers automatically. I confirmed by going into Device Manager and found same entry in Imaging Device section. Then what in every possible software existed on my system, DV Capture was available, which was found always disabled.

Now the funny part it, technically there is no difference in 6pin to 4pin Firewire cable as two pins are used for Voltage which is discarded at 4 pin end. But it seems SONY Handycam does not wants itself to connect it to 6pin socket at PCI card end.

So these are the final things to remember.
--------------------------------------------------------
1) Use only 4pin to 4pin Firewire cable (any cheaper make. $1.5 will do)

2) Use any cheaper FIREWIRE PCI card with at least one 4pin firewire socket. When installed XP or Vista will install driver automatically just confirm that "IEEE 1394 bus host controller" entry is shown in Device manager or not.

3) No matter you use cheaper or costlier PCI card or cable the quality will always be same coz D8 Handycams directly transfer encoded Video Data in Digital format thru Firewire cable. Firewire cable does not transfer RF video input. I get default video with 720x576 with 25 Frames/s in PAL mode.

4) No additional codecs are required to install in pc like others suggested. Required codecs are always there in XP and VISTA with windows movie maker.

5) No additional software is required, as you can directly capture with Windows Movie Maker in high quality. My choice is Adobe Premier CS3. If you want to make directly MPG file you may use ULEAD VIDEOSTUDIO 8 or later.

6) Do not blame SONY as they already told you which exact cable to use.

7) Do not blame Vista. Its nothing to do with it. Sony's PicturePackage for XP does not work on vista. For vista they offered PICTURE MOTION BROWSER which also have easy VIDEO Capture utlity with same high quality capture. Some people falsely claim that "VISTA DOES NOT WORK WELL WITH FIREWIRE" That is completely wrong. See, one or few people may have problem and they always keep shouting for thier fate. But it actually it could be thier local hardware or software problem or anything. There could be many reasons at the same time too. Many people even do not care to change to new cable and keep trying on same thing. Actually cables are very delicate rubber material. Many a times you get faulty cable in new petty pack box of devices. Or it could be some firewire chipset problem too. Last is driver problem. Many firewire card manufacturers have not yet made stable drivers for vista. Most problems are solved if newest drivers are downloaded and installed.

7) In handycam mode, you can control PLAY/STOP/PAUSE of Handycam from PC itself from all the video software you use, which is high convinience for capturing.

8) My sureshot capture sequence is as follows.....

a) Remove BATTERY from camera and switch on with AC Adaptor
b) Put it on PLAY/EDIT mode (also called VCR mode).
c) Connect 4pin to 4pin firewire cable on camera side and in firewire PCI Card. Now you see the words DV-IN on LCD of camera, if LCD is open.
d) Now start any Video Capture Software of your choice. You will find CAPTURE command in FILE menu in almost all softwares.
e) Enjoy.....

Trust me I am going to add this information in almost all forums where similar problems were asked but nowhere the solution found. May be I can help them. Trust me I signed up this forum only to add this information.

Thanks for listening

Mahendra
Mumbai, India

 

[pras]

Thanks for posting Mahendra. I will try it out and post the results.

pras

 

[roobah]

Sorry Mahendra,

Your suggestions are still not working for me. But I have the 64-bit version of Vista, and my computer came with the 4-pin firewire pre-installed in my laptop (and I have 4-pin on the Sony DV camera). I'm using a 1.5-meter 4-pin to 4-pin firewire cable. I've used this same camera for about 2 years on another XP desktop (6-pin to 4-pin) and it always worked flawlessly, so I know it's not the camera. I've transferred enough video to know how to set the camera mode for transfer. I also have Adobe CS4 Premiere Pro which just tells me my capture device is "offline". Windows Movie Maker does not recognize anything hooked up. It is going to take some kind of driver or something... this definitely is not plug-n-play!

Come on Microsoft, get with the program here! My Sony DCR-HC28 is NOT that off the wall, even XP recognizes the model as plug-and-play.

