what to do now?

[clactongirl2002]

some of you may have read my post the other day regarding my sony camcorder and the size of the picture it was being captured at, well i was recommended to purchase a firewire cable which i did so and now it turns out that my camcorder actually only has a usb port on it, no firewire port though.so what am i to do?

[guns1inger]

Is it USB 1.0 or USB 2 ?
If it is USB 2.0, does your PC have USB 2.0 ports ?

Some cameras are now using USB 2.0 to transfer full res DV, however if your PC only has USB 1.0 you don't have the bandwidth. You may find that you have both, so swapping to a different port might help - for example, some PCs have USB 2.0 on the front panel, but only USB 1.0 on the rear ports.

Otherwise, you can get a USB 2.0 PCI card to add ports. Only worth it if that is what your camera requires. What does the manual say about transferring video to your PC ?

Second - have you confirmed that your video is only quarter resolution. WMP 9, for example, is set to show digital video at a reduced resolution by default. There is an advanced setting in the preferences that needs to be set to full to see full resoltion playback.

[clactongirl2002]

hi yeah ive definitely got usb 2.0 ports, when capturing the film ive been using windows movie maker and its coming up as 352 x 288 or whatever resolution it is, is there a way of changing this then?or is there a better program to use to capture which would have a bigger resolution?

[clactongirl2002]

the manual is useless it doesnt say anything about resolution etc, you get some crappy program that comes with the camcorder which is just rubbish.

[guns1inger]

If the camera is limiting your output then software at the PC end isn't going to make much difference. I don't know if WinDV or DVIO can transfer via USB.

/edit

I have just had a look at the manual on-line at Sony Europe. This camera is a Digital8 camera, and it appears this is as good as you are going to get from it. You either need to upgrade to a Digital8 that has DV output, or get an analogue or analogue to DV capture card and use the analogue outputs form the camera. Not good new, sorry.

[clactongirl2002]

nope neither of those programs will, looks like illbe buying a new camera then, im disappointed as i spent £300 on the camera and it doesnt even give decent quality video, totally defeats the object of having the bloody thing.i purchased it a few years ago but blimey i mean whats the point of even having a camcorder like this if its not gonna record a semi decent quality?