Downloading Video from Canon ZR800 MiniDV Camcorder

I got a great deal on a used Canon ZR800 video camera. I went out and shot some video, and then came home and tried to download it to the computer. That's where the fun began.

Canon provided no drivers or other software downloads to use with the camera.  The manual (p. 46) provided very little information in its "Connecting to a Computer" section.  It said you would need a Firewire cable and a Firewire (IEEE1394) connection on your computer, as well as video editing software and "the appropriate driver."  The manual said, "A driver is preinstalled on Windows operating systems later than Windows 98 Second Edition and Mac operating systems later than Mac OS 9, and will be installed automatically."  It also said, more disturbingly, "The video transfer may not work correctly depending on the software and the specifications of your computer."

The camera had a Firewire port, but Canon did not include a Firewire cable in the box.  That would have cost around $10, but I already had one.  I had used it with my previous camcorder, so I knew the cable and the computer connection worked.  The camera did not have a USB port, so the only other way of getting data from the tape inside the camcorder to the computer (other than buying or borrowing (from a friend or library) some other camcorder or tape drive) would have been to connect the camera to the computer with the supplied video and audio analog cables (for TV connection).  That would have given me a lower-quality analog copy, and would have done so at 1x speed, i.e., with the tape playing in the camcorder while the computer copied what it was receiving.  So it would have taken an hour to download an hour's worth of recording.

I had previously found Firewire connections to be rather flaky.  I realized that Firewire would transfer data much faster than USB 2.0, and that this was probably necessary for people who wanted to use the camcorder for live streaming video.  But since most people use a camcorder to go out and shoot video of places and events, a USB connection seemed like a good idea.  To me, that is.  Not to Canon.

I plugged in the camcorder's power cable, so that it would not have to rely on its battery for whatever came next.  I put the camcorder into Play mode, pulled off the plastic plug covering the several jacks along the side of the unit, and plugged the Firewire cable into the Firewire port under that cover.  I looked at the LCD display on the camcorder.  In the top center, it was flashing the letters "DV-IN."  The manual provided no indication of what this flashing might mean.

On the computer, using Windows XP SP3, I started Windows Movie Maker and clicked on "Capture from video device."  I got an error:  "A video capture device was not detected."  I tried again in Adobe Premiere Elements 7.  It said, "No DV camera detected."  I looked at Windows Explorer.  It did not show the presence of any new disk drive or partition.  In classic view, Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager reported no problems for the IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controller.

There seemed to be a lot of people who had had problems getting their video from the ZR800 to the computer, and a lot of different possible solutions.  Cari suggested making sure that I had installed the Firewire drivers when I installed the computer's motherboard.  Unlike Hugo, though, in my case the camcorder was not listed under Imaging Devices in Device Manager.  I tried 3banana's suggestion of uninstalling the 1394 device in Device Manager (with a right-click) and then plugging in the Firewire cable and (still in Device Manager) choosing Action > Scan for hardware changes.  It added back the 1394 controller and also added a 1394 adapter under Network Adapters.  But unlike 3banana's outcome, mine still didn't detect the video camera.  Attempting to apply his/her suggestion nonetheless, I right-clicked on the 1394 controller and chose Update Driver > Install from a list or specific location > Next > Include this location:  C:\Windows.  But it wouldn't accept that location.  GavHendo recommended using a VGA to USB adapter, but that seemed unnecessary if not impossible.  Someone pointed toward a Microsoft webpage that said a Vista update solved the problem; but I wasn't using Vista.  AtomicProductionsNZ recommended a registry edit for those who were using 64-bit Vista.  Sharkbyte had a non-registry solution that involved copying files named 1394 from WinXP to Vista.

In a post that sounded like it might apply to my WinXP situation, CMahendra observed that his/her Sony Handycam's manual instructed the user to use only a 4-pin to 4-pin Firewire cable.  I hadn't known there was more than one kind.  Checking the jacks and the cable ends, I confirmed that my pins were not bent (unlike those of Brainstrain).  But -- surprise, surprise! -- my cable did have four tiny pins on the camera end, as needed to fit the camera, but it had six contacts, three on each side, on the computer end.  And that's what my computer's motherboard's Firewire connected needed.  So if the Sony and Canon were using the same Chinese manufacturer of Firewire-related hardware, then possibly a more helpful Canon manual would have said what Sony's manual said about using four pins on both ends.  I didn't have a 4-to-4 Firewire cable or jack.  A search for that kind of cable confirmed that it existed and could probably be had for about $7-10 total.  It would have the same kind of small male plug on both ends.  Another possibility was just to buy a 6-to-4 adapter.  I decided that adapters, sticking out, can sometimes serve as a lever to break a jack, and also that sometimes adapters introduce new issues, so I thought the cable would be the better way to go.  For the four-pin jack on the computer end of the cable, I already had a Rosewill RC-501 adapter sitting around, and it had both the larger 6-pin and the smaller 4-pin jacks.  So all I really needed was the cable.  But Battman540 said that the four-pin approach did not solve the problem for him.  In an approach that wouldn't work for me (because my Firewire connector was on my motherboard), Reedvideo said s/he removed the Firewire card, restarted the computer, uninstalled the controller from Device Manager, shut down again, reinstalled the fireware card, and start back up, and then it worked.

