New HDV cam owner, quick question.

[shadablade]

I just purchased an HC5 today in preparation for an upcoming vacation and I wanted a nice camcorder that supported HD. So far its working quite nicely and im picking up a lot of info from here and the various forums on the net for info on pc transfers, editing and the like.

Got one thing that im having a problem with though. I was told the HC5 has pass-thru support and I have a stack of vhs tapes ive filmed at various conventions over the years that I would like to convert to either dv or vhs->dv->pc.

So far i haven't been able to figure out how to connect the vcr to the camera so that it acts as a source for the camera to record from. The manual talks about using the firewire link, yet ive never even seen a vcr with a firewire link (which wouldn't that be pointless technically in the first place?)

So if anyone has some suggestions on what Im missing or a better way to go about this, please let me know.

Other than that, great camera, and cant wait to start working on editing. Thanks!!

[jagabo]

Does that camcorder even have analog A/V inputs? Normally you would use a supplied cable that plugs into the camcorder at one end and has composite or s-video, and stereo audio RCA at the other. Something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Monster-J2-CAMAV-M-6-Composite/dp/B00005T3ER/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&...9698277&sr=8-1

I'm not recommending that cable, just using it as a visual example.

Sony's web site says no analog A/V inputs:

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalo...uctId=11034000

[Soopafresh]

Yeah, looks like there's no analog input on your camcorder, although the passthrough feature (if your camera had it) sounds really nice:

"Or perhaps you already have a digital camcorder, like a Sony Handycam, which has a built-in "Analog-to-Digital Conversion with Pass-Through" ability. This feature is quite useful since it will allow you to attach any analog device (VCR, 8mm camcorder, etc.) to your Handycam and then stream the digital data over FireWire to your computer."

Bummer. You can buy a $50 low end capture card for your PC which will let you capture from your VCR to hard drive on your PC.