Capture from Video Cam to Computer with Time and Date Stamp

[Larrypi]

Hi, I am looking for a "easy" way to capture video from my Sony DCR TRV460 to my computer with the date and time stamp on the captured video. I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, 8gb RAM on a HP Pavillion dv7-1232nr Entertainment Notebook PC, AMD Turion X2 Cual Core Mobile RM 74 processor, ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics. I bought a "Easy Cap" it came with Ulead Easy Suite which of course doesn't work, it will get the audio but not the video and I bought a Dazzle DVC100 which will not work either, neither will work with composite or S Video connections although my computer does recoginize both devices.

I'm a Private Investigator so you can see that the date and time stamp on the video is very important to my work. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to spend a "ton" of money here.

[usually_quiet]

Having Windows 7 64-bit limits your choices for free video capture software, and I don't know what paid software for Windows 7 64-bit usually works well for USB video capture devices. There is Virtualdub's 64-bit version, which works with a lot of different capture devices, but may require you to learn more than you want to. Maybe somebody will chime in with some better suggestions.

This is a possibility for for an inexpensive capture device: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4276658&Sku=S262-7177 This is the manufacturer's product page http://us.startech.com/product/SVID2USB2NS-USB-S-Video-Capture-Cable? In a recent thread of our members said he likes this very much for SD video capture and it received mostly positive reviews on the shopping sites I looked at. Some reviewers stated the included GrabBee software is not great and I don't know how well it works using Windows 7 64-bit.

This is the latest model of the real EzCAP116, which is a much better product than what you bought. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YGJLWU/ref=s9_simh_gw_p23_d0_i5?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX...pf_rd_i=507846
The included ArcSoft Showbiz 3.5 software is reportedly not the best, but bundled capture software hardly ever is. This is the manufacturer's website. http://www.ezcap.tv/index.html You can get Windows 7 drivers there. The EasyCap you purchased is a knock-off of one of this company's old, long-discontinued products.

For USB capture devices, I have heard it is better to install drivers before plugging the device into the USB port for the first time since Windows may find the wrong drivers on its own. In most cases, it's best avoid using the installation disk for drivers. Install the latest Windows 7 64-bit drivers from the manufactur's website instead. Sometimes the audio from a USB capture device is difficult to get working, but capture programs will often accept sound from the microphone jack instead. Typically one of these adapters is needed to use the microphone jack http://www.amazon.com/Stereo-3-5mm-2-RCA-Y-Cable-Compatible/dp/B0027RPUVS

According to the specs I found online your notebook doesn't have a firewire port, but does have an ExpressCard/54 Slot, which also supports ExpressCard/34.

Here is one firewire card that you may want to consider if you don't already have one and would prefer to work directly with video from your camera: http://www.amazon.com/ExpressCard-Laptop-1394a-Firewire-Adapter/dp/B000RKUKMG Looking at the manufacturer product page Windows 7 64-bit supports it http://us.startech.com/product/EC13942-2-Port-ExpressCard-IEEE-1394-Firewire-Card?prod...=EC13942&c=US&

I don't have a DV camera, but from reading other threads it appears you should be able to use WinDV with Windows 7-64 bit to transfer an exact copy of the tape to a PC with a FireWire port. There are programs available that can extract the timestamp from the DV metadata and add it to the picture. Some information about them may be found here http://www.skydiver.de/stef/datecode_en.htm

[Larrypi]

Thank you usually_quiet for your time and effort on this. It is much appreciated.