Thread: Canon XL1 video capture

Help! i've recently bought a canon XL1 but when I plug the firewire cable into my PC the PC doesn't seem to recognise it and I can't capture the footage. My mates JVC camcorder works fine though. I know that it is possible to get the footage off as I had a techie guy come round a while back and he showed me how to do it, I can't seem to get the computer to do what he did now though. Please help, this is doing my head in!!!

What software are you using to transfer/capture from the camera to your PC? I have the XL1s and use Vegas for all my capturing stuff, no problems.

I've got windows movie maker, roxio easy media capture and ulesd video studio 8. i've tried to capture with them all but they don't detect the camera at all. Any ideas?

OK, lets start at the beginning, is the camera set to 'player mode'? If so try setting the camera to player mode before starting up any other software. Is the firewire cable 4-4 pin, 6-6 pin or 4-6 pin? (shouldn't matter but I have heard of one person that could not use 4-6 pin) what operating system are you using? Failing everything (assuming you are on broadband) download the Sony Vegas Video trial version and try a capture from there.

If xp does not 'ba-bing' when the cam is plugged in and turned on i would suspect a camera fault. Is the camera a secondhand purchase? I presume so, I would contact the person who sold it to you and check all is well.