Sony MiniDV Cam USB Transfer

[Ray685]

I have a digital camcorder and I tried capturing a 20 min film recorded on my PC. A mpeg was made but it was very slow and it looked like breaking or halting. Is there a nicer way to capture the film via USB without having to see move played slowly and getting breaking up.

I used TMPGenc to convert the mpg from camcorder to MPEG and sued VCDEasy to burn it to a VCD and SVCD format on Memorx CD-RW and it played horribly on APEC 1100W. I tried to use VCDEasy at first to burn the mpg file from camcorder but got an error that the file was 320*240 resolution whic wasn't NTSC (353*240). SO i used TMpGenc first and then used VCDEasy. IS there anything I did wrong or incorrectly.

I searched in mesage forums and other sections of "capture" but couldn't find any information regarding USB transfer (may be its too outdated to do USB streaming).

Currently I don't have cpability for 1394 or i.link process in the camcorder (its an old sony hi8).

Any advise/help is highly appreciated .

Thanks

[yg1968]

I am a bit confused about your question. You say have a digital camcorder but then you say you have a Hi 8 camcorder. Which one is it? You either have a Hi8 or a digital8. I am guessing that you have a digital8 camcorder as a Hi8 camcorder cannot output in mpeg-1 and does not have a USB port.

If you have a digital8, you most likely have a firewire connection, also called i-link or DV out.

Anyways, the mpeg-1 function on the Sony Camcorder is a useless gadget. The quality is horrible. You are better off getting a firewire port and cable for your computer. You can then import the DV and encode to mpeg with TMPGEnc. DV takes 13 gig an hour but it is a temporary file as you can delete after your encoding. This will give you much better results.

PS What is the model of your camcorder?

[Ray685]

ThankYou for your reply,

Well doesn't my question tell how good I am at technical stuff. I have digital8 camcorder not Hi8. Sorry about that.

I don't have i.link cable with me and my PC is Sony Viao series and it havs i.link port in it. I'll get the cable sometime soon but as of now I was wondering Is there good way to get the movie out of camcorder with USB port into my PC (XP, over 30G HD free) and not having to struggle with creating a VCD which plays miserbaly on the player.

If not, then I'll get the cable soon and I hope I don't have to get the firewire port/card as my PC has i.link port in it. Then what software do I use to get the movie capture in PC through i.link

Thanks again for your help.

[vhelp]

eveing Ray685,

I would go out and get the Firewire cable. Can't be more than $19 bucks,
or prabably much less, you no. And, if you're not sure about weather or
not you actualy have a Firewire port, check to be sure, else add that to
your shopping list Today. Don't wait. You'll be bored w/ regrets.

Listem, ..tomorrow's the big HOLIDAY, and you know how stores will be closed.
Go to Radio Shack and pick one up before they run out. Chances are, that
many will be getting Digi Cams of the likes, and you don't want to be
cought w/ your pants down. You'll have too many urges to wanna try out
Firewire and Video etc., Other stores will have the Firewire cable, like
Stapes, CC, OfficeMax, OfficeDepo, CompUSA, Walmart, K-Mart, etc.

Plus, because of the HOLIDAY, you can bet that Tomorrow, this FORUM is
going to be pretty buisy w/ lots of NEW posters asking a bunch of newbie
digital questions and so on. Baldrick, I hope that this FORUM can handle
the volume, if it does actually get buisy. Hope not though, but we'll all
be here ta help

Well, happy HOLIDAY ..and all that stuff. 8) 8)
-vhelp