capturing miniDV from a Sony HC42

[anandel]

I guess the subject would have explained you all that I am a newbie.
Well, got this camcorder pretty recently.. got some footage.. trying to convert it into a VCD (to start with).. Tried out the VCD burning option with the software that came with the camcorder, and it doesn't seem to do a very good job (can't go past the first segment of video).

So I spent the last weekend browsing thro' a lot of topics and ended up downloading WinDV. When I connected the camcorder to the PC (right now only have USB, planning get a firewire soon), set the config options as described in the 'guide' and tried 'Capture', WinDV gave me an error msg 'Device Not Found'. After some more research, i think i need to download this panasonic codec??? So, am I going in the right direction??

One thing seems to be pretty apparent.. when it comes to creating VCD, DVD and all, i have a really long way to go .. Is there anything like a step by step kind of guide for doing these basic stuffs??

Pls. help gurus!!!

[gll99]

Windv will only work with the dv port of your camera and a firewire (ieee1394) port on your PC.

You may be able to do a low res stream from your camera using the usb port but you have to set the camera to usb mode. I wouldn't waste the time with usb except for pictures. Go for the firewire dv route.

[daamon]

Hi anandel,

Welcome to the forums.

I second gll99 - the USB port on DV cams is for the transfer of any stills that have been taken and isn't fast enough or suited to DV transfer.

This is why there is a firewire port and this should definitely be the only port used for DV transfer.

As for guides, there's a link in the panel on the left for guides and conversions. You'll need to look for DV AVI to either VCD or MPEG1.

TMPGEnc is free for MPEG1 encoding, and VCDEasy is a good VCD authoring tool. There are other tools for both.

You shouldn't need the Panasonic DV Codec.

[anandel]

Thanks both gII99 and daamon for ur quick replies. Well, I think buying and installing a firewire port in my PC looks like a good starting point for me for now (wonder why it didn't strike me at all when I was sifting thro these forums). Once I am confident with the basic stuff I am pretty sure I can catch up real quick. Appreciate you guys for helping me out!!

Well, as I understand, installing a firewire port seems to be pretty much plug and play. Is that right? Is there anything else I should know before I buy one? I found a cheap one on the net (Zonet ZUC2400) which seems to be ok to start with..

Btw, mine is a Dell 4600. I just checked that it has an empty slot that I can use.. So it looks like a 'Go'..

Thanks again !!

[daamon]

The common consensus is that pretty much any PCI firewire card will do the job - no real need to fork out loads for a name brand.

Just make sure you get a cable too - either with the card or, if not, buy one seperately. Unless, of course, one came with your cam.

Pop the card in, let your OS install it and away you go...

[ihatesonydcrhc42]

usb should work without the picture package software. try using windows movie maker. Although USB 2 and firewire are listed as having equal speeds this camera only transfers LOW QUALITY video through USB. Not sure if it is because it uses usb 1 technology. doubtful, but i have prowled the internet and found out that this camera requires firewire connection for FULL quality transfer.

as far as the camera not being recognized when using firewire, you have to use a genuine, original Sony i-link/firewire cable.

for the longest time i couldn't figure out what was wrong with the camera. i tried two different cables and two different computers. finally i took it to a sony service center and had them check it out. when i went to pickup the camera they said there was no problem. i didn't believe them and asked to talk to the technician that worked on the camera.

I told him to show me it worked and was recognized. He did indeed, but using a sony cable. when i gave him my cable to try, it didn't work. luckily they were nice enough to let me go without paying the $80 minimum charge for any work, including the diagnostic "plugging in sony cable" check.

I then bought an overpriced sony firewire cable for $25 and everything works. Damn sony's proprietary bullshit (all the sony people i related this story to blamed the bad quality of the cables i had been using)

[edDV]

usb should work without the picture package software. try using windows movie maker. Although USB 2 and firewire are listed as having equal speeds this camera only transfers LOW QUALITY video through USB. Not sure if it is because it uses usb 1 technology. doubtful, but i have prowled the internet and found out that this camera requires firewire connection for FULL quality transfer.

as far as the camera not being recognized when using firewire, you have to use a genuine, original Sony i-link/firewire cable.

for the longest time i couldn't figure out what was wrong with the camera. i tried two different cables and two different computers. finally i took it to a sony service center and had them check it out. when i went to pickup the camera they said there was no problem. i didn't believe them and asked to talk to the technician that worked on the camera.

I told him to show me it worked and was recognized. He did indeed, but using a sony cable. when i gave him my cable to try, it didn't work. luckily they were nice enough to let me go without paying the $80 minimum charge for any work, including the diagnostic "plugging in sony cable" check.

I then bought an overpriced sony firewire cable for $25 and everything works. Damn sony's proprietary bullshit (all the sony people i related this story to blamed the bad quality of the cables i had been using)

DV format transfer is standardized to be done over IEEE-1394 and Windows (DirectShow) is all set to receive DV streams over IEEE-1394. There are some provisions in the standard to allow custom drivers to transfer DV streams over USB2 but these are not commonly supported. Bottom line, use IEEE-1394 unless you are advised by your manual to use USB2 (e.g. if using the $28,000 Sony XDCAM).

Cables are standardized for IEEE-1394. Apple Firewire and Sony ILink trademarks are one and the same with IEEE-1394. If any Sony camcorder required proprietary cables to work, you would hear worldwide screams in 5.1 sound.

[minko]

Every video transfer that I do with my DCR-HC42, which is usally at least once a week, is done with one of two IEEE-1394 cables that came from Best Buy (orange) or Walmart (white), respectively (one at home, one at work - so different PCs as well).

Neither is a Sony branded cable.

That notwithstanding, how relavant is a your response to a topic that's been dead since July 2005 (mine too for that matter)?