Taking video off camcorder tapes

[Erik Rasmussen]

That's correct.  If the video camera has no firewire or USB output, then you
have to use something else to digitize it and send it to the PC.  Years ago
on Windows, we used a stand-alone device to digitize the analog video signal
and encode it to the computer.  We also had video cards which incorporated
this capability, but they also relied on special software to do this.  Never
tried them with Linux though.

You can still buy stand-alone devices and probably video cards that do such
a thing (not sure how Linux friendly they'd be), but you might be just as
well off (and possibly achieve the same quality) if you plug the OUTPUT from
your Sony HandyCam to the INPUT of a digital video camera which has your
Analog INPUT and a digital (firewire or USB) OUTPUT.

So you plug the OUT from your camera to the IN of a digital video camera and
the IEE1394 or USB 2.0 OUTPUT of the digital camera to your computer.  Some
cameras will allow you to instantly pass that digital video signal directly
through to your computer, without having to record it to the digital camera
first.

You'd want to test it first, before buying a camera just for this purpose,
because not all of them can simultaneously take input and immediately pass
digital output.  I've done this in the past, but I've noticed that there are
many cameras today which cannot simultaneously handle input and immediately
pass through digital output.

-Erik


On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 13:58, Patrick Gleason <patrickegleason at gmail.com>wrote:

> In my experience these types of cameras need some sort of DV passthrough
> that converts the analog signal to a digital one.
>
>
> On May 6, 2010, at 2:54 PM, Pat Hannon wrote:
>
> > The camcorder is a Sony handycam CCD-TRV59E PAL.
> > It only has/uses 8mm tapes.
> > It has a S Video out jack
> > It has a A/V out jack
> > It has a RFU dc out (RFU adaptor DC output) jack.
> >
> > I have a A/V out cable with two male fittings on the end which fits in
> > the A/V out jack
> > I have a S Video cable with a male connection each end.
> >
> > The connection to the PC is a Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 DVD Creator.
> >
> > I do _not_ have a video card in the computer but can put one in if need
> be.
> > There is no firewire connection on the handycam and my PC.
> >
> > I have also failed to do this with Windoze XP.
> >
> > Many thanks for the help so far.
> >
> > Pat
> >
> >
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> > What's inside your camcorder ?
> >
> > Tape (mini-dv), or Tape (VHS)
> > Disk (DVD-/+R/RW)
> >
> > The connexion to PC, and the grabbing of the video depends of the type
> > of your camcorder.
> >
> > Laurent
> >
> > Pat Hannon wrote:
> >> How do I upload a camcorder tape to my computer? I want to upload video
> >> I took with my camcorder to the computer. It is not on a memory card.
> >> What do I need to do and what program?
> >> Thanks
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
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>
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