[Joe Maguire]

Let us know how it works out. From what I’ve read on the web, the TI-based 1394 cards tend to “play” better with Vista. It doesn’t mean other brands with VIA or other chipsets won’t work, just that the TI-based cards are more reliable.

[Joe Maguire]

GREAT NEWS! Besides mentioning this in the Sony Vegas Basics forum, I am happy to announce that my setup now works…but sheepishly, I have to admit that after I got the new Belkin card installed, I forgot to hook up the Firewire cable to the camcorder. As soon as I hooked up the cable and turned on the camera, Vista recognized my camera and asked what I wanted to do and offered a couple of programs, including my Sony Vegas Studio Capture program.

So, if anyone else on this forum has a problem with Vista and Firewire/1394a, do these steps:

If your Firewire card does not have a Texas Instruments (TI) chipset, buy a Firewire card such as the Belkin that does. Remove the old card or disable the onboard 1394 device in the BIOS before you install the new Firewire card.

Apply the registry fix detailed by Microsoft in their Knowledge Base article https://support.microsoft.com/kb/927827

Ensure the Firewire cable is connected to both the Firewire card and your camcorder, then set your camcorder to Play mode and start the tape. At this point, Vista should recognize the camera.

(I’m posting this because when I was using Google for further troubleshooting, I got a hit on my own question here in CC, so hopefully others who may run into this problem will find my solution, especially since JVC wasn’t aware of it. They will be shortly when I call them!)

[Joe Maguire]

GREAT NEWS! I am happy to announce that my setup now works…but sheepishly, I have to admit that after I got the new Belkin card installed, I forgot to hook up the Firewire cable to the camcorder. As soon as I hooked up the cable and turned on the camera, Vista recognized my camera and asked what I wanted to do and offered a couple of programs, including my Sony Vegas Studio Capture program.

So, if anyone else on this forum has a problem with Vista and Firewire/1394a, do these steps:

If your Firewire card does not have a Texas Instruments (TI) chipset, buy a Firewire card such as the Belkin that does. Remove the old card or disable the onboard 1394 device in the BIOS before you install the new Firewire card.

Apply the registry fix detailed by Microsoft in their Knowledge Base article https://support.microsoft.com/kb/927827

Ensure the Firewire cable is connected to both the Firewire card and your camcorder, then set your camcorder to Play mode and start the tape. At this point, Vista should recognize the camera.

[Joe Maguire]

I don’t have a camcorder to borrow with Firewire. I have used my office’s Panasonic HDD camera without issue, but that is merely using USB to copy files from the camera’s hard drive to my computer’s hard drive, so it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison.

BTW, I have been able to get my home computer to recognize my Belkin card. I went into the computer BIOS and disabled the onboard 1394 (with a VIA chipset), although I had to swap the network card and the Belkin Firewire cards from their original PCI slots to get Vista to “see” the Belkin card. Alas, even with this and the Microsoft registry “fix,” the JVC camera still isn’t recognized.

I think what I’ll wind up doing is use my work computer with the Belkin card to capture the footage from all my tapes so I can edit them, and look to get an HDD camcorder (or at least a miniDV camera that Vista will recognize).

[Joe Maguire]

BTW, I did try the Belkin card in my computer at work that runs on XP, and it works fine. Win XP recognizes the card, it recognizes the camera, and I was successfully able to capture video with Sony Vegas Studio.

I will take that card home tonight, disable the onboard 1394 port (the one with the VIA chipset), and see if Vista is able to “see” the new Belkin card. If that works, I’ll see if I can get Vista to see my JVC camcorder, and apply that fix to the registry again if necessary. If that fails, I’ll just use the work computer to capture all my tapes, then look at getting a camera that uses HDMI connections or a hard drive from which I can simply move files (as with the Panasonic camcorder my office uses, which worked fine with my Vista computer at home).

[Joe Maguire]

FYI, 1394a is the original 400 MBps standard, and 1394b is the newer 800 Mbps standard.

[Joe Maguire]

I did purchase a Belkin 3-port 1394a card, but Windows Vista didn’t recognize it, and Belkin said there were no special drivers. I put said card in my Dell computer running Win XP at work this morning, and the system recognizes both card and camcorder.

The card does check out as having the TI chipset.

I may take the card out and try it at home over the weekend, especially since I downloaded and installed Vista SP2.

If all else fails, I’ll just render video on my work PC, then look at getting a new camera with a hard drive (like the one we have at work).

[Joe Maguire]

Unfortunately, I’m still having issues.

1 – I bought a Belkin 3-Port 1394a card, but Windows Vista isn’t recogmizing it. But that’s OK because…

2 – I discovered my Acer PC actually HAS a built-in 1394a port…unfortunately, it’s a VIA motherboard, and apparently a VIA chipset.

Although Vista recognizes the built-in 1394a port, it will not recognize my JVC camera. I contacted JVC, and they claim this is a known issue with miniDV tape-based camcorders, 1394a ports, and Windows Vista with NO KNOWN SOLUTION!!! They say it works in Windows XP, but my PC didn’t come with XP and I don’t want to roll it back.

Microsoft says the issue is that Vista “only enumerates a device that sets its link status to request enumeration. If an IEEE 1394a device does not report the correct status of its link, the IEEE 1394 stack in Windows Vista does not enumerate the device.” They suggested a registry hack and/or a firmware update. I couldn’t find the latter, and after applying the hack Vista still didn’t recognize my camcorder.

In performing a Google search, one user said to apply this registry hack, then power down both camcorder and computer; turn on the camera and start playing the tape, then turn on the computer, and Vista should recognize the camcorder. It didn’t.

Any ideas?

[Joe Maguire]

It’s funny, but as I typed my original question, the more I thought about the DV cable being the difference. The manual that came with my JVC camera didn’t say anything about a discrete DV card being superior to a USB connection, but in checking some queries on Google I started thinking that DV might make a diff. I’ll stop by Fry’s on the way home and look at what they have available for DV cards. Thanks for your advice!