[kimerskine]

My DS recently volunteered us to make DVDs for others of a kids performance that he video taped with our Canon ZR85, using the tape. We have both Roxio and Pinnical but cant even get the tape into the computer to start editing...

The day before this project was due we realized we didn't have a DVD RW so did get one (SONY DVD -RW) and tried to use it on our HP Pavillion. No luck... Realized that we didn't have a ieee1394 terminal on that computer so moved it downstairs to the old Gateway which does.

so plugged in the cable and attached to the camera turned it on and .....NOTHING.

I have installed the Canon software on my machine, but the camera is not showing up... I have worked on this to the exclusion of everything else (the family is now starving!!)

Can you help please? I don't know how else to edit this stuff, and want to make DVD's of tapes... and as most people seem to as well I feel like I just keep throwing money at this and I don't understand it...


Kim

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Hello,

We will do our best to get to a solution. I have a Canon ZR60, which is similar in many ways I believe. A couple of questions to help clarify and see where to go:

1) What operating system are you using? And if Windows, which version? (ME, 2000, XP)
2) Does the ZR85 turn on and operate normally when not plugged into the firewire port?
3) When you turned on the camera while plugged into the firewire port, did you turn the selector to "VCR" or "PLAY"? The computer will only see it if it is turned on to "VCR" and will not work if turned to "CAMERA"
4) What do you mean by the Canon software? No software is needed for Windows XP to see your camera, just a working firewire (IEEE394) port.

I would highly recommend trying out this program, WinDV, to try and download the clips from your camera. It is free, a small download (<100kB) and I have had great luck with it. First, plug in the camcorder with the firewire cable and turn the camera on to "VCR" or "PLAY". Now, start the WinDV program and you should see some sort of blue input on the program screen. Press play on the camcorder to play the DV tape and you should see the movie on the program screen. Simply click "capture" on the WinDV program and it will automatically capture the footage and divide it into individual clips. Here is the link to WinDV:
http://windv.mourek.cz/

Please post back to this thread or send me a private message if you have more questions or how these tips are working for you.

Cheers,
Tom

My DS recently volunteered us to make DVDs for others of a kids performance that he video taped with our Canon ZR85, using the tape. We have both Roxio and Pinnical but cant even get the tape into the computer to start editing...

The day before this project was due we realized we didn't have a DVD RW so did get one (SONY DVD -RW) and tried to use it on our HP Pavillion. No luck... Realized that we didn't have a ieee1394 terminal on that computer so moved it downstairs to the old Gateway which does.

so plugged in the cable and attached to the camera turned it on and .....NOTHING.

I have installed the Canon software on my machine, but the camera is not showing up... I have worked on this to the exclusion of everything else (the family is now starving!!)

Can you help please? I don't know how else to edit this stuff, and want to make DVD's of tapes... and as most people seem to as well I feel like I just keep throwing money at this and I don't understand it...
Kim

[gust0208]

Hello,

We will do our best to get to a solution. I have a Canon ZR60, which is similar in many ways I believe. A couple of questions to help clarify and see where to go:

1) What operating system are you using? And if Windows, which version? (ME, 2000, XP)
2) Does the ZR85 turn on and operate normally when not plugged into the firewire port?
3) When you turned on the camera while plugged into the firewire port, did you turn the selector to "VCR" or "PLAY"? The computer will only see it if it is turned on to "VCR" and will not work if turned to "CAMERA"
4) What do you mean by the Canon software? No software is needed for Windows XP to see your camera, just a working firewire (IEEE394) port.

I would highly recommend trying out this program, WinDV, to try and download the clips from your camera. It is free, a small download (<100kB) and I have had great luck with it. First, plug in the camcorder with the firewire cable and turn the camera on to "VCR" or "PLAY". Now, start the WinDV program and you should see some sort of blue input on the program screen. Press play on the camcorder to play the DV tape and you should see the movie on the program screen. Simply click "capture" on the WinDV program and it will automatically capture the footage and divide it into individual clips. Here is the link to WinDV:
http://windv.mourek.cz/

Please post back to this thread or send me a private message if you have more questions or how these tips are working for you.

