I'm trying to get videos from my computer onto hi8 tape (using a hi8 camcorder as a VCR) (and VHS as well) at the highest quality possible using affordable consumer-grade equipment. Using a mini DV camcorder (Canon ZR60) that accepts a DV (firewire/iLINK) input that can convert it to an analog (S-video) output is about the highest quality and most accurate way I can achieve that. (I'm doing this because I'm a bit of a nerd and like to see just how much quality I can get out of an analog tape.)

Before I go any further, I should clarify: I do not have any problems digitizing analog video. Everything works how it's supposed to in that regard, with basically zero hiccups- it's the other way around that I'm about ready to pull my hair out over.

I have used WinDV for outputting short videos via firewire to the camcorder as a D/A converter and it works perfectly. However, for larger videos (above 2 gigabytes in size,) the only way to get video over firewire working is with the Enosoft DV Processor. However, it's ONLY video- audio does not work for some reason. Additionally, that's with files I convert to .dv or .avi using either FFMPEG in a WSL command line or with ffmpegX- larger .avi files (~2.6GB) that I recorded from a mini DV camcorder using WinDV output perfectly fine with the audio. I have a feeling it could have something to do with how FFMPEG places the audio within the file which results in the DV Processor not being able to output it. I checked the codecs of the files a bajillion times, and they all use the same proper 25mb/s DV video codec and stereo unsigned 16-bit 48KHz PCM audio, and all the .avi files are type 2. I also tried Video2DV, which worked for some time but now just refuses to work and shouts at me about some sort of "rendering error" even if I give it video files that it worked with before.

The Enosoft DV Processor is a very finicky piece of software- the only way I can get it to work without freezing is if I set everything up, start playing the input file, and ONLY IF the audio works on the preview (when it's enabled, sometimes it doesn't work) I can click "pause" on the process control to connect it to the camcorder, and even then it freezes up half the time. And when it does work, the first second or two of video output from the camcorder gets cut off because it needs time to sync up or something (and I don't think WinDV or Video2DV have that problem, can't remember which.) Hopefully someone can help me figure out what the heck is going wrong. Worst case scenario I'll have to look into programming my own DV output app.