Several questions about "pass through" and Sony/Canon camcorders

[tadd5181]

I have old Hi 8 tapes but no longer a camcorder which plays them. Are there camcorders which, when playing a Hi 8 tape, convert Hi 8 analog tapes to digital if I connect the camcorder to an iMac? Is that called "pass through". If so, I can buy several Sony camcorders and wonder if any of these listed (below) Sony Camcorders have "pass through". They are:
TR 950
TRV 138
TRV 350
TRV 840

Is there any Canon camcorder that does "pass through"

Or am I all screwed up about "pass through" and converting analog to digital?

[aedipuss]

pass through refers to an analog video-in port on a camera that will send out a digital video over firewire. check those models for firewire. the one i'm familiar with is the trv840 which has that feature.

[tadd5181]

someone must know which Canon and Sony camcorders play Hi8 tapes...anyone?

[edDV]

someone must know which Canon and Sony camcorders play Hi8 tapes...anyone?

Google has the information. This is a difficult search. I may help you later if you send all details.

Start with which camcorder you are talking about. Make/Model.

[tadd5181]

what about the Sony TRV 138 and Sony TRV 350?

[jpt85]

All the answers you wanted to know about every Sony non-HD camcorder ever made is in this thread:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/t48170.html

[edDV]

what about the Sony TRV 138 and Sony TRV 350?

You need to google the specs of each camcorder. I once found a spreadsheet but can't find it now.

[davexnet]

Here's a spreadsheet:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/attachment.php?attachmentid=758

[danno78]

TR 950 and TRV138 are Hi8 camcorders. These will play Hi8 tape but don`t convert them in to digital form. If you use one of these you need a device (TV Tuner, capture card, Canopus boxes) that will accept analog input and convert in to digital signal.
TRV 350 and TRV 840 are Digital8 camcorders that have support for analogue 8mm tapes. Both have pass-through feature wich can convert external signal from external sources like VCR, send over composite or S-Video. Both camcorders will play and transform in the same time Video8 and Hi8 tapes in to DV signal send over firewire port.
TRV 350 and TRV 840 are good for you. You also need a firewire port on the motherbord or as PCI/PCIe adapter to connect the camcorder at PC. As a software I recommend DVIO or WinDV.

[zoobie]

I think the first question would be...how many hi8 tapes? It may not be worth buying a cam but rather dropping them off at a lab to be converted to an digital format that can then be edited.

[fishywishy]

i bought a sony dcr-trv120 which plays video 8, hi 8 an digital 8 tapes. works perfectly. i tried to sell it on ebay with no luck. ill relist it if youd like

[edDV]

i bought a sony dcr-trv120 which plays video 8, hi 8 an digital 8 tapes. works perfectly. i tried to sell it on ebay with no luck. ill relist it if youd like

So does my dcr-trv103 but Sony later deleted analog playback except for more expensive models.

You need to be model specific.

The counter is early models didn't allow "analog pass through".

Later models than either didn't support analog playback or analog pass thru.

ebay reflects market used price levels.

[tadd5181]

The happy ending to my saga of converting Hi8 tapes: I borrowed a Sony camcorder (TR940) and I had my own Sony (PC100). Through countless trials and errors and reading the PC100's manual, I got the tapes from the aTR940 to the PC100. The PC100 had a quirk that only its manual solved for me: pushing two buttons at once plus setting the "menu" to "etc". Once that was solved, the tapes played into the PC100 digitially...onto mini DV tapes. Then I found that my iMac (OS X 10.6.3) read the material into iMovie just fine.

Pogue's excellent manual ("Movie 09 & iDVD" pp. 44-47) sets out the various methods but the PC 100's quirks threw me for a while. So I guess I by-passed the "pass-through" enigma.

[INFRATOM]

Many years ago I bought a Sony DCR-TRV 350 to revive my 8 and Hi8 tapes. It was the last generation / cheapest model that played all the Hi8 and older tapes and also has a pass through that eg a VCR output could be connected to it and output in digital through a firewire. It can be seen and controlled by most editing software. The pixela software that came with was useless and could not make the USB to work. USB on it is USB1 and useless. Only use the firewire. I have tested it by connecting a TV output and captured through firewire and worked well. For what it is/was did everything accordingly.

[wheatspark]

To me it seems that it was unnecessary to copy the Hi8 tapes to mini-dv and that it should have been possible to play them on the TRV 940 and capture them directly through firewire to your iMac (unless you also wanted backup mini-dv copies). I bought a TRV 840 Dig 8 for this but haven't tried it yet.
I just started a thread asking for advice about using the pass-through feature on the Sony 840 to hook up a Sony U-Matic 3/4" video deck and capture to a Mac, and how the Sony's converter would compare to a Canopus stand alone converter.

[fishywishy]

To me it seems that it was unnecessary to copy the Hi8 tapes to mini-dv and that it should have been possible to play them on the TRV 940 and capture them directly through firewire to your iMac (unless you also wanted backup mini-dv copies). I bought a TRV 840 Dig 8 for this but haven't tried it yet.
I just started a thread asking for advice about using the pass-through feature on the Sony 840 to hook up a Sony U-Matic 3/4" video deck and capture to a Mac, and how the Sony's converter would compare to a Canopus stand alone converter.

"pass through" is when you use a digital camcorder with av input and firewire output as a medium between the camcorder you used to record the video, and the computer you what to footage to go to

then theres also sony digital8 cams that can play video8 and hi8 tapes and convert them to digital video when you play them over the firewire to the computer