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:

[wim v]

thanks, to your all,
this was really helpful.
especially the pinnacle 500 solution.
pci-card an older pc was as wel an good option.
found a pinnacle 500 for around 60 pound in the US.
delivery middle of oktober.
by the way; saw, there was one more item for sale left on the ebay US site.
wonderful, it made my day.
greetings:
wim.

[boytroy88]

I know this thread is kind of old but was wondering if anyone knows whether the Pinnacle Systems Liquid Edition Pro Movie Breakout Box would work in place of the Pinnacle 500-usb in the setup using the ScenalyzerLive software?

[sandra39dog]

Will the pinnacle 500 USB work with windows 10. I have tried to download the ScenalyzerLive software but my pc is telling me there is malware on the link? Can anyone confirm it is safe to download?

thanks for any replies @dellsam34

[dellsam34]

No Sclive is not a malware, Anything you download from this forum is safe unless you are using external links.

[sandra39dog]

Thank you, finally managed to download it a got hold of a brand new pinnacle studio for £10.00. On the Scenalyser it says that I have downloaded a trial copy and will need a key, I have found it, now to try it all out tomorrow, wish me luck

[suelaine]

I got one of these Pinnacle Movie Boxes off ebay. I find that I didn't even really need it since I have a Panasonic GS-PV500 mini dv camcorder which will allow transfer of dv footage by usb. The movie box also works fine! For all of you out there needing to still work with mini dv tapes, I recommend getting the Movie Box but make sure it is an older one that actually has the firewire port. I got lucky as even though mine came in an "open box" as used, I don't think it had ever been used before at all, as the cords were in sealed bags and it had film over parts of it.
It worked fine with my Windows 10 desktop after installing the software (which all came with mine, like I said, looked like new) but curiosity gets the better of me so I wanted to see if it would work with my Windows 11 Laptop. The answer is not that easily! You can disable Core Isolation Memory Integrity to get it to work. If you REALLY need this to work with a Windows 11 laptop/pc, what I would do (and did do) is create a restore point before installing the software/drivers. Then go ahead and disable Core Isolation Memory Integrity. You could also disconnect from the Internet if you are worried about this. Do what you need to with capturing the tapes, and when done, use the restore point to put everything back to normal.

[Garyboy]

Did everything suggested (got Pinnacle 500 USB, downloaded ScenalyzerLive) but though the Pinnacle 500 shows up in the Device Manager I get error code 52 about my Pinnacle 500 driver (mesasge says Driver signature error, file is either corrupt or contains malware). Tried reinstalling from Windows (get message that most up to date driver in Windows installed) and going to Pinnacle website for other drivers (500 no longer supported; tried downloading anything I could) and, when that didn't work, going back to Windows and reinstalling their drivers. Without the Pinnacle 500 working my Sony DCR-TRV38 doesn't show up as a camera on the ScenalyzerLive. Any suggestions about how to get a driver for the Pinnacle 500 USB that will work with Windows 10? Have tried Driver updater programs but they don't help.
Thank you.

[dellsam34]

Windows 10 and newer is a hit and miss unfortunately, Find someone familiar with drivers to try to force the Pinnacle driver without letting Windows interfere in the process.

[Garyboy]

Yes, my device manager indicates the drivers for the Pinnacle Systems USB and Pinnacle Marvin Bus 64 are there but it can't verify the digital signature for the device so won't use them. If anyone knows how to bypass this block in Windows 10 it would be a great help please!

Update:
Went on internet and found out how to disable signature checks in Advanced Restore. This worked and now Pinnacle 00 USB shows up as a device and can use the ScenanalyzerLive software to control the camera. About to try capturing to external hard drive now. If it works I will have a useful video camera again (though now phones can do this). just have to remember to restore signature checks when done so I am protected in the future. Thank you for suggestion dellsam34

March update: System as described works fine. Have Windows 10 64 bit OS (even though a later post says Pinnacle 500 only works with 32 bit), Pinnacle 500 (works with Firewire from Sony DCR TRV38) and ScenanalyzerLive software) on an Acer Aspire laptop with 12 GB RAM and early i5 chip (not compatible with Windows 11). Just had to disable signature checks for drivers through Advanced Restore on computer (method found via internet search). I did check my device manager which indicated that the drivers for Pinnacle Systems USB and Pinnacle Marvin Bus 64 were there but not working due to signature check failure. I did download these from the Pinnacle website even though it indicated they were only good for up through Windows 7. Signature checks is restored on rebooting computer so don't have to worry about this. Only have to remember to turn signature checks off when you want to capture from video camera. Hope this is helpful to others with problems. Thanks to earlier suggestions which got me to this point.

[Videogamer555]

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:

That's actually very interesting. The old Pinnacle capture devices would have used ancient 32bit Windows XP drivers that couldn't possibly be installed in 64bit Windows 10. How did you get it working? Or are you one of the few people out there who actually have a 32bit version of Windows 10, and managed to get the old 32bit XP drivers running on your Win10 32bit OS?

