Ahhh ... the Comedy of Errors! And now for the conclusion ... I think.
It all started when I opted for speed (read build an i7 64bit Win. 7 for encoding) over ease of use authoring on the i5 windows XP that had good old DVD Workshop which I (amazingly) knew how to use.
So the quest began....
I purchased all new parts from Newegg 16 gigs of ram, SSD drives, All but the i7 and motherboard which I found on ebay.
Then in keeping with the speed theme, I purchased PE14 at the end of Sept. not knowing 15 was but a week away.
Disgusted I had an old version, one week old, my quest took a tangent and I contacted Adobe to get an upgrade to vers. 15. Nearly a month of suffering with ridiculous chat support, I finally got the upgrade.
The big moment was upon me. I loaded up the software, connected my Canopus 300, and attempted a test video capture.
Low and behold, the canopus didn't work ( AT LEAST THATS WHAT I THOUGHT)
Frantic, I downloaded, WinDV, where I got video but no audio on in the WinDV program. Not only that, but my video went "super dark" after 3 or 4 seconds of capture. OMG, all this time, all this money, already pissed off that I can't use DVD Workshop, now the damned Canopus doesn't work.
I remembered Steve mentioned some issues with Nvidia Graphics card. So I took it out, reverted back to my IGPU and of course lost all the desktop icons along the way ... discombobulated my dual monitor settings... and .... same thing ...
On a lark, I unplug the Canopus from the i7 and stab the firewire into my i5. I launch PE3 and it recognized my canopus.
More wasted time on the internet searching for answers ... reasons ... anything. and I came across a very wise man's post by chance.
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1993077post # 2 .... REALLY?????? That man we all admire for his depth of knowledge posted that since vers.13 you can no longer capture DV video in PE. Ha hahahahah .... LMAO .... REALLY????
So now I do a search on "no audio in WinDV" and the second part of my comedy of errors unfolds .. seems there's a little glitch in Win DV and lots of people cant get audio. REALLY????? What a co-inkie-dink.
Ah ... but the video going "super dark" why is my canopus doing this? WELL ... seems the third module of the comedy of errors has been solved. MACROVISION copy protection does that!!!! Seems I grabbed an old Marx Bros. VHS to use in my original test.
So I reach for an older version of PE. This rendition was Vers. 11 I install, I open .. and ... I capture a VHS tape ( not the Marx Bros. btw)
No problem.
And now, suffering nearly complete .. that's where I am. No DVD Workshop, way back to version 11 of PE. Which by the way has the "EXPORT" option grayed out ... I'll figure that out sooner or later, but I had to stop to update all you guys nice enough to help.
Even Steve ... LOL Age getting to him, although he looks good for a guy with Alzheimer who forgot about no DV capture in 14 or 15 PE.
<sigh> It's ok ... I forgot about Macrovision after the failed PE capture and the error with audio in WinDV, Murphy's Law got me and I automatically assumed the dark video when put together with the other problems equaled a bad Canopus 300.
Next hurdle I have to learn DVD Architect Studio, and Photoshop, so I can duplicate what I'm sure would be a ridiculously simple menu page that I have to do over and over for these VHS conversion DVDs.
All cause I decided to choose speed over my DVD Workshop .... whew .. .what a quest, what a quest!
The aheader I go ... the behinder I get! That quote probably from another idiot like me. See you all in the PE 11 forum very soon ... I'm sure. LOL.
Here's a funny little update I had to share... just now I grabbed that Marx Bros. VHS, stuck it into vcr, and the Canopus 300, pressed the two little top buttons on the canopus ( undocumented Macrovision Override) and LOL, it plays and captures fine also on PE 11, without darkened video from Macrovision.
ASRock Z68 Extreme 4 Gen/3 motherboard. Core i7 2600 and 16 gigs of ddr3. SSD Crucial boot drive, GTX750 Ti video card. Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.