Turn off all background programs such as antivirus, firewall, etc.

Turn off screen savers, power saving, etc.

The only thing that should be running is the video capture program.

Still does not make any difference.

Same problem capturing HDV video from a Sony A1 using firewire port.

All drivers updated and tried on Premier Pro, Sony Vega 10 64 bits and Pinacle Studio 14 and Sony Vega 8 32 bits

Capturin DV its ok and camera is detected perfectly in both DV an HDV.

Hi JJ I appreciate very much you contribution to calm my headache. I’ve read in some other forum that that was the problem. And that the solution was to buy an external xpress card to solve it.

Its sad having to spend some extra dollars to solve somebody else incompetence, more when you live in an under developed (to say the least) country like Venezuela where I have visited like 30 or more stores looking for an external firewire card and they look at me like I’m some kind of freak.

Thanks once again JJ and I’ll appreciate if you have a firewire card brand that you can recommend me … Regards

After 15 day traying... I must say that its a Microsoft windows 7 problem.

And Microsoft does not care one bit.

Hi Charlyray - I've have two other Windows 7 systems, both Dell Studio laptops but a different (earlier) model, and the HDV capture works fine on those.  I think it's a hardware problem with this particular model.  The desktop boards that report similar problems add an external firewire card and all is well.  No issues with Windows 7.

I have a brand new sutudio xps 1645 with i7 CPU and 6G of mem .. windows 7 64 bit .. and a 2006 Ricoh 1394 driver ... Same problems with multiple cameras, i have adobe cs5 premier pro and onlocation both get pixelated or hang.  I even tried splithdv and it performs the same way.  One would think it is a driveer issue .. i have a new dell desktop as well that texas instruments 1394 controller working on it without a hitch ..

I am just going to return this .. i have an old ibm laptop that works just fine with hd .. thought more horespower and a newer laptop would help me work faster ... oh well .. it is absolutely ridiculus ... and i know i could spend another 10 days having microsoft, adobe and dell blame each other ..

So... Dell people... Can we expect in the near future, some kind of solution for this matter?

Here’s a new component to this problem:

Yesterday a re installed factory settings of windows 7 home edition in the Dell Studdio 1558.

Updated all possible windows and Dell files, drivers, etc

Right after I installed Premier Pro CS5 and voila!

It did a perfect HDV capture from my Sony HVR A1

It means that the laptop do can capture HDV!.

Second step … Reinitiated the laptop… Went straight to Adobe Premier to capture again and the whole story went back to the initial problem: Lines of pixelation at random in position, color and timing.

Should we conclude that what is costing this problem is anyone of the programs that the laptop loads at starting time that erases whatever Adobe Premier does right for the machine?

I would appreciate if somebody with more knowledge in this matter can make some other considerations

Hi all,

Like Charlyray, I've had rare occasions where the HDV captures will work properly, but it is very rare.  Plus, when it happens I have no differences in configuration or software.  The few times it's happened and worked properly, it was after simply restarting the capture (sometimes I'll restart and restart the capture over and over again hoping it will work).

And it's worked/not-worked for both CS4 and Sony Vegas, so I know it's not the capture software.

All if which makes me believe still, and further, that it's the hardware being flaky.

Hi Charlyray,

I'm sorry I missed your earlier post asking about an external firewire device for our laptops.  I'm afraid I don't know much about them, if they exist at all (for laptops, that is).

Can anyone address this?  Are there external firewire cards for laptops, and if so, can anyone recommend a type/brand?

Regards,

JJ... they are plenty of them.

I allready bought one following the sugestion of somebody else in another forum.

I'm waiting for it.... One consideration... buy an express card with firewire port and, this is very importan, make sure the driver are from texas instrument and not ricoh... it seem to work better with windows 7

I'll keep posted

In the meantime I've got this from another forum  that I'm going to try right after I finish writing this:

HI Carlos,

I've been looking myself for ages but today - hallelujah - I found a solution after heavy googlin'

ubCoreâ„¢ 1394a - 1394b (Firewire 800) drivers, v. 5.70 (latest release: April 2010)

http://www.unibrain.com/Products/DriverAPI/ubcore.htm

It worked for me.

cheers

Alas, CharlyRay, I wasn't foresighted enough to buy a laptop with an ExpressCard slot.   I assumed the built-in firewire would work.

P.S.  I just tried the Unibrain driver suite you listed.  It seemed to install properly, but once installed the OS no longer recognized my different cameras.  I'd love to hear if you have any better luck.  Thanks for the help.

Regards.

JJ the drivers did not work for me eider.

Next step would be to upgrde to win 7 profesional. Keep you posted

Regards