Please Help! Video capture problem with Windows7

Hi - I have an extremely frustrating problem that I've been tearing my hair out (what's left of it) over.

When I try and capture DV video from my Sony video camera via firewire, I get the error message "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR could not be opened. Please check that it is not being used by another user or application"

Here's some relevant information:
Camera - Sony HVR-A1P - set to DV mode
O/S - Windows 7
My set up works perfectly in HDV mode i.e. I can capture HD footage OK, so there's nothing wrong with the firewire connection.
I've tried several DV capture applications - they all give the same problem, although a couple of them allow me to control the tape transport on the camera - again indicating that the firewire connection is OK.

I've tried using the OHCI compliant 1394 legacy driver, and I've also tried uninstalling the driver, shutting down the PC, plugging in the camera and switching it to DV mode, and then starting up the PC - Windows detects the device and installs the Texas Instruments OHCI compliant 1394 driver, and reports that everything is working OK.

One thing I've noticed is that if I start the capture application (VidCap60.exe, a stand-alone application that's normally called from within Sony Vegas), and then switch on the camera, I get success for about 1/2 a second i.e. the capture app. tells me that it's detected the camera, but then the error message comes up "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR cannot be opened....) If I monitor the active processes in task manager at the same time, a process called DeviceDisplayObjectProvider.exe appears for about 1/2 a second, and then drops out. It's almost as if the capture process starts OK, but then is killed by some other process or application.


(I might also add that when I upgraded to Windows 7, I could never get my Logitec USB webcam (a standard def. video device) to work - although the driver installed without problems - so I uninstalled it and removed the camera - this may not be relevant - then again maybe this points to a Windows 7 re-install being needed)

Any ideas? (I've posted this in the Sony DV forum but no-one had a solution, and they suggested I post it here)

thanks,
David

Hi There,
I'm new to Windows 7 and had the same type of problem. Turns out it's NOT VIDCAP60.exe but the IEEE1394 (firewire or in Sony's parlance iLink)driver.
I went to the device manager and updated the driver from the Windows installed one to the Legacy driver (It's part of Windows, not a download.

1. Right-click My Computer
2. Open the Device Manager
3. Expand the IEEE1394 Bus Host Controllers
5. Right-click your contriller and select Update Driver Software
6. Select Browse my computer for driver software
7. Select Let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer
8. In the window, select the "1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)
9. Click Next to install.

Hope this works for you, it did for me.