Need advice on transfering tapes to pc

[North60]

Hello members,

Found this forum searching for how to mini dv to pc... and joined up seeking advice.

I've got about 20 hi8 tapes of family vacations,etc... that I would like to transfer to pc do some basic editing/trimming and then save.

Here's my what I've got to work with and my understanding of the process works.
Camera - Sony Dcr-Trv460 with firewire port.
Old laptop - Dell latitude e5510 with firewire port, win7 pro 64bit, i5 core, 8gb ram, 256 ssd, intergrated intel Hd gfx.
Newer laptop - Dell precision 7550, win10 pro 64bit, i7 core, 32gb ram, 1 tb ssd, nvidia quadro t2000 card 4gb ram.

After reading thru some of the posts regarding transfer to pc, I did a test using WinDv on old laptop connected via firewire to camera and it worked like a charm, with laptop controlling the cam etc...

So... here's where I need advice...
I am thinking it best to transfer raw Avi file to new laptop to make use of better processor,etc...
Transfer method ? I am thinking hardwire ethernet cable between laptops is best/fastest method.
What software would you all recommend for Win10 laptop? And what file format should the final product be in?
Would like to be able to give final product on portable unit that family member could view on laptop or smart tv.

Thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated

Cheers !

[johns0]

Moved your thread to capturing and changed your title so you can get more help.

[Cornucopia]

2 ways of thinking:

Hi8 is analog, so an analog process with ~lossless capture might be more faithful to the original quality. But it would require a different capture device, and does involve a little bit more understanding of all the options, in order to do it right. Then compress for final playback in your player of choice.

or

You already have a Digital8 camcorder that supports Hi8, so you can do the standard (compressed) DV transfer, saving as a DV-AVI file, then edit, blahblahblah, end up with a DV master (so no change in codec, and no loss of quality up to this point minus that original compression in the DV transfer - part of the camera's capability). Then compress once again for final playback in your player of choice (usually as h264/h265 in mp4/mkv).

There are pros and cons with both. 1st has a POTENTIAL to have better quality, if done right. 2nd is - given the correct firewire equipment & apps - much more straightforward and convenient.
The difference in quality is IMO minor but depending on or sensibilities, can be noticeable.


Scott

[Bwaak]

Regarding the note above, if you don't look to spend your free time tinkering with A/D converters and codecs, keep doing what you are doing, that is converting in-camera and capturing DV over Firewire - this gives you a bulletproof result with correct resolution, aspect ratio, image rate, encoded with an industry-standard codec that will be supported for quite some time. Keep these files, they will be your originals that you will always be able to return back to.

As for your deliverables, sadly few boxes or smart TVs support DV-AVI, so you'll have to re-encode. Probably H.264, maybe H.265. Likely 8-bit 4:2:0 for compatibility. I would deinterlace using a decent deinterlacer to relieve whatever player you will be using from the deinterlacing job.

[North60]

regarding simple edit software...


I installed Mediainfo utility and it confirms the file type as you mentioned.

I am looking for software that will import dv-avi file correct?
I found AviDemux and Lossless cut mentioned in several threads.. but unsure if Lossless Cut will open dv-avi.

Recommendations?

[dellsam34]

What is at stakes here is chroma, DV luma despite compressed can take the beating. It depends on your willinless to handle lossless analog capture out of the camcorder's S-Video port, it is the best option if you are going to do editing, color correction and other restorative work, You start from 4:2:2 chroma subsampling out of S-Video and work in that color space until the final encoding format 4:2:0 and you can actually keep 4:2:2 if you so choose, some modern devices play it back fine.

If you start from DV 4:1:1 chroma sub. (assuming you're in Wisconson), by the end of all processing it is already weak and then you will have to convert it to 4:2:0 mendatorilly, that's a 2 dimentional loss, NTSC DV chroma is weak horizontally, 4:2:0 is weak vertically, you combined both. If you had PAL DV 4:2:0 this would have been a different discussion.

If you must do the DV route you can slightly minimize the losses by decoding the resulting DV files into lossless AVI 4:2:2 using vdub2 (you will have huge files but you don't have to keep them), This will not improve the quality of the original DV files but it gives you an option to work in 4:2:2 space with minimal losses, after all the post work is done you can encode to the final format just like in the first option.

[lordsmurf]

Regarding the note above, if you don't look to spend your free time tinkering with A/D converters and codecs, keep doing what you are doing, that is converting in-camera and capturing DV over Firewire -

DV boxes are not magic. There's no less 'tinkering' required whatsoever. Worst yet, these boxes generally harm quality of a format already reduced in quality.

this gives you a bulletproof result

No.

with correct resolution, aspect ratio, image rate,

Not guaranteed.

encoded with an industry-standard codec that will be supported for quite some time.

This becomes less true as the years pass. It's a 1990s format, and nobody cares anymore.

Keep these files, they will be your originals that you will always be able to return back to.

Keep the tapes. DV files from Hi8 do not capture the actual quality present on the tape.

As for your deliverables, sadly few boxes or smart TVs support DV-AVI,

Why sadly? This has always been the case.
DV is an ancient 1990s format with blocks, and ruins color. PAL is acceptable, NTSC is butchered.

so you'll have to re-encode. Probably H.264, maybe H.265.

Probably, maybe? Almost nothing supports H.265 yet, in terms of external non-computer players connected to TVs.

Likely 8-bit 4:2:0 for compatibility.

This is how NTSC users screw themselves. It goes from analog equiv 4:2:2, to 4:1:1, then over to 4:2:0. The color is molested.

The color loss is obvious to half-blind grandmas ("color is off" or "color is blurry"), it's not something subtle where viewed on a modern HDTV. If you view it on a tiny phone, tiny preview window, or tiny Youtube window, then sure, you won't notice. At that size, you tend to not notice anything.

[Eric-jan]

Hello members,

Found this forum searching for how to mini dv to pc... and joined up seeking advice.



So... here's where I need advice...
I am thinking it best to transfer raw Avi file to new laptop to make use of better processor,etc...
Transfer method ? I am thinking hardwire ethernet cable between laptops is best/fastest method.
What software would you all recommend for Win10 laptop? And what file format should the final product be in?
Would like to be able to give final product on portable unit that family member could view on laptop or smart tv.

Thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated

Cheers !

If both devices can handle large format (Flash) SD cards, that would be an option. or have some card readers for both, or have some (fast) USB memory sticks to exchange,
or USB SSD's or have a NAS (is slower) on your network

[North60]

Thanks for all the replies.

I will do a test using firewire to pc with windv to win 7 pc, then transfer to win 10 pc, using AviDemux as an editor and see how the process works.

Will be back with an update and probably more questions.

Cheers !