In my playing around with it, I noticed something else.  When I connected Firewire to the WinXP desktop, I got the DV-IN indicator flashing at the top of the camera's LCD viewscreen.  But when I connected Firewire to a Ubuntu (Linux) desktop (also to a motherboard Firewire port), it wasn't flashing; it was solid on.  I dusted off a two-year-old post I had written when I was first discovering dvgrab in Ubuntu.  Following its advice, in Ubuntu's Applications > Accessories > Terminal, I typed "sudo chmod 666 /dev/raw1394" and then "dvgrab."  And just like before, it started capturing video right then and there.  I killed Terminal, used the controls on the camera to rewind the tape to the start, and tried it again.  As it had done two years earlier, dvgrab saved the camera's output into a set of 1000MB files, each not quite five minutes (4:51) long, named dvgrab-001.dv, dvgrab-002.dv, etc., in my Ubuntu home folder.  It hadn't previously occurred to me to check out dvgrab's options, but now typing "man dvgrab" in a separate Terminal session revealed that I could have told dvgrab to start a new file whenever a new recording started.  It looked like I could also have specified the length of the files as well as their format (avi, mpeg2, etc.).  There was a boatload of options, actually.  (Those without an Ubuntu installation might be able to do this with an Ubuntu Live CD.)

Anyway, as suggested in another two-year-old post, I didn't bother investigating the current state of Ubuntu video editing tools at this point; instead, I moved the .dv files over to the Windows machine, converted them to .avi with VideoDub, and combined and edited them in Adobe Premiere Elements.  So Ubuntu's dvgrab was the answer for the moment; it worked with my 4-to-6-pin cable where Windows XP would not.  This posed the question of whether there would have been a way to use dvgrab on a Windows machine, if I hadn't had an Ubuntu machine.  I discussed that question in a separate post.

Review: Canon imageCLASS MF5770 Multifunction Printer/Scanner/Fax

I'll start with an excerpt from writeup I recently prepared to sell my MF5730, which I have recently replaced with an MF5770. I have used the MF5770 for only a week or so. It is virtually identical to the 5730 (and, I assume, to others in the MF5700 series); the main difference is that the 5770 has a fax capability.

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Re: the Canon imageCLASS® MF5730 Laser Multifunction Printer - Copier - Scanner. The CNET editor says, “Any small office shopping for a no-nonsense laser multifunction should count this model among its top picks.” (See their video on it.) The Consumer Guide expert review gives it 3 out of 5 (average), but they also gave it a Best Buy award, and the reviewer’s only complaints were that it is only for Windows computers and it doesn’t have a fax feature. I have used this model primarily for scanning. I have used a half-dozen scanners over the past ten years. This one probably has the most reliable paper handling of any of them. Scan quality depends on your settings and so forth; you do have the option of making very good scans. Overall, this has been a reliable and good-quality performer.

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Since writing that note, I have come up with a number of things I would add to it, as follows: 1. There is no on-off switch on either model. According to Canon, "The scan lamp for the MF5730 [and also the MF5770] will stay on constantly, even in the Energy Saver mode. This is normal operation. The reason for this is to reduce the warm up period on the first copy or scan after coming out of Energy Saver mode. The scanner has been designed to operate in this manner and should not adversely affect the life of the lamp." This seems like a design flaw to me. It uses electricity unnecessarily. Also, as I have discovered, when you turn out the lights and leave, your scanner may be the brightest light in the room -- which means that, if there is a moth in the room, you will find pieces of it sticking to your scans and smeared across your scanning lamp when you come in the next day and insert some papers for scanning. Or, if you happen to be using the scanner in your home office, you will now have a nightlight which may brighten your room more than you would have preferred. 2. Speaking of design flaws, they should have hired a designer for the shape of the machine. It is big. They have done a good job of driving the size upwards in a tapered way that reduces the footprint. But it is still big. Also, the "natural bridge" design, in which the printer shoots paper out from the machine's midsection, is one that had great potential. Somehow, though, it turned out ugly. While we're on the subject of design, I would also suggest changing the paper tray concept. It sticks out the back, at the bottom. It seems like it is just begging to get broken, the first time someone puts it down on an uneven surface. The paper tray, like a few other parts, unfortunately departs from the machine's overall solid feel: it feels flimsy and cheap. So does the alternate sheet feeder, which easily loses its grip on pages, resulting in a real or imaginary paper jam. Meanwhile, the printer's output paper tray holds just a few printed sheets, before pages start spilling out. Something similar happens with the scanner's output tray, if one outcoming sheet happens to snag one that's already in the tray. Also, for some reason the scanner's paper feeder does not self-clear when you restart the machine; there will be times when you will have to tug pages out manually (and it's not easy). 3. They neglected some important details. I was dismayed at the poor quality of their documentation on scanning. I wished they had provide calibration marks along the sides of the platen, so I could tell how big your documents were and could adjust my settings accordingly. I was also very disappointed that there is no possibility of scanning above 300 DPI. This is a real step backwards; I think every scanner I have used in the past ten years has been superior in that regard. On the positive side, they include a starter cartridge that prints 2500 copies. Printing quality is good; so is scanning quality, though I have to use weird settings (Brightness -20, Contrast +13) to achieve it. You don't get that sharp, high-pitched whistle, from this scanner, that you will get from some others. Tech support is very responsive and, in my limited experience, is adequately knowledgable, at least if you reach them over the phone. In sum, as you can tell, I appreciate the MF5700 series and I expect to be using my new MF5770 for years to come.