Capturing from analogue sources using Movie Maker

[Griffo Fooxburr]

Hello!

I have a simple question (probably for PapaJohn

What is this new pass-through feature in MM 2.1 about?
I have WMM 2.0 (2.0.3312.0) and would not like (for some stuborn reasons of
mine) to upgrade to SP2 yet. So far I've done some capturing and editing
with MM, but have never tried capturing from analogue sources, though would
like in the very near future. I have a miniDV camcorder that supports
pass-through and now I'm confused as why a programme (e.g. WMM) would need
an option for this? Isn't it enough to set everything right with physical
connections? Why would MM care about what's "before" DV part?

I've studied through http://www.eicsoftware.com/PapaJohn/MM2/MM2.html
(Setup -> MM2.1) and through
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/21/dvpassthrough.mspx,
but still don't get it. Does this mean I cannot use MM 2 to accomplish the
task?

TIA.

 

[Rehan]

What is this new pass-through feature in MM 2.1 about?

Actually pass through feature is not new but was there always... But it
got broken in 2.0 due to a bug... So they have now fixed it in 2.1

I have an excuse for maintaining your stubborness
Use WinDV for capturing http://windv.mourek.cz/ as an alternative to WMM2.0

 

[Griffo Fooxburr]

Actually pass through feature is not new but was there always... But
it got broken in 2.0 due to a bug... So they have now fixed it in 2.1

I have an excuse for maintaining your stubborness
Use WinDV for capturing http://windv.mourek.cz/ as an alternative to
WMM2.0

Thank you for your answer and for the link - I use WinDV occasionally
already and find it to be very nice and usefull piece of software (although
haven't settled down with it or WMM or any other programme yet)

However, your answer doesn't address the "heart" of my question:
'Why would MM care about what's "before" DV part?'

What I want to say is that I don't understand why I should instruct any
capturing application that there is an analogue source before (in front) of
the DV camcorder. Because of the fact the DV camcorder is doing A/D
conversion, shouldn't it be observed as the source of the signal from the
perspective of the application on PC (in our example WMM)?

In other words, I understand MM2.1 rectifies something spoiled in MM2.0, yet
working before in MM1.0. The question is: why do we need this functionality
at all? Aren't other programmes (WinDV, DVIO, ...) able to capture correctly
digital stream coming through firewire cable from a DV camcorder without
knowing there might ctually be an analogue device (broadcast, VHS, Hi-8,
....) connected to it at the beginning of the stream chain?

Just being curious, in order to better undertsand this technology which I'm
not so familiar with...
Thanks for any further answers!

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

you're thinking logically, like a person....

you're not thinking like a programmer...
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 and Photo Story 3 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
..

 

[Rehan]

Griffo Fooxburr wrote:
....

However, your answer doesn't address the "heart" of my question:
'Why would MM care about what's "before" DV part?'

What happened was that the programmers at WMM team tried to be smart and
made a wrong assumption. Rather than start capturing whatever is coming
through the DV cable, they introduced a "helpful" feature to
automatically rewind the tape so you always get the full tape. But this
meant if there is no tape such as when u are doing a pass thru, WMM
would still try to rewind and then complain that there is no tape. This
essentially meant pass thru was no more possible. If one could kill this
dialog or there was an option to say "IGNORE" then it would have
worked as before as the actual functionality was still there in 2.0.

 

[Griffo Fooxburr]

Griffo Fooxburr wrote:
...

What happened was that the programmers at WMM team tried to be smart
and made a wrong assumption. Rather than start capturing whatever is
coming through the DV cable, they introduced a "helpful" feature to
automatically rewind the tape so you always get the full tape. But
this meant if there is no tape such as when u are doing a pass thru,
WMM would still try to rewind and then complain that there is no
tape. This essentially meant pass thru was no more possible. If one
could kill this dialog or there was an option to say "IGNORE" then
it would have
worked as before as the actual functionality was still there in 2.0.

Now I understand (damn those programmers! )
Unfortunatelly, this leads me to another question, which I will ask in a
separate post.

Thanks again for the clarification.