Sony DCR-TRV320 firewire capture - segmented files?

[KryptoNyte]

I started capturing Hi8 tapes (from 1992) 10 or 12 years ago and got sidetracked so I stopped. I was originally using a very old version of Premiere Elements 4.0 which, as I recall, was working very well at the time. I recall the captured AVI vids were segmented, with a separate AVI file each time the Sony handycam was originally started and stopped. I may have been using a TVR530 for capture previously but I just don't recall.

As I restarted capturing in past month using WinDV the file segmenting is now solely based on a hard setting in WinDV instead of the handycam users' starting and stopping. Is it possible that older tapes didn't have the auto-segmenting but newer tapes might? Is it based on the TRV320 vs. the TRV530 differences? As everyone does as they start this project, I just want to try and create the best files possible and I kind of liked the auto-segmenting based on recording starts/stops.

Is there better software out there than WinDV today, or a better method than the direct firewire DV transfer?

Any input is much appreciated. Kind regards.

[aedipuss]

in windv's configuration window set the discontinuity threshold to 1 to create separate files, set it to 0 to create one big file.

[KryptoNyte]

Thanks.

After some forum searching, it looks like the answer to my original question (individual files created based on the original starting and stopping of recording) is whether or not the original tape was recorded with a digital or analog camera. Even though I'm using the 320 or the 530 digital cameras for firewire capture today, I see a capital letter 'D' with the number '8' inside it when playing on the viewfinder, which leads me to believe the oldest tapes were created with an analog camera, so the resulting default capture is a single avi file for the entire tape. Does that sound correct (even in Premiere)?

[KryptoNyte]

in windv's configuration window set the discontinuity threshold to 1 to create separate files, set it to 0 to create one big file.

I did confirm with a newer Hi8 tape that setting that to 0 in WinDV will allow the auto-creation of multiple segments based on the original start/stop of the recordings.

[aedipuss]

hi8 and d8 use the same tape but hi8 is analog and d8 is digital. it's been too long for me to recall if analog 8s had time codes recorded.

[KryptoNyte]

Same here, turns out it was 2011 when I started this project. Trying to get my head back into it ...

[dellsam34]

Use SCLive, a better tool.

[KryptoNyte]

Use SCLive, a better tool.

Thanks, Sam. What exactly is it that makes that a better tool?

[Alwyn]

I see a capital letter 'D' with the number '8' inside it when playing on the viewfinder, which leads me to believe the oldest tapes were created with an analog camera

Your tape is a D8 tape and it will have timecodes on it ie it's DV on the big cassette. See my website here: https://www.aaproductions.net/vid8.htm

WinDV is the simplest to use, although Scenalyzer has more features (mainly for editing) and on some systems works when WinDV won't.

I have speils on both here;

https://www.aaproductions.net/windv.htm

https://www.aaproductions.net/scenalyzer.htm

Enjoy!

[johnmeyer]

Use SCLive, a better tool.

+1. I was about to make the same suggestion.

SCLive makes it really easy and obvious as to how your captures will be segmented. You can choose to have a new file created when the file size gets to a certain point (which used to be helpful, but probably is not any more). You can do optical scene detection and segment files when the camera starts and stops, but this is not 100% reliable and I would recommend doing scene detection using AVISynth and then importing the scene markers from that operation.

if you end up capturing Digital8 tapes, you can have the capture start and stop every time the camera started and stopped. However, as was already pointed out, Hi8 is an analog format, so there is no digital timecode for the capture software to use for scene detection.

[KryptoNyte]

Thank you, folks! I will definitely give SCLive a shot.

And thanks for the clarification on Digital8 vs. Hi8, I had that backwards. I'm getting old.