Canon ZR930 with Movie Maker & XP?

[J Walker]

Hi,

We have XP-SP2 & MM5.1 running on a Dell D630, and a brand new Canon ZR930,
and can't seem to download the video to our computer.

We have the correct cable. We can link with and control the camera. We are
not able to view the video on our computer screen, but we can play; rewind;
stop; pause…

When we Start Capture, the camera will play the video, but the video
captured continues to read 00:00:00 and the video file size remains 5kb.

When we finish playing the portion of the video that the software should be
capturing, we receive the following error:

"The specified video device is not responding. Verify that the device is
connected properly and turned on, then try capturing again."

Canon is unresponsive. My initial reaction is to return the camera.

Please help!

 

[Graham Hughes]

I'd do some testing first, so beg/steal/borrow another cam/cable and pc and
swap and change the bits to see what is possibly faulty.
It could be the pc firewire port the cable of the cam.

http://www.myvideoproblems.com/ProblemPages/CannotCapture.htm

If all appears to be ok, then try using windv to capture, it very rarely
fails if all is ok.

http://www.myvideoproblems.com/WebPages/UsefulProgrammes.htm

 

[J Walker]

Thank you for your response Graham. I think that the firewire is okay as I
can control the camera. When we try to capture the video, the camera plays
the video - and stops the video when we tell it to. Camera control does not
appear to be the issue.

I'll try the download test you also suggest.

Thanks again.

 

[Graham Hughes]

You said capturing was the issue and due to the way the cable is wired
controling the cam does not mean you can capture from it. I'd still do
testing first.

 

[J Walker]

Okay. I am able to download video using windv. However, it will only save a
very few frames - maybe half a second.

Windv will allow control of the camera. when I press capture to begin the
capture process the camera plays. When I press capture again to stop the
capture process, the camera stops - so I have control of the camera. However
the windv program only actually saves 250k worth of video.

I changed the the Max AVI size to 1M frames, but still end up with the super
small files.

What do you think?

 

[J Walker]

I spent the better part of the day chatting with Dell support. They can't help.

Canon uses the MS driver - effectively removing themselves from the
discussion. Dell tells me to talk to Canon. Canon tells me to go to Dell.

What do you say MS? Is there a driver anywhere?

The camera, cable and movie maker work on the Sony laptop we have. This
appears to be a dell setting on our latitude d630 mobile chipset laptop.

 

[John Inzer]

I spent the better part of the day chatting with Dell support. They
can't help.

Canon uses the MS driver - effectively removing themselves from the
discussion. Dell tells me to talk to Canon. Canon tells me to go to
Dell.

What do you say MS? Is there a driver anywhere?

The camera, cable and movie maker work on the Sony laptop we have.
This appears to be a dell setting on our latitude d630 mobile chipset
laptop.

=================================
Apparently you are not the only ZR930 owner
who cannot download video. The following
review offers a work around that you may want
to consider.

Firewire just doesn't work
http://tinyurl.com/55y7wu
or...
http://www.amazon.com/review/R195XKPRR2GYYQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R195XKPRR2GYYQ

Just a thought...since you can download the
footage to your Sony...couldn't you copy it
from there to the Dell?

FWIW...this newsgroup is not monitored by
MS...the MVPs and others who answer questions
here are all volunteers. If you wish to deal direct
with MS Support...go to the following site:

MS Support
http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx

--

John Inzer
Digital Media MVP

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[J Walker]

Thanks for your thoughts John.

The sony is actually my girlfriend's computer. I live and work in another
city. I spend a lot of time on the road and would prefer to have access to
the videos without having to return back home to download, edit, post the
videos to the web.

In my defense, I actually purchased the camera prior to the Amazon reviews.
All the techie reveiws were glowing about the canon.

I think that I'm just so overwhelmingly disappointed by the lack of concern
or desire to help out the consumers. Clearly, this is a problem with this
product and the drivers, but Canon, MS, Dell, and Mac don't give a flying
you-know-what.

Well, I bought it on Amazon. I guess it's going back.

 

[Graham Hughes]

Sorry for my delay, I've been really busy with work.
If you still have the cam, you may want to try another make of cam on your
Dell, to see if it is a conflict between the 3 or if it is perhaps a faulty
firewire port in your computer.

 

[J Walker]

Thanks Graham.

I still have the camera. I haven't had time to return it yet, so I can try
any ideas you might have.

The other camera I have used to film our videos uses a USB connection and
worked quite well. It is a still camera that can do short videos. We were
having issues with the sound quality and wanted to upgrade. I'm assuming that
these videos are better, but haven't been able to actually tell the
difference yet. lol.

John.

 

[kaipa]

Hi,
Today I got Canon ZR950 camcorder and I have used. I tried capturing
the video using MS Movie Maker and I got the same problem as you mentioned
above. It starts off the capture process but stops at the 5kb. I am using
Dell 830.
I am now seriously worried about my camcorder. I was happy that the picture
was clear but without the feature to upload the video, the purpose is
defeated.
Keeping my fingers crossed and expecting to find a solution to this problem
:-(

 

[Graham Hughes]

Kaipa,

How is your cam connected to the pc?