My system is HP DV9700T w 4GB ram and NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS 512MB video card, running Vista 64 OS.

Roobah

 

[SANDANCERNo1]

Hi There

I had similar problem with my Sony Digital8 (also called HI8 ) handycam. My vista system was not able to detect my Handycam with a very very cheap FIREWIRE PCI Card I bought in local market for only $4, yes four dollars. It came with 6pin to 4pin Firewire cable(Sony calls it i.Link). I was trying to connect with same cable 4pin at camera end and 6pin on PCI Card, with no luck. It was even showing DV-IN on camera LCD with this 6pin to 4pin cable. I tried everything an expert would do, but got only frustration. Even tried a lot on Internet for the solution but it seems no one knew.

Then I started from scratch, TO DECIDED TO READ MANUAL. While reading the PDF manual found on Sony Support site, trust me, I found those golden words "USE ONLY 4PIN TO 4PIN i.Link Cable for Firewire connection."

I ran back to market and bought 4PIN TO 4PIN Firewire Cable for $1.5

At first trial, trust me, it detected "SONY DV Camcorder" and installed drivers automatically. I confirmed by going into Device Manager and found same entry in Imaging Device section. Then what in every possible software existed on my system, DV Capture was available, which was found always disabled.

Now the funny part it, technically there is no difference in 6pin to 4pin Firewire cable as two pins are used for Voltage which is discarded at 4 pin end. But it seems SONY Handycam does not wants itself to connect it to 6pin socket at PCI card end.

So these are the final things to remember.
--------------------------------------------------------
1) Use only 4pin to 4pin Firewire cable (any cheaper make. $1.5 will do)

2) Use any cheaper FIREWIRE PCI card with at least one 4pin firewire socket. When installed XP or Vista will install driver automatically just confirm that "IEEE 1394 bus host controller" entry is shown in Device manager or not.

3) No matter you use cheaper or costlier PCI card or cable the quality will always be same coz D8 Handycams directly transfer encoded Video Data in Digital format thru Firewire cable. Firewire cable does not transfer RF video input. I get default video with 720x576 with 25 Frames/s in PAL mode.

4) No additional codecs are required to install in pc like others suggested. Required codecs are always there in XP and VISTA with windows movie maker.

5) No additional software is required, as you can directly capture with Windows Movie Maker in high quality. My choice is Adobe Premier CS3. If you want to make directly MPG file you may use ULEAD VIDEOSTUDIO 8 or later.

6) Do not blame SONY as they already told you which exact cable to use.

7) Do not blame Vista. Its nothing to do with it. Sony's PicturePackage for XP does not work on vista. For vista they offered PICTURE MOTION BROWSER which also have easy VIDEO Capture utlity with same high quality capture. Some people falsely claim that "VISTA DOES NOT WORK WELL WITH FIREWIRE" That is completely wrong. See, one or few people may have problem and they always keep shouting for thier fate. But it actually it could be thier local hardware or software problem or anything. There could be many reasons at the same time too. Many people even do not care to change to new cable and keep trying on same thing. Actually cables are very delicate rubber material. Many a times you get faulty cable in new petty pack box of devices. Or it could be some firewire chipset problem too. Last is driver problem. Many firewire card manufacturers have not yet made stable drivers for vista. Most problems are solved if newest drivers are downloaded and installed.

7) In handycam mode, you can control PLAY/STOP/PAUSE of Handycam from PC itself from all the video software you use, which is high convinience for capturing.

8) My sureshot capture sequence is as follows.....

a) Remove BATTERY from camera and switch on with AC Adaptor
b) Put it on PLAY/EDIT mode (also called VCR mode).
c) Connect 4pin to 4pin firewire cable on camera side and in firewire PCI Card. Now you see the words DV-IN on LCD of camera, if LCD is open.
d) Now start any Video Capture Software of your choice. You will find CAPTURE command in FILE menu in almost all softwares.
e) Enjoy.....

