Tutorial

To capture the entire video from a tape in a DV camera

Make sure your DV device is connected properly to an IEEE 1394 port, and then set the camera mode to play recorded video (often labeled VTR or VCR on a DV camera).
On the File menu, click Capture Video.
–or-

In the Movie Tasks pane, under Capture Video, click Capture from video device.
On the Video Capture Device page, in Available devices, click the DV camera.
In the Enter a file name for your captured video box, enter a file name for your captured video file. Then, in the Choose a place to save your captured video box, select the location where you want your video to be saved or click Browse to select a location.
On the Video Setting page, choose the video setting you want to use for capturing video and audio.
On the Capture Method page, click Capture the entire tape automatically.
The tape in the DV camera rewinds. Capturing begins automatically and ends when the video tape ends.
Select any of the following commands:
- To separate the video into smaller clips, select the Create clips when wizard finishes check box.
- To stop capturing before the end of the video tape, click Stop Capture, and then click Yes in the resulting dialog box to save the video that has been captured.
To close the Video Capture Wizard, click Finish.
The captured content is imported into a new collection with the same name as the specified video file.

Choosing a video and audio capture device

This page of the Video Capture Wizard lets you choose the video and audio devices you want to use for capturing video and audio.

The following options appear on this page.

Available devices

Lists the available capture devices you can use for capturing video. If you only have one video capture device attached to your computer, that device is the only one listed.

For many video capture devices, the name of the device is listed according to the hardware manufacturer’s name and device name. For example, when capturing video from an analog camera attached to an analog capture card on your computer, you would choose the analog capture card as the capture device for this option.

Video input source

Lists the available input connection lines based on the number of lines available for the selected video capture device For example, if an analog capture device has multiple input connections, such as an S-video connection and a composite video connection, you need to choose which input connection line to use for capturing video. If only one input line can be used for capturing by the device, that line is selected and this option does not appear.

This option is not available for a DV camera connected to an IEEE 1394 port.

Configure

Click to change the configuration of the selected video capture device. The resulting dialog box depends on the specific capture device you are using. For more information about the options available in the resulting Configure Video Capture Device dialog box, see Understanding the Configure Video Capture Device dialog box.

This option is not available for a DV camera connected to an IEEE 1394 port.

Audio device

Lists the available audio capture devices you can use for capturing audio. If you have only one audio capture device, such as your default sound card, that device is selected automatically.

This option is available only for analog devices.

Audio input source

Lists the available connection input lines based on the number of input connections available for the selected audio device. For example, if you have a microphone attached to the microphone line input of your computer, you would choose Microphone as the audio input source.

This option is available only for analog devices with multiple line inputs.

Input level

Adjusts the volume of the captured audio.

When choosing the capturing level, select an input level toward the upper part of the meter without entering the red-colored area, which is marked by the second line from the top. If the capturing level is set too low, the captured audio may be too low to be heard. Conversely, if the capturing level is set too high, the captured audio may be too loud and distorted.

For some devices, such as a DV camera connected to an IEEE 1394 port, the capturing volume cannot be adjusted by dragging the audio level slider.

Note

This page of the Video Capture Wizard does not appear when a single DV device connected to an IEEE 1394 port is the only video capture device found on the computer.

Troubleshooting capturing video

This section covers the following issues that may occur when capturing video.

Previewed and captured video is distorted. Explains the issue where video is not displayed and captured properly.
Captured video file exceeds the FAT32 4-gigabyte file size limit. Explains how to fix the issue where your video file cannot be created because it exceeds the 4 GB file size limit supported by the FAT32 file system.
DV device is not responding. Explains how to work around the issue where the DV device is not responding.