I can not load the software.

Make sure that you have a 64 bit system (Win-7 or Win-8) and a minimum of 8 gigs of RAM.

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When I try to calibrate, I get an error message that there is no camera connected.

Obviously, make sure that your USB cable is plugged in. Also, during installation, there is a point where the software will ask you to plug in the USB cable. If you skipped that step, or if you had the USB cable plugged in during the entire installation, then it is possible that the camera drivers did not load properly. If so, unplug the USB cable, uninstall the software and then reinstall. Once the software completes loading, wait a few minutes before you attempt to use the software so that all drivers and background processes can finish their tasks.

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When I put the software in calibration mode, I do not see a live image in the capture screen.

When I am capturing, I see the numbers advancing but I see no picture in the capture window.

Make sure that you have latest version of QuickTime installed on your system prior to installing the RetroScan-HD software. Also, make sure that you do the complete install and not the minimum installation. You do not need to purchase QuickTime Pro but that will work if you already have it on your PC.

Also, it is very important that all drivers for both your motherboard and graphics card are up to date. Even if your PC or laptop is new, it may have been on the shelf for at least 6 months or more and, therefore, requires updating.

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I have the proper version of QuickTime on my PC. I can calibrate the unit but, when I try to capture, I see no image and the numbers do not advance.

Make sure that you have calibrated the unit to the Super 8 leader with "Super 8" chosen in the drop down menu (and not Regular 8). Once you have calibrated to Super 8 in the Super 8 mode, there is no need to calibrate for Regular 8.

Make sure that the sprocket holes are on the correct side for capture. All holes should be on the inside edge of the film.

Make sure that you have selected the correct format from the drop down menu to match the film type being captured.

Also, film fragments sometime drop down into the gate which prevents the light from getting to the sprocket hole area. Gently blow out any debris that has fallen into the gate.

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When I capture film, the RetroScan-HD software will sometimes fail to capture at the beginning of a roll or will occasionally skip frames during capture. There are also times where the software will end a capture prematurely and ask me to name the file.

Film is often clear at the beginning and end of a roll and often has bright imagery that actually touches the sprocket holes. During capture, the RetroScan-HD software looks at the entire width of the frame, including the sprocket hole area. The software must be able to distinguish the sprocket hole from the bright imagery for a successful capture of that frame. If the highlight areas are touching the sprocket hole, and your exposure is turned too high, then the highlight areas will merge with the sprocket hole. This will confuse the software and prevent that frame from being captured. Reducing the brightness on the exposure knob just a tiny bit will usually do the trick.

Also, if the sprocket holes are torn too much, then the shape of the sprocket hole will not be recognizable to the software and that frame will be skipped during capture. We are constantly improving the algorithm for detecting sprocket holes so this will be less and less of a problem in the future.

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I have reduced the exposure and I can now capture but my dark areas are losing detail. If I turn up the brightness to compensate, the capture stops.

The fact that the capture stops means that your exposure was so high that you were losing important detail in the highlights. Reducing the brightness to continue the capture also protects the highlight detail that would other wise be forever lost but may make some areas darker than desired. The best way to compensate is to use the brightness/gamma slider to bring out information in the darker areas after you have adjusted the brightness to the level necessary to retain detail in the highlights. The brightness/gamma slider is the grey slider just above the horizon slider and below the RGB sliders.

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Sometimes during capture the images seem to go in and out of focus. This can also be accompanied by dropped frames during capture.

Make sure that the film clip is properly tensioned. Consult the set up instructions for a photo showing proper adjustment of the tension clip. In general, it is advised to re-tension the clip at the beginning of each day of capture and then use the super 8 leader to calibrate the unit. If you do both these tasks at the beginning of each day, then you should be able to capture trouble-free for the entire day.

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I can export a numbered image sequence but I can not export a .MOV file. The folder that should contain the .MOV file is empty.

There are several possible solutions:

Make sure that you have latest version of QuickTime installed on your system prior to installing the RetroScan-HD software. Also, make sure that you do the complete install and not the minimum installation. You do not need to purchase QuickTime Pro but that will work if you already have it on your PC.

Make sure that you are exporting to a drive formatted as NTFS and not FAT32, which is limited to a 4 gig file size limit. Because numbered image sequences have files that are all smaller than 4 gigs, you can export numbered image sequences to a FAT32 drive with no problem but .MOV files are usually larger unless it is a very, very short capture.

Make sure that you have enough open drive space for the size of the .MOV file you are exporting. You must capture to an internal drive but you can export to an internal or external drive.

And finally, QuickTime has a bug that sometimes prevents it from loading the codecs necessary to export .MOV files via RetroScan-HD software. If you find you can not export a .MOV file, QT may be missing the necessary codec for proper operation. You can supplant the missing codec in QT by also installing the Panasonic P2 View Plus. It's free and only takes a second to install. You can download the P2 View Plus HERE.

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