Trust me I am going to add this information in almost all forums where similar problems were asked but nowhere the solution found. May be I can help them. Trust me I signed up this forum only to add this information.

Thanks for listening

Mahendra
Mumbai, India

 

[SANDANCERNo1]

I had The Same Problem Mahendra About 12 Months Ago But Sorted Now The Same Way As You Did Its All Working Now The Way You Have Wrote It Is Right,My PC Is Windows XP My Camcorder Is Sony The USB Cable I Got Free With My Camcorder Streamed Bad Till I bought A 4 Pin To 4 Pin Sony Firewire Cable And A Gembird Add-On Card iEEE 1394/3 Ports PCI Host Adapter With A Firewire 4 pin To 6 Pin What Never Worked But Hope I Have Help Someone Out There Well I cant Have Any Credit As Mahendra Has Wrote How To Do It But Just Read What He Has Said As Its The Right Way

 

[roobah]

I believe you, but you didn't clearly read my message, or you'd see that I said I was using 4-pin to 4-pin connection. I said I never had a problem with 4-pin to 6-pin, now that I'm using 4-pin to 4-pin, NOW I have a problem. I'll try a few things and see if that fixes it.

We'll see if my problem will soon be solved, though, my hard drive crashed and I just got a replacement one (warranty). We'll see about getting this problem fixed on a "fresh" OS install and see if that fixes the problem.

Also, I totally agree, if it worked FINE using XP Movie Maker, there should be the same capability using Vista OS 64 Home Premium.

Roobah

 

[gbhaduri]

I have handycam DCR-HC38. i am not able to tranfer from my DV to my laptop since my laptop doesnot have ilink port as well as PCMCIA, usb streaming also not working. OS Ver Win Vista Home SP1. I have 1 cable usb to ilink, if i connect the cable with my camcoder vista is asking for usb driver which is not avaliable. Please advice me.

 

[roobah]

I believe you, but you didn't clearly read my message, or you'd see that I said I was using 4-pin to 4-pin connection. I said I never had a problem with 4-pin to 6-pin, now that I'm using 4-pin to 4-pin, NOW I have a problem. I'll try a few things and see if that fixes it.

We'll see if my problem will soon be solved, though, my hard drive crashed and I just got a replacement one (warranty). We'll see about getting this problem fixed on a "fresh" OS install and see if that fixes the problem.

Also, I totally agree, if it worked FINE using XP Movie Maker, there should be the same capability using Vista OS 64 Home Premium.

Roobah

http/tinyurl.com/Vista64-vidcam-compatibility says it all.

No suggestion above, without some 3rd party driver support, is going to fix this problem. If anyone finds a 3rd party driver for this, that would be great! Sony's website specifically excludes support for Vista 64 OS, so they aren't going to help here either. (I guess I can just work on other computers, but it would be VERY nice to be able to work on this video capable monster laptop.)

Roobah

 

[peterpq3]

I have 2-computers with Vista. One with 32 bit and the other with 64-bit. I have a HDR-HC9 Sony and it transfers using the latest version of Sony PMB on the 32-bit without any problems. Using the same cable to my 64 Bit gives me problems as follows: It seems the information transfer is not fast so the picture and sound are choppy until it freezes.

 

[bil sony pb]

I have a Sony mini DV camera. There is no solutions in vista for those who do not have a firewire port on their computer... I tried a firewire to usb cable, but Vista does not suport uSB streaming. I talked to Sony support and they confirmed it.
Anything through Linux??

Thanks for any tip
Bil

 

[sujith]

I have the same issue. Adobe premier or Sony Vegas both of them just freeze. They don't even recognize that the camcorder is connected. Win XP was working fine. Got a new system i7 920 with asus p6t deluxe, installed vista 64 bit ultimate and everything stopped working.

pras

HI ALL,

PROBLEM SOLVED.

