Windows NT and Sony DVCAM DSR-20P video capture

[markpritchett]

Hi
I'm helping an elderly neighbour (80+) to resurrect his video editing equipment.
The PC is Windows NT which he says can capture video from the DSR-20P BUT he doesn't know which software he used to use.

After a bit of research I found references to Sony Vegas, but that's not installed.
He does have Avid4, but he doesn't recall using it to capture video.

The user manual is here: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/162735/Sony-Dsr-20-20p.html

Does anyone know what software might be on the PC, please?

[smrpix]

Any DV editing software can capture DV. So whatever he's used to using may be a good first go-to. Avid 4 is horribly outdated, but if he has the license dongle it should work.

That said, WinDV works perfectly well, or Scenalyzer.

[dellsam34]

If he uses the firewire to connect to computer then as smrpix said, WinDV or ScenalyzerLive. I personally prefer SL, more advanced than WinDV and it was developed further up to HD when the developer decided to pull the plug on the HD option.

[markpritchett]

Thank you smrpix and dellsam34, armed with what you've said I'll stand a chance at finding what he was using.

[markpritchett]

An update ...
We/I couldn't get Avid to work and so I bought and installed a new Firewire Card onto a Windows 10 PC.
I had to load legacy IEEE1394 drivers before they would show up in the Device Manager.
Unfortunately, ScenalyzerLive couldn't access the DSR20P. It didn't show it as an available device.
We've connected a monitor to the DSR and it's producing video and audio output.
The card came with a new cable and we've tried different ports on the card. There's only one, 1394 output on the DSR.

Any more ideas, please?

[aedipuss]

have you checked the firewire card/cable to the computer with a known good DV cam to make sure it works? even though the dsr20p is a professional DVCAM deck it should output DV over firewire. try winDV, it might find the stream even if it can't find the device. with the deck hooked up start winDV, then start playing a tape and see if shows up. if so hit the red record button and it should save the file.

[abolibibelot]

Well if he's adamant that there should be something installed on that computer that used to make the thing work (to say it in Bill Gates idiot proof english, i.e. “the thing that solves the thing” kind of talk), perhaps you could upload screenshots of the things inside the Program Files directory, for someone with keen abandonware expertise to find the damn thing that will do what needs to be done if there's such a thing.

[markpritchett]

@aedipuss Thank you
Some progress thanks to your suggestion about checking with a known good DV cam.
Using ffmpeg on the Windows 10 PC: ffmpeg -list_devices true -f dshow -i dummy
Showed that the DSR-20P wasn't detected.
Using another DSR-20P deck it was found.

We were able to capture video and audio on the Windows 10 PC, with the new capture card and using the trial version of ScenalyzerLive.
So we moved back to the Windows NT machine and found that Avid detected the deck too.
BUT ... it wouldn't capture, it didn't even show up in the preview 'Composer' window.

[markpritchett]

A big thank you to all who've helped

I haven't been able to visit my neighbour due to Covid lockdown until recently.
We can now capture footage from the DSR-20P and my neighbour is getting to grips with DaVinci Resolve, we've stopped using Avid.

[smrpix]

Resolve is excellent software, but it will NOT output DV without re-encoding. (The creaky old Avid will.) If you are doing color correction and other manipulation besides cuts-only editing you will need to reencode and that won't matter. Be aware also that you cannot deinterlace on the free version of Resolve.

[markpritchett]

Thank you for your reply smrpix

I didn't go into the detail in my previous update.
Currently, I am using dvgrab on linux to capture the dv footage and converting it to mp4 using ffmpeg and yadif

ffmpeg -i file.dv -vf yadif file.mp4

I think yadif, (Yet Another DeInterlacing Filter), handles the deinterlace
I'm into software not video technologies, and so I don't know if this is the only choice, or what it implies in terms of quality.

I then take the files to my neighbour for him to use with Resolve.
He's not really done anything with them yet and I get the feeling that I'll need to learn the basics and help him until he's comfortable with doing it himself.