Sorry. I don't know what you mean by "the mpeg sounds like a codec"

You mean it was compredded wih a codec Vegas doesn't like?

I'm about to take it to a local guy who uses Premiere (windows). Would that recognize different codecs than VV?

the tape is a plain old Sony 60-minute Mini DV.

thank you.

I never owned a 1000 but my 170 I could capture both DV and DVCAM.

The fact you can play the tape in the camera makes me think it is an issue with
DirectX or Vidcap program. Try upgrading your DirectX support from Microsoft.
What version of Vidcap? Are you using the one supplied from Sony?

Are you using a Creative Labs Video Blaster card? There was an issue
with it.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/96021

If the tape plays in your VX1000, then you should be able to capture it.

Download and try Scenalyzer and see if that works. Even though you now also have the DVD, capturing and editing the tape is by far the better way to proceed.

You should also try a different cable (1394/Firewire) and see if that is the problem. Can you capture other tapes from this camcorder? I assume the answer is yes, but cameras and cables fail rather frequently (I've had it happen quite a bit the past few years).

I'm with John. I think the VX 1000 only records and maybe only plays back DV.avi whereas the upgrade PD150/170 will also do DVCam. I have a 150. DVCam actually plays at a different speed than DV which is why you can't get as much recoding time on a tape. I don't believe the 1000 has any way to change the speed (unless it detects it and does it automatically, but I don't think so).DISCLAIMER I am not really certain about what the cams can play back as I never tried any other format with them.
But put one of you regular tapes (perhaps one shot with the 1000) in and see if you can capture it. If it can and you can play and view the tape in question in the 1000 but not capture it then there must be something strange about the format it is recorded in. (Codec problem?) If you can't capture either tape then there is a problem with either the 1000/firewire/computer/program!!! Try a different camera source to record from (borrow one if you have to). If that works then you know it was the camera. If it still doesn't work then change the firewire cord. If that doesn't work then it is pretty much computer/program. And that another set on instructions!!

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The tape is assuredly a plain, 60-minute Sony Mini DV.

The VX1000 is my default capture device. I’ve captured many tapes with it, including one right before the bad one and one right after it.

Maybe when I said Vidcap it was misleading. I’m using VVPro 8.0b and use its video capture utility which I think is called VidCap.

I’m up to date with the latest Direct X.

I’m about to try a capture using the squirrely Hollywood Bridge A/D converter.

Both DV and DVCAM can be recorded onto those MiniDV tapes.
If the tape is from a broadcaster it's quite likely it is DVCAM, the higher write speed means less risk of dropouts and the audio is locked.
As others have said if the tape will play in the camera regardless of it being DV or DVCAM it *should* capture OK, I mostly capture DVCAM with no problem using VidCap.
There's one caveat to that, we've found sometimes things that'll play out a VCRs composite video ports will not capture or go down the firewire port. One such example is NTSC on our PAL gear. It's highly unlikely I guess but you never know, might they have given you a PAL tape.

Bob.

All sound theories in the face of an otherwise unknowable reality. NTSC vs PAL incompatibilities Ah-h, the sweet mystery of life.

As I write, I am--well, I SEEM to be--capturing the video with my five-year-old, $250, cranky, cheesy Dazzle Hollywood Bridge. It's always had a hard time grabbing both audio and video at once, so I'm doing it sequentially.

The image looks ok in the VidCap window and I'm throwing salt over my shoulder.

I recently bought one of those nice DeckLink digitizers, but couldn't make it work and returned it. A few months later a colleague saw some admission on the Web that the device just didn't work with my Mobo--an Asus digital Home XXXXX. so lo-rent but functional hollywood Bridge it is.

...and voila. there it is. Just like uptown.

Now to figure out why my audio interface software won't open.....

If you look in the Vegas Capture program's settings, with you capture device on, there is an option somewhere to use the Microsoft DV Codec.

This solved the same issue for me that you described.

The codec shouldn't have anything to do with capturing over firewire, how the video is encoded is determined in the camera.

Bob.

Tell me when you start to play the tape in the camera from the beginning how much time does it say remains on the tape?

Reason I'm asking is if it's DV it'll say roughly 63mins, if it's DVCAM it'll say around 40 mins. I'm not 100% certain if the VX1000 can fully do DVCAM, all our VX1000, VX2000 etc are long gone so it's hard for me to know for certain if it should work.
It'd certainly be better if you can get a capture over firewire for both the vision and the audio and those Dazzles were a world of pain.

edit:
If you are stuck using the Dazzle then try to use an S-Video cable between the camera and the Dazzle, that should give you better quality vision.
edit2:
Do you also have a Fireface?
If so that'd also be connected to a firewire port. I have the M-Audio Firewie 410 and things can go totally screwy if it and the VCR / camera are not plugged in and the drivers running when I boot Windows. I've had many instances where Vegas ended up sending vision to the 410 and the sound coming out of my monitors was not nice. This isn't Vegas fault or the devices fault, I think it has something to do with how Windows establishes connections between drivers and devices on the firewire ports. Having separate firewire ports for different devices can help avoid issues I've found.
Bob.

