ITC: Sony. Burn.

[InCreator]

Welcome to the thread which will most definetly have ZERO replies.
Read for fun.

Sony. You know, the corporation.  Makes hi-tech electronics and stuff. Widely known. Made a beast named DCR-HC14E. A MiniDV camcorder.

The story started like that:

Once, there was an idiot (me) who thought that making movies with crappy digital photocamera is pointless, due 320x200 resolution, 50-second clips, only 15 fps and USB streaming. But videomaking is so fun and interesting!

So, one day, this idiot, took his hard-earned money and invested it in MiniDV Handycam. To be next Spielberg/Hitchcock/etc... The cam was quite expensive, but so what? It's a Sony, after all.

Right, the camera came along with very pointless USB drivers only and some made-in-flash crap named "Picture Package" which was very likely made by 9-year old blind and slightly retarded asian child slave (and which also served ZERO purpose and wasn't most likely related to camera in any way), but so what? It's a Sony, after all.

Well, things were good for awhile. But new problem arised it's ugly head, USB streaming made many precious frames to be dropped and videos were very jumpy. So what did the idiot do?

He went to store, and spent another load of money in buying FireWire cable and IEE1934 card.
Now, the new surprise came out from camera: The Windows XP Professional WON'T recognize the camera. After SUPER long muddling with IRQ ports, Device Manager, all cables atatched to machine, etc, etc, the idiot got 3 different programs to recognize the camera nad first high-quality 0-dropped-frames movie was loaded into computer! Hurrah!

The next day there wasn't anything worthwhile to stream into PC. And not next week, and month. After few months of acting, filming parties and interesting events/friends/ideas/etc there was again much stuff to stream.

But Win XP didn't think so, once again.

TeH idiot wasn't SO much of an idiot to start crying and randomly begging for help everywhere. He blamed himself in causing the problem, and once again, went through everything adjustable (and not so adjustable) in both hardware and software. It did not help.

So, the idiot chose internet to get aid. He tried about 100 different keywords and combed through many-many video-related forums.

Then the truth came.
He was not alone.
There was very much idiots. Some, much more desperate.

The idiot found same problem in numerous forums, and always the helpers gave unprofessional suggestions, such as "check your cables", "install SP1", "install SP2", "See manufacturer", "Burn Sony HQ" and so on. But also, there was some posts where some of the idiots got rid of the problem. But there never was any working solutions. The Happy Ones rarely knew how they managed to fix the problem. Usually just some lucky cases, like "Oh, tried everything, then I rebooted and it suddenly got working!!!". Neither they knew was it a permanent fix.

So, this is the point where story is right now. How will it end, no-one knows.

...
Some facts:

* The Sony homepage clearly shows that there's no need for any other drivers than universal USB driver at all. This is also all they've got for download. This is already quite weird.

* The camcorder's manual says ZERO words about streaming

* Camcorder has NO firewire or any other streaming-related options in it's LCD-built-in-menu, only "USB Stream".

* Windows XP makes at about 50% of cases "something attached" sound when Firewire is inserted/plugged out, but no choices or new drives/unknown hardware/etc appears.

* My problem is faaar from unique. There's hundreds of similar (and 100% same) descriptions all around the net.

* I GOT it to work, ONCE. Therefore, the camera, IEEE card or cable are NOT faulty.

* Yes, I tried cable in different IEEE ports

* Yes, I tried inserting IEEE card to different PCI slot

* Yes, I tried uninstalling IEEE drivers so windows could detect them again

* And yes, I tried EVERYTHING simpler. I have messed with junk for half of my life, I do know what to do when some piece of electronic shit doesn't want to work. This time,  well, the problem proves to be VERY challenging, but hey -  It's a Sony, after all.

* I... recall... having... some random weird Sony driver installed... which helped... Was it a dream or truth? I really don't remember. Anyone has/knows any drivers (which are probably not USB ones) for Sony video cameras?

Anyone?
...
No?

I was afraid of that, yes.

[Blackthorne]

Buy the Panasonic DVX-100A.  It kicks so much ass.

Sorry I couldn't offer any better advice, man.



Bt

[Babar]

Someone should make a general "Bitch about equipment bought from [Insert Capitalistic , uncaring company here]". Problems seem to occur very often.

[skw]

Sad story, InCreator. . . But hey, if you bought it in a normal store, you must have a guarantee!

I had something similar -- twice, as far as I remember. In my case I bought those "cats and dogs" on Allegro (something like eBay), but it was something around 70$ and nothing more. Talking about GameBoy Advance with terribly scratched display and a dud of GBA game (Nintondo).

If you have the nerves, you can ask for your money back and buy something another.

Hope you solve that problem. Anyway. . . good luck!

[Gilbert]

It's not at all surprising to me, because it's a Sony afterall.

[InCreator]

I did.
Weird. True. Purely randomly.

Apparently, the IEEE output port on camcorder is faulty. Somehow, I pulled the firewire only very little bit out, and suddenly the computer found the camera.

The "new device found" sound was probably excactly because when plugging in the wire, it got contact just a millisecond before I pushed it completely in and contact went away again. But windows managed to get this short amount of signal and made sound.
That's also why it didn't sound all the time...

Even more weird is that one of my friends has sony cam also (a bit older type) and his problem was absolutely same! The aid to the problem of course too. Thing was just that I tested my IEEE cable at his place - on his cam to make sure it works... He's not a video freak and is happy with USB and doesn't own firewire, so he even didn't know about it until I came to test my firewire.

Well, engineers at Sony probably got their measurements wrong when manufacturing the Firewire output port. Or there's some mess inside, I don't know what's inside the port... short circuit?

I don't get it, but as long it works, we're good.

The happiness and anger both rave in me, I didn't mention it, but I managed - in my searches and try-everything-on-everythings - to completely mess up Windows installation (damned service packs) , then install Win98 just to install win xp, etc. What a waste of (life)time. Just because 4 metallic pins did not connect properly.

happy-happy-happy

[LGM]

I was going to say, Firewire rarely needs drivers and practically EVERY camera can be detected.. Especially if it's Sony.

You could've saved yourself alot of trouble if you knew that, and jibbled with the cables more

[TheYak]

Glad to hear you've resolved the problem somewhat.  I've got a different model, but the same basic camera (I think).. it's a MiniDV .. can't remember..  HC40?   Anyway, I had a bit of frustration with connectivity/USB and the fact that it didn't come with a firewire cable was BS..  after going through the same thing you did, I spent the extra cash for the cable.  My result was instant functionality though. 

I've changed PC hardware and reinstalled OS so it might not be so smooth this time.  Regardless, if you run into more problems, post another zero-reply thread and I'll see if I can help in any way.  The thing's damned fun but I haven't enough of a life to record anything worthwhile (I've got a drive across the Golden Gate bridge to work and some skunk wildlife footage..  that's it).  To second LGM, as long as the firewire device driver (i.e. basic XP port drivers for whatever hardware) is okay, it's about as plug-n-play as it gets.  Any capture program should recognize the streaming video without a problem.. even windows Movie Maker doesn't screw that up.