Best practices for capturing from SONY TRV-355E (Digital8) Handycam to PC.

[WalkToFreedom]

Hi. I'm about to start a well overdue process of converting my Video8 tapes to digital. They were recorded on a Canon Handycam and are about 18 years old. I was told the best method for converting them to digital was to buy a SONY Digital8 camera that supports backwards compatibility with Video8 format then all I would need to do is use firewire to transfer them to the PC as DV (which would result in the best quality?) This seems to be good advice as I bought a SONY TRV-355E and my initial tests look good.

My reason for posting here is I was hoping to get some advice on software / tweaks / drivers etc for creating the best quality digital conversion that I can. I have some precious memories recorded on those old tapes and I would like to preserve them as close to the original as possible. The software that came with the camera doesn't work on Windows 7 but there seems to be a driver already. At the moment I'm using VirtualDub to capture the video and that also seems to work OK but there are heaps of settings that I have no idea to the benefits they provide. I've tried a few different things some results OK others not so good - a problem with interlacing? No sure.

I guess what it really comes down to is before I start the conversion process in earnest, I would like to make sure my configuration is set to produce the best possible quality.

Many thanks. Matt

[aedipuss]

direct capture from the cam to the computer over firewire results in DVavi. use winDV to capture the files.

[WalkToFreedom]

direct capture from the cam to the computer over firewire results in DVavi. use winDV to capture the files.

Hi. Thanks for that will try it when I get home.

[Snakebyte1]

I have been transferring from Digital8 via Firewire for years and also use WinDV mostly. However, I have come across some tapes where, for some reason, the AVI produced with WinDV has problems in certain places. For those troublesome clips I used DVIO or import directly into an older version of Adobe Premiere.

Note that when you use Firewire you are basically transferring digital data from the tape and not actually capturing and converting.

[WalkToFreedom]

I have been transferring from Digital8 via Firewire for years and also use WinDV mostly. However, I have come across some tapes where, for some reason, the AVI produced with WinDV has problems in certain places. For those troublesome clips I used DVIO or import directly into an older version of Adobe Premiere.

Note that when you use Firewire you are basically transferring digital data from the tape and not actually capturing and converting.

Hi. Thanks for your comments. I have yet to give WinDV a try but it sounds good. Good point, there must be an ADC in the Camcorder that converts the analgoue Video8 to digital and out the firewire. I guess I'm really relying on the quality of the ADC internally for the output quality. I'll look into DVIO. Thanks!