HERE IS THE RIGHT SOLUTION. I HAD BEEN SUFFERED 3 MONTHS IN THIS SAME PROBLEM. MY HANDY CAM (DCR-HC28) WAS NOT DETECTING BY VISTA HOME EDITION INSTALLED IN MY LAPTOP.

I THOUGHT IT WAS THE PROBLEM OF VISTA... I REALYY FEDUP WITH THAT... REINSTALLING VISTA AGAIN AND AGAIN.... AND PROBLEM NOT RESOLVED....

IT ALL ABOUT BY USING A CHEAP FIREWIRE CABLE.. AT FIRST I BOUGHT A CABLE WITH VERY CHEAP RATE ALMOST 2$. AND THAT WAS NOT WORKING... AFTER THAT I BOUGHT ANOTHER CABLE COST AROUND 5$. STILL...NO LUCK....

AT LAST I BOUGHT SONY ORIGINAL I-LINK CABLE (4 TO 4 PIN). IT COST AROUND 40$(HMM...... VERY CHEAP..)..AND NOW MY CAM SHOWS "dv in" MESSAGE ON ITS LCD SCREEN..... AND I CAN CAPTURE THE VIDEO USING WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER...

SO FRIENDS.... DO NOT BLAME VISTA. VISTA ALREAY HAVE THE DRIVER FOR ALMOST ALL SONY HANDYCAM. USE THE SONY ORIGINAL FIREWIRE CABLE. SONY RECOMMENDS THAT....


CHEERS...

SUJITH KV

 

[hc49]

I also decided to pay the premium for an authentic SONY iLink cable and it WORKED!

Was having no luck establishing the Firewire connection until I got the new cable - two months wasted )-:

Hans

 

[tm00]

My MacBook takes a 6 pin , 4 pin cable which cost me about 35$ and the transfer worked well using Imovie.

The problem I have now is I'm getting a black lcd screen and also in viewfinder, everything else works fine. I'm wondering if there is a setting that needs to be turned off after using the firewire.

Any suggestions??

 

[rs0114]

I tried for weeks to have my Handycam TRV25 talk to my HP dv5-1235dx laptop running Vista. I used the same 4-pin to 6-pin cable I used in the past with my PCs. I didn't try 4-pin to 4-pin iLINK because my Dynex express dx-ecfw add on card doesn't have a 4-pin port. I've checked many local outlets for a 4-pin express card with no luck. Finally, I decided to connect the Handycam to my external WD drive through its firewire port and lo and behold the camera shows up in device manager. I can now transfer video from the camera to my laptop or external drvive. However, this arrangement is not optimal because I'd rather use my eSATA link on my external drive.

My camera is powered. I've tried the camera with battery power only and AC power.

Why do you suppose my Handycam works fine through my WD external drive but not when I use the same laptop firewire port that my external dirve uses.

 

[pochtara]

Hi everybody. I've been a user of both Sony HDR-HC7/9 and Studio 12 for the last 3 years and used them on both XP and Vista 64. The comments that Vista does not support FireWire is NOT true - both XP and Vista would install driver for my camcorder as soon as I connect them with FireWire (I also use 6 to 4 pin cabe with no problem). So dropping these issues from our scope the only think I can comment on for the Studion not being able to control/capture video from the camcorder is a setting on the camcorder setup menu HDV/DV in Play/Edit mode. If it's on HDV, I also can not capture video from the camera and the Studio does not recognize it when you switch to Capture tab. As soon as I set this setting to DV, the Studio recognizes the camcorder and you can capture video from it to Studio. I have not yet investigate the Studio side of the issue and it's possible that you have to adjust capture settings on Studio to be able to link/caputer successfully with HDV setting in the camcorder. I've seen some forums recommend to set the camcorder to HDV, shot down PC and camcorder, connect them via FireWire, power them both, open Studio and in the Capture settings you suppose to see the HD version of the device to capture from. This suppose to now let Studio to recognize connected camcorder with HDV setting. I'll try it myself and will let you'll know the result.