help with capturing dv footage from sony handycam

[mtntrogger]

Hello everyone. First post. I really need some help here. I own a sony dcr trv 38 camcorder. I am trying to capture video footage from tapes with my laptop that is running windows 10. The computer wont recognize the camera when I plug it in with the provided usb cord. I attempted to install the driver on windows 10, but it is still not working. I am aware that the drivers are from 2002 and there may be compatibility issues. I am hoping that someone on here knows a way for me to work around this issue. I dont want to buy any new hardware. I have seen that some folks buy a analog converter. There has to be another way. I never had any problems with this when I was using my older desktop and previous laptop. Any input is helpful. Thanks

[aedipuss]

sony dcr usb cables were only for transferring still shots back then and you can't install the driver from back then in win10. you never could transfer video with them anyway. the only way to properly transfer the miniDV tapes is over firewire. you need a computer with a firewire port and a firewire cable. no other way will get the job done properly.

[mtntrogger]

Thank you. I feared that might be the case. Back in the day I custom built a desktop with a special video card that had the firewire connect. I pretty much built that system specifically for editing video. I do still have a external hard drive from that era that has the firewire connection. Idont think it will be possible to utilize that connection to capture the footage though. Really bummed that I got rid of that setup. So my only options now will be to either find a computer with a firewire port or use one of those video converters, which dont look like they would retain the video quality ?

[dellsam34]

There is a way using one of the Pinnacle capture devices such as the 500-USB, This device takes DV data pockets and send them over a USB port, Not only you get 1:1 transfer of your tapes over USB but you can control the camcorder functions within the application like WinDV or ScenalyzerLive, The same device can capture analog sources as well according to the following diagram:

[aedipuss]

if you only have one tape that needs capturing it might be worth the 20 bucks or so to have it done by a video service. or if you have more to buy a firewire card to install in your computer.

[dellsam34]

I don't see how it's possible to install a firewire card on Windows 10 laptop.

[aedipuss]

lol i didn't notice it was a laptop. not any worse than recommending a 15 year old usb device that was designed for windows XP. doubtful it would work with w10...

[dellsam34]

Nope, It works perfectly in Windows 10 using ScenalyzerLive, I have the 500-USB device and I'm transferring a Digital8 tape via firewire right now to the device then from the device to a Win10 laptop using a regular USB cable, I can even control the camcorder functions from the application, See the screen shot: