Camcorder Recommendations and Questions for Capturing VHS

I've decided to purchase a camcorder with passthrough in the hopes of solving my audio sync problems in transferring VHS to DVD. Questions:

First, can anyone recommend camcorders that have worked for them? Again, I'm transferring VHS tapes, so the camcorder will be hooked to my VCR.

Second, the camcorder connection to my computer is firewire - but how do I actually create a file? Do I need some kind of capture software, like Movie Mill or something?

Third, I understand that the files created will be huge avi files - about 13G per hour. Can I save these directly to my external hard drive?

If it is just the passthru feature you want, you can get a analog to digital dv converter. Check out the Canopus ADVC100 which is what I have. Great device. About $250 I think. There is another type, cheaper, that I've heard mentioned but don't know anything about it myself. I love my ADVC100

Yes, you need some type of program to transfer (not really a capture since you are just transfering the DV file). There are some free ones around. I bought Scenalyzer (about $35) which is really nice and I think worth it.

If you do want a camcorder for the other features it depends on what you want it to do. You might check out the Digital8 camcorders. They record miniDV on the older, larger, cheaper Hi8 tapes. Some of the D8 camcorders also allow you to play back the older 8mm and Hi8 recorded analog tapes.

I would recommand the Sony TRV-22 for a miniDV camcorder. If you are looking for a digital 8 camcorder, I would recommand the TRV-350. Both have a passthrough feature.

You can capture with DVIO or DVapp.

Aside from cost, and assuming all I want to do is passthrough, is there any advantage to using a camcorder versus a dv converter like the Canopus? Does the Canopus have a Time Base Corrector?

i purchased a canon zr60 (mini-dv cam) for under $350 and it works great, i backed up a few of my vhs music tapes and no issues at all. I use dvio to capture, cce to encode then dvdlab or tmpgenc to author. my tapes are in excellent condition and i am sure that helps. I would like to thank the forum again for helping me achieve a high-novice level of expertise in video 101. get the camcorder, it has more uses than just transfering video and in all actuality will give you more bang for your buck in the long run. it is also portable!!!! 8)

Do you know whether the Canon has a Time Base Corrector? I'm having sync problems with redubbed VHS tapes. Many people say that passing though a camcorder solves these problems - but is this true only for camcorders with TBCs? Or is it something else about the camcorder that is helping with the sync? My understanding is that the Canopus has a TBC - is this correct?

I don't think the Canopus or the camcorders have a TBC but there could be some? You would probably need an external TBC like the Datavideo 1000. Or a vhs player with built in TBC like the high end JVC sVHS units. Or both.

See the LordSmurf guides. He has actually used both depending on how bad the tape is. I will have a JVC 9800 sVHS unit in a few days and am thinking about also getting the Datavideo.

@ jcat,

Quote:

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is there any advantage to using a camcorder versus a dv converter like the Canopus? Does the Canopus have a Time Base Corrector?

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In my gut opinion, I don't thing that DV CAMS have TBC's. Else, if they did,
then they would shurely "dramatize" that feature to no end :roll: I mean,
:roll: think :roll: about it.
I think that because of the digital processing and all, somewhere along the
line, the video is sync in a digital sense, but not TBC'ed.
.
.
As for the Canopus, no.. they are not TBC'ed. They have an elaborate method,
electronically, to control audio/video sync.. which they call "locked audio" and
it is a feature that is user configurable ie, on/off.

That's why the ADVC-100 is such a great device for instance.

From the Video Workstation of,
-vhelp 2064