[Alwyn]

64 bit Pinnacle drivers here:

https://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFiles/Hardware_Installer/readmeHW10.htm?utm_source=...0f005a0a1c0e10

Note my comment elsewhere that I can't get analogue capture to work with my 710-USB but the DV transfer via USB works fine (Win 11 64 bit). On an earlier version of Win 10 64bit, the analogue capture also worked fine using those Pinnacle drivers.

[Videogamer555]

64 bit Pinnacle drivers here:

https://cdn.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFiles/Hardware_Installer/readmeHW10.htm?utm_source=...0f005a0a1c0e10

Note my comment elsewhere that I can't get analogue capture to work with my 710-USB but the DV transfer via USB works fine (Win 11 64 bit). On an earlier version of Win 10 64bit, the analogue capture also worked fine using those Pinnacle drivers.

Thanks for that info. I thought drivers all needed to be re-signed (due to stricter driver signature enforcement in the Windows 10 OS) for them to work in Windows 10, so ones designed for Windows 7 wouldn't even work with Windows 10. Did you have to do something hacky like disabling driver signature enforcement (or downloading MS Visual studio and using its test-signing app with your own developer digital certificate to sign the driver) and disabling secure boot on your PC to get these drivers to work?

Or did they just work out of the box?

[Alwyn]

Did you have to do something hacky like disabling driver signature enforcement

No I didn't, and that maybe why the analogue capture no longer works. I wasn't even aware of that disabling technique until recently and haven't got around to trying it as my other capture gadgets are fully functional. It certainly sounds plausible though.

[Videogamer555]

Did you have to do something hacky like disabling driver signature enforcement

No I didn't, and that maybe why the analogue capture no longer works. I wasn't even aware of that disabling technique until recently and haven't got around to trying it as my other capture gadgets are fully functional. It certainly sounds plausible though.

You said the problem only was when you went to Win11 as you didn't have it in Win10. I've had serious problems with that too (drivers that should work in Win 10 or 11, but don't work on Win 11 due to some extra driver protections it adds). Fortunately I found a solution in my case (installing an older digital TV receiver dongle). Not sure if this is the exact cause of your problem, but take a look over at my post here asking for help to get a driver to work correctly (it installed but Windows refused to use it as the driver for a device when the device was plugged in).
https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/comments/1az9zrd/

And read this reply someone gave me (and my followup reply to that one) for the solution that ended up working to get that driver running properly for me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/comments/1az9zrd/comment/ks70oi6/

[Videogamer555]

The most recent driver of theirs for capturing video via their USB 2.0 devices, supports the following devices:
Pinnacle MovieBox Deluxe
Pinnacle 700-USB
Pinnacle 500-USB
Pinnacle MovieBox Plus (710-USB)
Pinnacle MovieBox (510-USB)

Of the these 5 Pinnacle video capture USB devices, which ones support Firewire? It wouldn't do any good to buy one that only supported analog video capture. And of the ones that support Firewire, which one drops the fewest frames during capture? Also, which ones actually work in Windows 10 (or 11)? Even if the driver can be installed in Windows 10 or 11, that doesn't necessarily mean the devices that the driver is supposed to work with will all work in such modern Windows versions. The Pinnacle webpage with driver download only mentions versions of Windows up through Windows 7.

And what software would you use for DV Firewire capture with these Pinnacle capture devices? Does Pinnacle's own capture software work, or would Pinnacle's capture software not work on modern version's of Windows? Is there other capture software that works with these capture devices? Or do these devices only work with Pinnacle's capture software?

[Alwyn]

I bit the bullet and tried that driver you linked to on your other topic: same result, no go, still can't select S-Video or Composite, the 710-USB was dead for Analogue Capture with AmarecTV. I didn't try the DV over USB because I know that works with the Pinnacle driver.

Of the these 5 Pinnacle video capture USB devices, which ones support Firewire? It wouldn't do any good to buy one that only supported analog video capture.

If it has a Firewire/DV socket on it, I would imagine it will support DV over USB. My 710 has a 6-pin FW/DV socket.

And of the ones that support Firewire, which one drops the fewest frames during capture?

They won't drop frames; it's a Firewire "transfer" (using Pinnacle magic, of course. ).

Also, which ones actually work in Windows 10 (or 11)?

As per my website, I have the 710-USB Rev 1 doing DV over USB OK, Win 11 64bit. @Dellsam34 had the 500-USB working under Win 10 back in 202: see post #8 above. It looks like the driver for those 5 boxes is the same, so once again, I surmise they will all work with Win 11 64 as my 710-USB does.

And what software would you use for DV Firewire capture with these Pinnacle capture devices?

Normal DV transfer software: WinDV or Scenalyzer. I have recently found WinDV flakey, so use Scenalyzer. Guides on my site.

Is there other capture software that works with these capture devices? Or do these devices only work with Pinnacle's capture software?

Good question, 1/see answer above. 2/Given that the analogue capture side doesn't work with AmarecTV (my analogue capture favourite) I surmise that the Pinnacle software won't either, but you never know.

By "capture software", do you mean a dedicated Pinnacle Capture program or the Pinnacle video editor? I am not familiar with either.

If you're handy with computers and you have a desktop with a spare PCIe slot, probably the cheapest and easiest option is to buy a cheap Firewire card from Amazon. Make sure it has the VIA chipset. This this the one I have.