List of digital video cameras to use with Video Grabber ?

[D.T. Nethery]

Is there a list of known digital video cameras that work with the Video Grabber in TVP ?

I have students who use TVP to shoot traditional style pencil tests with TVP by plugging in a dv camera via firewire cable , open the Video Grabber window , and shoot their drawings frame-by-frame
and also students using TVP Video Grabber to shoot stop-motion puppets .

However, this semester I have had several students who found that their dv cameras would not work with TVP Video Grabber (Video Grabber would not have their dv camera on the list of available devices .
The Video Grabber could not "see" their cameras) .

Cameras that we tested with TVP at the school I work for are Panasonic PV GS-320 mini dv camera and Panasonic PV GS-90 mini dv.

I have an older Sony Handycam DCR-TRV 280 which works fine with TVP Video Grabber .
In theory any digital video camera with an IEEE 1394 firewire interface should be picked up by TVP Video Grabber as an available device , yes ?

Is there a more extensive list of Digital Video cameras that are known to work with TVP ?
(and/or a list of cameras to avoid because they do not work with TVP) . If any other users here are using TVP with the Video Grabber window to shoot stop-motion or traditional pencil tests (or under the camera techniques such as sand on glass, clay on glass, paper cut-out animation, collage animation) I'd like to start compiling a list of known dv cameras that work well with TVP.

[Fabrice]

Hi David,

Can you or your students post some informations about the problems they encounter with the use of their DV camera ?
Also, their computer configuration, installed softwares, and camera informations could help us to find the bug.

nb : your students are welcome to take part in the TVP community

Thanks in advance.

[D.T. Nethery]

Hi David,

nb : your students are welcome to take part in the TVP community

I've suggested to many of them that they join this forum and post questions here . I don't know if any of them have ?

In my earlier post I had written:

"In theory any digital video camera with an IEEE 1394 firewire interface should be picked up by TVP Video Grabber as an available device , yes ?"

Is this correct ?

If so I suspect in many cases user error , where the user has not properly connected the camera or is trying to use a USB connection instead of firewire.

However, if I had a list of dv cameras that are known to work with TVP Video Grabber it would be helpful, so that's why I asked anyone who uses TVP with a dv camera to post
what make and model of dv camera they are using.

[ematecki]

In my earlier post I had written:
"In theory any digital video camera with an IEEE 1394 firewire interface should be picked up by TVP Video Grabber as an available device , yes ?"
Is this correct ?

Yes, as long as it is seen by QuickTime, TVP should see it.
We use standard QT access to video grabbing devices.
Try to see if iMovie recognize the camera.

If so I suspect in many cases user error , where the user has not properly connected the camera or is trying to use a USB connection instead of firewire.

They would have to push hard to get the FW plug into a USB socket :)
But I have seen a USB plug in a Ethernet RJ-45 socket !!! And it goes in very smoothly and stay in !

However, if I had a list of dv cameras that are known to work with TVP Video Grabber it would be helpful, so that's why I asked anyone who uses TVP with a dv camera to post
what make and model of dv camera they are using.

Here we test with a Canon DV MV3i and a Panasonic (I don't remember which model, but it is a 3 CCD model).

[D.T. Nethery]

If so I suspect in many cases user error , where the user has not properly connected the camera or is trying to use a USB connection instead of firewire.

They would have to push hard to get the FW plug into a USB socket

Yes, they would (!) , but what I meant was that some of them purchase cameras with no firewire connection. The camera only has a USB connection, but they do not understand the difference between
USB and firewire, so they plug the camera into the computer and do not understand why it is not "seen" by TVP Video Grabber. This is usually the case with digital still cameras that also take video .

I suppose what I am trying to figure out is whether there are some dv cameras that seem to work better than others with TVP ? I would like to have a list of "recommended cameras" . I was surprised this semester by the number of students reporting that their cameras were not usable with TVP Video Grabber. (I am still trying to figure out which of these were from students who were simply not reading the instructions correctly or if they had legitimate problems with their cameras. The thing is I know for sure that some of these same students purchases Digicel Flipbook or used a freeware program called MonkeyJam to shoot their pencil tests and the same cameras that did not show up in the list of available devices for TVP did work with Digicel Flipbook and MonkeyJam. In those cases it wasn't the camera that was the problem)