Thanks Bob.

I grabbed the video via composite (not SVHS) and it looks fine.

But just so I wouldn't get too cocky, it turned out that no audio was being recognized by the VZ1000's VU meters, and none was audible in headphones hooked to the camcorder.

I am SO lucky the lady at the production house is REALLY nice, and actually sympathized and agreed to have her audio dept send me a WAV or AIF file.

Fingers crossed all the way thru the graveyard.

Yr suggestions about the multiple 1394 conections confusing the computer sound eminently possible, but at this point (long past the 11th hour) I have to move forward.

thanks again for the help

OK. Here's the latest and weirdest wierdness in this deal.

* the production company posted the audio track for this program online, which I downloaded and is fine in all respects.

* they sent me a mini DV tape of the program, which Vegas could not capture via 1394 (old news)

* they sent me a DVD ROM with an MPEG-2 file containing only the video of the program. Vegas sees this file, but not as a video--the explorer gives no video info on it when I select it, and I cannot put in on the timeline or open it in Trimmer. Win Media Player plays it just fine.

* New news: The video I captured from their DV tape via the Composite Out of my sony VX1000 came in fine, but when I put it on the timeline with the audio, it played slowly, so that the 10-minute program ran at almost 15 minutes--158% longer (and concommitantly slower) than its proper run time: obviously impossible to sync to the 10-minute audio.

I just checked the timecode on my camcorder and it shows the program as running at 10:00: EXACTLY RIGHT.

* I used windows media player to open the MPEG -2 file from the DVD-ROM they sent, and export as an AVI. But when I bring it to Vegas, it too runs slowly at 15 minutes.

I've spoken to many people about this and they're all stumped, but the problem seems to come either at the Windows OS or Vegas level. This surprises me since Vegas is usually about the most robust element in my system.

Anybody have any ideas about this?

Thanks to all.

If you think it is a Vegas issue, you could always reset all the settings to factory default, although this will reset EVERYTHING. As I remember, you do this by pressing either the Ctrl or the Shift key while starting Vegas (if one doesn't work, try the other one; if neither works, press and hold both of them).

John:

thanks for the info. I'll probably not do that til I'm more sure it is vegas.

i just looked at the AVI I made from Win media player, and it too is at 15 minutes. so it's probably not Vegas, but it sure looks like something in my stuff, since even my camcorder calls the program 10 minutes.

you ever heard of playing a program into a digitizer and getting a longer one?

None of this surprises me.

1) The Dazzle is a disaster. We had one, caused everyone that used it grief. We sold it on eBay instead of smashing it. We still feel bad about that.

2) You recently had a project that wouldn't render without crashing. What did you mess with trying to fix that? Looking at the crash dump from that It was atypical. Your computer could have developed a hardware problem.

3) Most Important. The 150% difference is exactly the speed difference between DV and DVCAM. I'll say it again. It's very, very likely that what's recorded on the MiniDV tape is DVCAM not DV.
Your VX1000 is making a valiant effort to play it but cannot get it right. The TC will read correctly, that's data embedded in the vision on the tape. When you play the tape in the VX1000 how long does it take to play the 10 minute program from beginning to end. Does it take 10 minutes or 15 minutes??


Now a few words of advice. If you're doing paying work using tapes from 3rd parties you really need to invest in a VCR. Best buy in VCRs at the moment is the Sony M15 at around $2K. It'll read and write DV, DVCAM and HDV, in both NTSC and PAL and both the small and large tapes. With one of thoes you're covered for most things. If that's out of your budget a second hand DSR11 would be quite a good choice although they're not to kind to certain brands of MiniDV tapes I've found.

Bob.

Bob:

1) The Dazzle is a disaster. We had one, caused everyone that used it grief. We sold it on eBay instead of smashing it. We still feel bad about that.

no argument.

3) Most Important. The 150% difference is exactly the speed difference between DV and DVCAM. I'll say it again. It's very, very likely that what's recorded on the MiniDV tape is DVCAM not DV.

I believe you're absolutely correct that this is the problem.

As a last ditch try, they burned a WMV file, including audio, which I just downloaded opened in Vegas, and it came in at the right lengths, audio and video. I rendered this as mpeg-2, and it works fine in DVDA.

I think it's done.

thanks again to all who've offered advice.