hi8 to dvd

[jmoore_cne]

I got a new computer recently and it has Vista Ultimate 64bit. This means that I can't capture video to my computer anymore with my DCR-TRV260. http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=DCRTRV260&LOC=3

I've streamed video through USB, Firewire and by the AV connection into a DVD recorder. I refuse to use USB because of the crappy quality and Firewire was better but still not as good as when I went from the AV connection into the DVD. After installing Vista Ultimate 64-bit on my new hardware, I can't do anymore streaming anyway.

I've seen VHS/DVD players at Wal-Mart before. I was wondering if there are any units that play Hi8 tapes that either has an internal hard drive to record them (then I could do a file transfer later) or if it had a DVD player attached to record that way. The AV connection on my camcorder doesn't seem to be working anymore (the camera has been accidentally dropped twice). The unit still seems to record just fine though. Are there any units out there that can play and record off of Hi8 tapes directly (onto a hard drive or dvd) without streaming?

[zoobie]

sounds like it would be better to just put XP back in

[thecoalman]

That's a Digital8 cam not a hi-8 cam, hi-8 is analog. Having said that a transfer over firewire as DV-AVI is a bit for bit copy of what's on the tape. It doesn't get any better than that because it's an exact copy.

The only thing you will find that will play those tapes at a reasonable price is another Digital8 camcorder which you'll have to get used because they haven't made them for a long time AFAIK.

I'm not too familiar with vista but a DV transfer should be plug and play. Are you sure it's vista causing the problems? Might be something else like bad firewire port on the computer. Try it on another one.

[Richard_G]

You only need a driver (which, as the Sony site says isn't available for 64 bit Vista) if you want to use the USB port. Firewire (i-Link) should work perfectly no matter what operating system you are running. Assuming the operating system supports Firewire, which I sincerely hope Vista does.

[jmoore_cne]

zoobie,
Reinstalling XP isn't an option if I want to upgrade to 8gb of ram in the future. XP (32-bit) only recognizes 3. something GB of RAM. You did give me an idea though....installing XP into a desktop virtual machine so that I can still create and send video's captured via USB.

Coalman,
Before I used to use USB to capture video to email to my family. Now I'm getting to where I don't want to buy any more tapes and I want to capture the video and store it on DVD. USB is pretty crappy when you want some sort of quality (with the model I have anyway). I'll give Firewire a try again but I've compared it to the AV option of recording onto a DVD and capturing video via Firewire didn't seem like the best quality either....although it was better than USB. I haven't tried Firewire on my new computer but I'll give it a try. Thanks and yeah it is Digital8. I had Hi8 on the mind for some reason.

Richard_g,
I'll give Firewire a shot.

Thanks for the responses/suggestions.

[thecoalman]

You are correct about the USB, it's similar to what you'd get from web quality video... but... firewire is an exact copy if you transfer as DV-AVI. There is no if's and's or but's about it. It's a lossless transfer. You can think of the cam as an external hardrive, when you transfer as DV-AVI all you're doing is copying the file from the cam to your computer. The only way it differs from a external hardrive is your computer needs to be able to write the data fast enough which is just about any computer even going back 3 or 4 years. In fact you can send the file back to the cam onto another tape and you'd have identical tapes.

Now if you were capturing at something other than DV-AVI then it may have degraded the video, your DVD recorder may have some filters on it, the player you were using wasn't set to play interlaced footage properly etc. Could be any number of reasons why it appears the transfer via DV-AVI is poorer quality than copying via AV cable with a DVD recorder but make no mistake minor filtering and other tricks done post capture aside it can't be any better.

[edDV]

If you are doing much with video apps, 64 bit is going to be a problem. Many apps and utilities work only with 32 bit Vista or XP. 32 bit Vista has issues as well for many apps, particularly audio support.

IMO, 64 bit Vista should be considered a developer environment for now.