Sony HVR - M15E miniDV player/recorder - interface

[FunkyLondoner]

Hello all
I'm new to the group, can I ask, where should I post my question? Thanks in advance.


Does anyone have experience in using a Sony HVR-M15e, player/recorder to capture old miniDV HD video tapes.
Via a firewire connection to my PC.

Q. How can I use this unit as a digital interface to my PC? As I wish to plug in to the Sony HVR an old VHS player via the Sonys analog phono Inputs, so I can transfer video directly to my pc.

Any guidance would be much appreciated.
Thanks all.

[Alwyn]

Won't need my magnifying glasses now.
Front:

[Attachment 72470 - Click to enlarge]

Back:

[Attachment 72471 - Click to enlarge]

Judging by the ebay prices, that must be some piece of kit.

I'll have a stab and suggest:

-Connect it to your PC with a Firewire cable

-Connect your VCR using the red+white (for audio) and S-Video (if your VCR has it) otherwise Yellow Composite video to the IN sockets.

- On the front, put the Input Select on "Video" unless you have connected your VCR with S-video, in which case select "S-Video".

- On the front, select Display Output to OFF.

-HDV and DV require different capture programs. Try setting DV first; I can't see a switch for that on the panel, so I think it must be in the Menu (button) somewhere. Manual on the 'net somewhere? Here you go: 80 pages. Go for it!

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/158640/Sony-Hvr-M15e.html

-If capturing DV, I recommend Scenalyzer. I have written a guide for that here.

Whether it will actually pass-through a VCR signal remains to be seen.

[FunkyLondoner]

Hello Alwyn

The Sony Unit, yes there a little hard to come by, but as I have a lot of old miniDV tapes to transfer.
I'd thought best to source a good bit of kit to do the job.

Thank you for guide. That sounds a plan.
I'll be giving this a go later.

G.

[dellsam34]

I have the multi system unit, HVR-M15AU with 6 pin firewire but I haven't used it for such task, mainly transferring DV, DVCAM and HDV mini and full size cassettes for both PAL and NTSC, You can use it for VHS as passthrough like any miniDV camcorder, The quality will be limited to lossy DV though, Just follow the manual instructions. You will be better off with using component out and use a component capture device.

[FunkyLondoner]

Thank you. Yes, My other research into this seems to point to Component capture.

P. S could you recommend a product.
Thanks again.

G.

[dellsam34]

There are few FPGA capture devices but are expensive and hard to find, But Black Magic has few component capture devices internal and external ones, The famous one being the Intensity Shuttle USB3 or thunderbolt depends on your OS. Not sure how the HVR-M15E handles VHS signal from a low budget VCR in case that's all what you have.

[FunkyLondoner]

Thank you for the recommendations.
I shall read up them.
Much appreciated.

G.