Capturing via DV passthrough or with S-video capture card?

[JN-]

“You could ask the seller to check that "DV OUT" is shown in the menu (as per dot point 2).”

Perfect. Thanks Alwyn. Thanks for the screenshots also.

I'm waiting for my very first eBay purchase (not this) to come through ok, in a few days. Once thats ok i’ll pursue this purchase in earnest.

[The_Doman]

One last query. Some camcorders had the passthrough disabled in european versions.

Is it likely to be the case with the GS400? Is there a way of checking if that’s the case before purchasing a second hand one.

One last query. Some camcorders had the passthrough disabled in european versions.
Is it likely to be the case with the GS400?

I doubt it. According to the GS 400 manual from Manualslib, it does AV>DV Passthrough (page 61):

Yes , in the Dutch and English manuals (NV-GS400/EB) they also specifically mention the video in/out function of the AV connectors.
I think with the later years/models they also removed the extra importing EU taxes for recording video equipment.

Also interesting in the manuals they mention the USB-MOTION DV function.
This should enable the transfer of the full DV video over USB,
See also:
YT ConsumerDV: How to transfer video from a MiniDV camcorder to a computer via USB
Read the useful comments too about various Panasonic models.

[JN-]

Thanks The_Doman for link to videos re: usb capture etc, great stuff.

Sure enough on page 49 of GS400 manual it mentions transfer via usb. Very interesting. If I am lucky enough to get camcorder with sw disc including the driver and Motion DV Studio I will certainly be curious to see if it can transfer as good as firewire.

[The_Doman]

Thanks The_Doman for link to videos re: usb capture etc, great stuff.

Sure enough on page 49 of GS400 manual it mentions transfer via usb. Very interesting. If I am lucky enough to get camcorder with sw disc including the driver and Motion DV Studio I will certainly be curious to see if it can transfer as good as firewire.

Those drivers will be (too) old i think?
Also this brings up these old threads/discussions again of course.

Indeed, some newer generation models can transfer/stream the full DV stream through the USB.
I have used it too, many years ago.
And some similar discussion then too.

Camcorder output quality USB 2.0 vs DV firewire? OP Update 01/08

Some DV camcorders indeed can transfer the full DV stream through USB, from the specs from that Panasonic it seems possible.
http://panasonic.net/avc/camcorder/dv/global/products/nv-gs320/

USB 2.0 compatibility lets you upload DV data to a PC at high speed over a single USB cable.

The problem is getting the right software to work, most only support DV through firewire.

But you should try the (now free!) ScenalyzerLive
http://www.scenalyzer.com/

I have used that software myself capturing the full DV data through USB from camcorder, it's worth a try.

Try that Scenalyzer and see if it works or not?

[JN-]

Great links, bedtime reading! If/when I do get camcorder I will try out of curiosity because the perceived wisdom was that say DV25 file could/should only be copied from tape to PC via firewire. So the later camcorders must have some extra capability. The YT clip went into that very well.

RE: driver. Agreed. I also have some ancient stuff, booted up last time I tried last year, thought that would be the end of it. I have the Vegas Pro capture SW, sceneanalyzer plus Nero capture.

PC with both Me and XP and firewire ports plus old win 7 laptop with firewire input.

Have firewire card in Win 10 PC.

Reason I kept the old PC and laptop is because of firewire ports.

[The_Doman]

PC with both Me and XP and firewire ports plus old win 7 laptop with firewire input.

Have firewire card in Win 10 PC.

Reason I kept the old PC and laptop is because of firewire ports.

Same here, but I not have my old XP rig in working order anymore, i switched to laptops too.

Another possible option for capturing/recording is to get an older/refurb (business) laptop with firewire.
Often they can be acquired very cheaply, at least here in my (PAL) country The Netherlands.
I have a few Dell Latitude e6410's which work flawlessly capturing from camera/DV converters with ScenalyzerLive and Windows 7/10/11.
It uses the Ricoh OHCI 1394 firewire chipset.
Having a separate PC/laptop for capturing is very convenient without having to use/change your main system.

Also when using firewire i still warn people against the so called "hot-plugging".

And be careful when connecting firewire devices to a PC.
Specially the firewire with Sony camcorders are prone to get damaged when connected to a working PC.
Best to connect everything when powered off.

[JN-]

Just took old Dell XPS 13 2 core out of attic. Battery not charging, not holding date/time after close. It's only a fall back. I use card in Win 10 PC anyway. Thanks for extra info.

[Alwyn]

You do not need MotionDV to do DV over USB with Win 10 and 11. There is a comprehensive speil on this on my website here. Scroll down to the DV over USB section.

[JN-]

That's good news, thanks, and thanks for the link.

[JN-]

Update. Received my 1st. eBay item aok. I queried 3 sellers of GS400 to confirm item is PAL and also the DV menu item in/out.

Received only one reply. Unfortunately it turned out that the Pal GS400 has it disabled.

It's not so much greyed out as I was expecting but no entry (Yes or No) just three dashes like so - - -. Seller kindly supplied a screenshot.

Question. If I purchased an NTSC GS400 and fed it through passthrough with a 25 PAL framerate what would output? Would it be 25 or 29.97 fps.

I am interested in sourcing machine for passthrough, not for actual shooting video. So if output was 25 fps then I could simply purchase an NTSC version.

I assume that all NTSC GS400's had passthrough.

[Alwyn]

Unfortunately it turned out that the Pal GS400 has it disabled.

The GS400 manual I linked to on page 1 is definitely PAL (page 68: TV system), so there must be different PAL models (that one is a GN).

[JN-]

Indeed. The pdf manual I am using is GN.

“Question. If I purchased an NTSC GS400 and fed it through passthrough with a 25 PAL framerate what would output? Would it be 25 or 29.97 fps.”

Any ideas on this?

The list I came across doesn’t have GN, is GN NTSC. Ok its PAL, page 68.

NV-GS400K-K - Japan (black)
NV-GS400K-S - Japan (silver)
NV-GS400EG - Germany
NV-GS400EB - U.K.
NV-GS400GC - Russia
NV-GS400GC-S - Singapore
NV-GS400GD - Korea
NV-GS400B - Britain
NV-GS400E - Italy?
PV-GS400? - Taiwan, N.A.
PV-GS400PP - ?

[Alwyn]

Any ideas on this?

Nah, I was going to hypothesise but decided against it. My opinion though, now you're asking again, is that I doubt it would work. Some PAL VCRs can play NTSC tapes, I don't know if it's also the other way, or if a PAL camcorder can even do that. I doubt you'd be able to go NTSC>PAL. AFAIK, it's more than just frame rate that is different; the frame size, for a start.

[JN-]

Agreed, spéculation only gets you so far.

The only way to know for sure would be to pass a 25 framerate clip to the NTSC camcorder and see what comes out.