Help capturing analog through DV camcorder

[gatownsend]

Hi everyone,

I've googled for this 'till my fingers are ready to bleed and read a lot around this site, but haven't found what I'm looking for. I'm probably making this harder than it needs to be!

I want to take some VHS tapes and get them onto my hard drive to edit and/or burn to a DVD. I was going to do this using my DV camcorder. I have captured tons of AVI using Windows MM and WinDV with no problem at all using this camcorder and my firewire card. The camcorder is a Sony DCR-TRV20 and I have a generic OHCI compliant firewire card. I capture to a WD 160gig 7200 rpm hard drive on a WinXP machine (NTFS file system).

The Sony has a pass-through feature that you can use whereby I'd hook the VCR up to the camcorder and then hook the camcorder to the PC via firewire.

My question is, what software can I use to capture once I'm set up for the pass-through? All the capture programs I've used want to control the camcorder's functions for FF, REW, PLAY, etc., which I don't really need in this situration. I think I really just need a "record" and "Stop" button in the capture software to start and stop when I get where I want on the VHS tape? Would this be considered a "manual capture"?

Like I said, I'm probably making this harder than it is, but if anyone could point me in the right direction I would really appreciate the help.

Regards,

Gary

[poerschr]

Did you try virtualdub??

[Tommyknocker]

I better idea is DVIO. Virtual Dub cannot transfer data through fire wire.

[davideck]

I have done this with my JVC Mini DV Camcorder. It needs to be set to analog in, of course, and it also needs to be set to PLAY. I use Ulead Video Studio and with this configuration, I can preview the analog source on the Ulead monitor prior to staring to capture. When I tell Ulead to begin capturing, its starts counting frames. Ulead does have the ability to control the JVC Camcorder with its own buttons, but I don't need to use them for capturing analog because I do not want to control the MiniDV transport. For what its worth, I do believe that the JVC needs to have a tape inserted for this to work, and that kept me confused for a while. If you can successfully capture from Mini DV tape, and your Camcorder has an analog input, then you should be able to capture analog.

[Almost Human]

In WinDV, uncheck the small box immediately to the left of the "Capture" button. You will now have full manual control of the camera during capture (read transfer). I suggest configuring to Type 2 so that the resultant file can be utilized in VirtualDub.

[thinger62]

What is that checkbox? It seems to have no label, or I can't see it. What exactly does it do? Thanks...

[Almost Human]

It's between the "Config..." and "Capture" buttons. Just hover your mouse over it and a description will pop-up. With a check mark in this box, your camcorder will be controlled by WinDV. Un-checked, and you have manual control.

Go to the WinDV download site for full instructions/

[gatownsend]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm going to give WinDV a try since I've already used it and it has worked great for me. I never noticed that little checkbox until Almost Human pointed it out.

I'm planning on lugging the extra VCR up here to my office tomorrow night or Saturday and trying a capture. My buddy's wife was on the 6 o'clock news the other night (because her and her sister both had babies on the same day at the same hospital - only 4 hours apart), and we taped it with our VCR. I'd like to put it on DVD for them, and also make a smaller copy that they can email to relatives that live out of town.

Thanks again!

Gary

[videofun]

Hi,
I use scene analyzer live http://www.scenalyzer.com/main.html when i capture from my sony trv50. Yes it has FFW and REW buttons and it can control the camcorder which i think is quite useful (you don't have to use the remote of the camcorder). Now, if you connect a VCR to your TRV20 for passthru function, there is an option in sclive where "Camcorder doesnot start playing automatically when you press capture" in other words full "manual" capture, ie you start the VCR and you click capture when you want and then stop it manualy again.

[itedindvd]

I've used my Sharp digital camcorder to convert several VCR tapes to uncompressed AVI files. While the capturing software can control the camera, it of course can't the VCR.

My camcorder has two options for analog input from a vcr...1) record it to the miniDV tape, or 2) digital output. Be sure to check that you have switched your camcorder to accept analog in. Push play on VCR, and then push record with whatever capture software you use. I use nerovision express.

[Jraf]

your software wants to control your Sony camcorder because you have a tape in it. Remove this DV tape and the pass-through will function.

I use my Sony D8 with Pinacle Studio to transfer my VHS tapes to DVD or copy my favorite TV documents with this pass-through function.

good luck.