Cheers,
Tom

My DS recently volunteered us to make DVDs for others of a kids performance that he video taped with our Canon ZR85, using the tape. We have both Roxio and Pinnical but cant even get the tape into the computer to start editing...

The day before this project was due we realized we didn't have a DVD RW so did get one (SONY DVD -RW) and tried to use it on our HP Pavillion. No luck... Realized that we didn't have a ieee1394 terminal on that computer so moved it downstairs to the old Gateway which does.

so plugged in the cable and attached to the camera turned it on and .....NOTHING.

I have installed the Canon software on my machine, but the camera is not showing up... I have worked on this to the exclusion of everything else (the family is now starving!!)

Can you help please? I don't know how else to edit this stuff, and want to make DVD's of tapes... and as most people seem to as well I feel like I just keep throwing money at this and I don't understand it...
Kim

[kimerskine]

1) What operating system are you using? And if Windows, which version? (ME, 2000, XP) We have Windows XP - Version 2002 service pack 2
2) Does the ZR85 turn on and operate normally when not plugged into the firewire port? Yes it works just fine taking videos and playing them
3) When you turned on the camera while plugged into the firewire port, did you turn the selector to "VCR" or "PLAY"? The computer will only see it if it is turned on to "VCR" and will not work if turned to "CAMERA"
I did finally try this mode as well but stil no luck...

4) What do you mean by the Canon software? No software is needed for Windows XP to see your camera, just a working firewire (IEEE394) port. There was a digital video software... and on my computer in the devices window there is the IEEE394 port, but it doesn't show up when I plug un the camera.

I would highly recommend trying out this program, WinDV, to try and download the clips from your camera. It is free, a small download (<100kB) and I have had great luck with it. First, plug in the camcorder with the firewire cable and turn the camera on to "VCR" or "PLAY". Now, start the WinDV program and you should see some sort of blue input on the program screen. Press play on the camcorder to play the DV tape and you should see the movie on the program screen. Simply click "capture" on the WinDV program and it will automatically capture the footage and divide it into individual clips. Here is the link to WinDV:
http://windv.mourek.cz/... Thanks for this, I tried it and down loaded the software... tried all you said but got an error message that said no video device found... nothing happened when I started the tape...

Let's try something else can we?

Kim

[gust0208]

It sounds as if you may have a defective firewire port on the computer, a faulty firewire cable or a faulty firewire port on the camera. Do you have any other firewire products that you could test on that computer to see if they show up on the computer? It sounds as if everything else is correct... If the computer has multiple firewire ports, it can't hurt to try all of them in the case one port is faulty.

Would you be able to write up your process for connecting the camera to the computer and what text appears on the little LCD screen of the camcorder when it is connected and turned to "VCR"?

Cheers,
Tom

[kimerskine]

It sounds as if you may have a defective firewire port on the computer, a faulty firewire cable or a faulty firewire port on the camera. Do you have any other firewire products that you could test on that computer to see if they show up on the computer? It sounds as if everything else is correct... If the computer has multiple firewire ports, it can't hurt to try all of them in the case one port is faulty.

Would you be able to write up your process for connecting the camera to the computer and what text appears on the little LCD screen of the camcorder when it is connected and turned to "VCR"?

Cheers,
Tom

We don't appear to have anything else that has a firewire port to try it... I thought it might be the cable, bought a new one... still didn't work. Might be camera... will check with them on Monday...

My process...
1. THe firewire cable is attached to the computer
2. I attach it to the camera in the DV port
3. Turn camcorder to Play(VCR)
4. THe text on the LCD Screen is this... looks like this as well

Stereo 1 [SP] STOP
0:00:13:07
[tape symbol] 61 min
Battery symbol

Big Tape Symbol

when I press the play button "12 Bit" appears in the bottom right corner

At one point yesterday I did get DV flashing down on teh bottom but not sure why that is not happening now...