Capturing from Sony DCR-TRV320E

[cirbic]

Hi friends,

my father gave to me his old Sony DCR-TRV320E. I wanted a videocamera for recording my son, so I think this camera is OK for me. It uses Hi8/Digital8 tapes. I´m having problems when I try to connect it to my PC. The camera has a ILink connector (4-pins firewire connector). I´ve a Firewire port in my computer (thanks to the SoundBlaster Audigy 2 I´ve installed) but this is 6-pins (Firewire standard). Also I have a laptop with standard firewire connector. I bought a 4-pins firewire/USB Connector cable, chosse the player mode in the camera and pushed Play (the tape started to play) and connected the cable to the PC, but nothing happened. Then, I bought 4-pin firewire/4 pin firewire cable. Still nothing happened. I tried then in my laptop. Nothing happened. But this time Windows XP detected an unknow device. I wrote a message to Sony Support Center, and they answered me that I need a firewire capture card. I thought that if Ihave a firewire connector in my computer it should be just all I need. So now I´m lost. I don´t know what I´m doing wrong. So can anyone help me??

Thanks.


P.D.: excuse me for my english. I´m from Spain.

[The_Doman]

I bought a 4-pins firewire/USB Connector cable, chosse the player mode in the camera and pushed Play (the tape started to play) and connected the cable to the PC, but nothing happened. Then, I bought 4-pin firewire/4 pin firewire cable. Still nothing happened. I tried then in my laptop. Nothing happened. But this time Windows XP detected an unknow device.

I am not sure what you mean with a "4-pins firewire/USB Connector cable"?
If it is a USB to firewire converter it won't work for sure.

Normally that DV camcorder should be detected when connected to a firewire port, i use here a similar DCRTRV120 camcorder on my pc with a 4Pin to 6Pin firewire cable and a (old) pci firewire card
When connected and turned on it shows up on My Computer as a Sony DV Camcorder device

I know there were issues with SP2 not recognizing DV devices.
Check:
My Camcorder has stopped working since installing SP2

One note of advise!
Lot of users report that the firewire chip used in the Sony Camcorders is very fragile.
So it is urgently advised to connect it only when the camcorder and PC are both powered off.

[JohnnyMalaria]

There is a FireWire-USB converter cable that has a built-in DV-to-MPEG1 conversion chip. But it is not very good at all.

If you have access to another camcorder with FireWire, you could connect the two with a 4-pin/4-pin cable and see if they can "see" each other. If not, there is a high chance the FireWire port on your camcorder is dead.

If you haven't already got one, here is a Spanish manual:

http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/3058872231.pdf