Capture Issues

[ahambelton]

I’m having problems capturing video with my HDV camcorder. I press the record button and PE4 seems to be capturing the video. When I stop the recording, the video footage is not in Premiere Elements. If I go to the folder where I captured the video and try to open the file, I get the following message:

"Unsupported format or damaged file/One of the necessary components may not have been install...."

I’m using the following equipment:
Camcorder- Canon HV30, output format set for HDV mode at 1080i.

Computer
HP m7760 Dual processor at 2.1 Ghz, 4 GB memory, and 2 250 Gb hard drives.
NVidia GeForce 7600 GT with 256 Mb ram.

I have Premiere set up as follows:
1080i at 25 fps
HDV Capture

Does anyone know how to resolve this?

Al

[VernonRobinson]

Al,
Welcome to the forum. I do not personally have this camcorder, but there are some threads in the Camcorder section on the HV10, HV20, and HV30. I would recommend that you post your question there. Here is a thread from an HV30 user asking some general questions. They are trying to create a standard definition DVD. I do not know whether you have a Blu Ray burner or not. Good luck.

http://muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2805&sid=55a722bb2c1de197a8ba9ed571d52bd2

Regards,
-Vernon

[ahambelton]

Hi Vernon,

I looked at the thread but it really doesn't address my problem. I think my problem is related to PE4 rather than the camcorder. I've been able to capture video with Pinnacle Studio 11 but I would prefer to use PE4.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,

Al

[RJ Johnston]

Have you gone back to that file and tried importing it again. Due to the enormous size of the capture file, not all the file may have been written to the hard drive when you went to import it.

[ahambelton]

Yes, I've back to the file and tried to import it again. That's when I get the message that the file is either damaged or an unsupported format. When I look at the file size, it's only 1Kb. So Premiere Elements starts to capture it and then suddenly stops.

Al

[Rockdoc]

I think RJ might be asking if you have tried re-capturing the video. With large files, it might not have written correctly to the hard drive the first time.

In other words, PE might be right and the file might be corrupt. Can you play it in Windows Media Player?

[ahambelton]

Yes, I tried several times to re-capture the footage from the tape. I've also tried other tapes. Each time the result is the same:the video is not captured. A small file is created but it doesn't containing anything.

Al

[Steve Grisetti]

BTW, Al, have you seen this related thread, in our Camcorders forum?
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2825

That said, yours seems to be a unique and very uncommon problem, so it's probably not an issue with Premiere Elements, per se.

If all other things are right, I wonder if there is something going on with your system. As you may know, some video programs edit HDV native files while others produce and edit an intermediary codec or working file. You say you are capturing fine with Studio. I wonder if its presence on your system is conflicting in some way with how Premiere Elements captures. Do you know if Studio uses an intermediary codec?

About the only way to test this would be to see if you can capture with Premiere Elements on a friend's computer, one that does not have Studio on it.

[Steve Grisetti]

Al, I might owe you an apology! Someone else just posted to the Adobe forum with the same issue!

So maybe there is something going on between the HV30 and PRemiere Elements 4.

Meantime, though, check out Jack's recommended camera settings in the link above and see if it helps at all.

[ahambelton]

Steve,

I've tried to implement the suggestions in the Camcorder section but the DV Out option was grayed out for me. So it wasn't possible.

I don't think there's a conflict with Studio as I had the problem before I installed Studio.

Do you know of any conflicts with Logitech Web cams? I've uninstalled it but it didn't fix the problem.

Al

[Steve Grisetti]

I still think we need a "control" for this experiment, Al.

Do you have access to any other computer -- ideally one with no other editing software on it -- that you can install Premiere Elements on to see if it can capture any better? At least that would help us isolate the problem.

(And, yes, you can install Premiere Elements on more than one computer, as long as you own both or do not intend to use it on both at the same time.)

[ahambelton]

I installed PE4 on a second computer (details below) and an interesting thing happened. When I went to capture video from my camcorder, I briefly got a message from PE4 that "a component was being activated". The activation took about 5 seconds and then PE4 was able to capture my video. I never got this "activation" on the computer that I'm having troubles with. Do you know how I can manually activate features?

Al

Dell Computer
Windows XP SP2
Pentium 4, 2.4 Ghz
1 Gb Ram
1 HD 75 Gb
1 HD 150 GB
(This machine is too slow to regularly work with PE4)

[Steve Grisetti]

Have you tried an uninstall (removing preferences) and reinstall?

[surfdabeach]

I have Dell XPS420 (Vista), PE4 and HV30. This morning I spent 1 hour and 50 minutes on the phone with PE tech support. We tried numerous things, none of which worked. NONE ! He finally admitted that PE4 is having some compatibility problems with the HV30. Like some other members, I've been able to capture video from other programs, but not PE.

Tech support pointed me in the direction of DVIO.com to download a simple program (free) for capturing video and it works well when editing using PE4. I'm not a tech person, but thought this info might help others having this same problem. Also - I would (and I'm only speaking for myself), appreciate it if others would stop putting misleading information on the forums on how to get PE4 and HV30 to work together unless they actually tried it and it works.

[Rockdoc]

Which misleading information are you referring to, surfdabeach? I haven't checked the Adobe forums or anywhere else, but it looks to me like no one who posted here was trying to do anything but help resolve the problem.