Capture Device is Offline

[DLRobison]

I have an ADS Pyro AV Link that I bought a couple of years ago. I have used it with Premiere Elements 1.0/2.0/3.0 to capture about 250 hours of Digital8 and Hi-8 video via firewire. I haven't done any conversions in the last couple of months, but recently I learned that the setup doesn't work anymore. When I connect the camera I get the normal Windows double note signal, but PrEl's capture window doesn't have the record video button enabled. The play button can be clicked, but no video shows and the counters do not move (but the camera itself starts playing the tape). It shows the capture device is offline. The results are the same when I take the Pyro out and connect the camcorder directly to my firewire card.

I'm still trouble shooting. I know that the camera is okay and that I can capture video using Microsoft Movie Maker. I can also use the camera with a Digital Video Recorder via firewire, so I think the problem is with Premiere Elements. I recently installed Adobe Acrobat Exchange 9, so it's possible there is a conflict. I also recently deinstalled Premiere Elements 2.0, which didn't go too well. I needed to deinstall to gain disk space, but the deinstall failed due to lack of disk space -- go figure. I finally got it to deinstall by manually deleting the templates and tutorials first. I suppose it's also possible that a recent WIndows update is the culprit, but I haven't investigated this path.

I haven't reinstalled Premiere Elements, but that's probably going to be my next step unless someone here has a better idea. I have a P4 3.0GHz, 2GB RAM, Win XP SP3, Sony TRV315 camcorder. Thanks in advance for the help!

[Chuck Engels]

Hi DL, Welcome to Muvipix

I think a reinstall of Premiere Elements is the best idea at this point.
Why things just stop working is beyond me, but it sure seems to happen regularly.

Let us know how it goes after the reinstall, we are always here to help and we have lots of Pyro users.

[DLRobison]

I started by trying to "repair" the installation. This did not solve the problem. Next I tried deinstalling and reinstalling.
The reinstall solved the problem. Although it was odd that I used to have version 3.0.2. After the install I had 3.0 and the updater did not detect an update. Fortunately I had saved the update from before and just reran it. Looks like I'm ready to make some progress again.

[Chuck Engels]

Glad to hear Premiere Elements is working again