A few questions about Camera to PC

[xx_kurt_xx]

hey
firstly ive read many posts about this while waiting 24 hours to be activated,
a mate of mine has a problem with 'converting' from his camera to his PC
heres some specs..
Sony mini DV handycam Model DCR-TRV22E
PC specs,
1ghz cpu, not sure what, not intel thou.
256meg,
WINXP
SBlive
some kinda nvidia vid card,

he also uses the 'Image Transfer' program he got with the camera,,

everything works fine, the pc finds the camera ok , using the USB plug/cord etc etc,
but after the actual 'conversion/transfer' of the file, the movie is really choppy, almost a frame/sec. playing the finished file from the PC,,

so my question is..

1, is it just that the USB is really for pictures, maybe some 'higher spec' systems would cope, but older ones such as my mates, wouldnt cut it, looks like the USB is just too slow,,

2, would he really need to get a new system?, more memory?, ive heard XP uses quite a bit of memory??

3.1, his camera has 'i.LINK (DV in/out)' which is basically the same as firewire, yes??
3.2, a firewire link basically lets you 'copy' the file from the camera to a PC. but the file is still in DV format? (im not sure about the format of camera movies, im a avi-svcd etc person)?!
3.3, if above is yes, then he'd have to convert the DV file to whatever, his PC enuff for that??

4, a different program, these package deals can be dodgy.

i think thats about all, i tried to read lottsa posts to save another post of the same thing, but some verification on these things would be great,,
thanks

[proxyx99]

Yes, mate. USB is for pictures and web streaming (MPEG1).
Main video has to transferred via iLink (FW 1394).
You may use supplied app or check in Tools for WinDV, Scenalyser (both v. good) etc.
Simple to use and v. good quality for DV : Pinnacle Studio 8 (cheap) find out.

[xx_kurt_xx]

thanks man,
i saw your name quite a bit answering a heap of questions
cheers


i love these smileys :P

[proxyx99]

very gratifying to know somebody"s reading...
Good Luck.



... never used those be4.

[daamon]

Hi kurt,

Some replies...:

2. I've always been told "the more the better". i.e. faster chip, more memory etc. In your mates case, I'd say more memory (I presume he's using DDR) would be a start. I've heard a minimum of 512 with commonly people using 1Gb. That said, his system will be as poor as the weakest link - e.g. slow FSB on the mother board etc.

3.1 iLink is firewire (FW 1394) - much faster than USB. I think USB2 (the latest new much speedier USB) is comparable to FW1394.

3.2 Not sure. But a word of advice - I believe that there are 2 DV formats. Intuitively named DV1 and DV2. Don't what the difference is etc., but the more info you have, the better.

3.3 It may be enough, but it'll be slow(er). See 2, above. Look up TMPGEnc as a conversion tool - considered to be one of the best.

4. Don't know of "Image Capture" so won't comment. I've heard that VirtualDub is a good capture tool (and free I believe). I personally use Adobe Premiere, but that costs.

Good luck...

P.S. "Red ship crashes into blue ship - sailors marooned" - Genius!!! Made me chuckle.

[xx_kurt_xx]

cool guys,,
cheers muchly,,
am gunna download that WINDV proggy and give that a whirl aswell,,

""3.3 It may be enough, but it'll be slow(er). See 2, above. Look up TMPGEnc as a conversion tool - considered to be one of the best.""

thats cool, ive used TMPG quite a lot, canopus / virtual dub etc,, to convert avi's to dvd playable files, and the slowness aint a big deal, i think he mainly just wants to be able to do things like, film his dogs, and send some emails, so its doubtful he'll do full length movies, (until he gets into the homemade pron business )
as long as the finished movie is not choppy, and runs like it should, we will be stoked,,

ps, having a total posts of ONE, (well 3 now) and being treated like ive been a long time poster is great, ya DONT find that much on forums these days,, muchly appreciated ,,
reminds me of that twilight zone movie with that thing on the plane wing hahha

[redwudz]

I think you're getting the hang of it. A few notes: WinDV or DVIO work good. WinDV has a preview screen I like.
Most any firewire card will work, you don't really need an expensive one.
DV2 seems to be the most compatible, goes right into TMPGEnc encoder. You need the DV codec for Virtualdub. It won't capture DV, but you can edit, filter, etc. with it and put the result into TMPGEnc or frameserve to TMPGEnc.
The computer is OK for starting with video, a little slow, but good enough. Memory is probably enough for now, more is better, but it won't speed encoding much.
You can use a program like PowerDVD player to check your videos to see how they look, works better than Window Video Player.

When you need more info, study the guides and ask again. Good luck!

[xx_kurt_xx]

Hi again..
thanks firstly again to everyones replies,, sure helps a $%&* load,.
but just one more thing, ive read in some posts that most firewire cards are the same thing,
after ringing a few places, and being told by a few, humm youll need to get a more expensive one for a SONY DV camera, i just happen to have that one here for 100bucks more,,
so to make a long story short,, i found an STLABS one for 45$ with a cable, i said to the dood its a SONY camera, he said, as long as its digital, there will be no problem at all,,??
so is this STLABS card gunna cut it??
thanks again

[Hardcoreruss]

Any firewire card will see you pretty as far as I am concerned ( I may be corrected) if it has dv out irrespective of whether it is a Sony or not you can hook it up to any old firewire card. The camcorder should of come with a lead so all you need is the card.

The reason why your original capture was choppy was because you were attempting to capture on USB 1.1. USB 2.0 supports speeds of up to 480 mb/s and firewire 400 mb/s. I have never heard of capturing on USB 2.0 but it probably is possible. Capturing is not really my forte. You should be able to get a firewire card for cheaper than $45. I have an adaptec one which works great and I run two external hard drives and my ipod from it and it only cost me £15.95.

I take it your in the US. Try this dude if you are an ebay fan

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2768318783&category=170

You don't get much better feedback than that and for only $5.95 you can't really go wrong (bloody cheap wish I lived in the US). You also get a cable if your friend has mislaid his. His shipping is a bit high but I am sure that if you look around you will be able to get a comparable deal.

Post back with your findings.

Russ

[xx_kurt_xx]

thanks hardcoreruss,
unfortunately im in australia.
ive rang about 5-6 places, the cheapest i could find was 45$
pple only seem to worry about the more expensive ones, and im not one to go to swap meets and places like that,
but 5$, double that for the currency difference, even a tenner is still great,
might keep looking around,
cheers gov

[proxyx99]

as indicated previously ANY firewire card will do. You may buy it for more in a store with a good return policy and if everyrhing is OK look for a cheaper one (that's just to test). Check how it works for you and go from there in terms of other hardware/software needs. But for DV thats the only way.

[xx_kurt_xx]

just wanted to make sure bout the card
errr one more thing,
forgot to say, he hasnt got a memory stick,,
does a firewire card only work with the mem stick?
or can it be used with the tape aswell???
thats definately all now

[xx_kurt_xx]

dont worry,, bit of googling..
and
Firewire - IEEE 1394 - iLink
allows the transfer of DV video captured on tape.
You can use your software to control the camera (play, stop, rew, ff, etc).
In some cases it can also allow the camcorder to stream to MS Messenger(e.g) for video conferencing.


unless this is untrue??

[Chris S]

I have that exact same Sony camera......

No the memory stick is not required to transfer video to ur PC........the mem stick is only used when using the STILL IMAGE function or TAPE to MEMSTICK (video from the tape to MPEG1format on the MS) function on the camera.