Topic: Recommendations on transfer of analog video to pc

[Myco]

Can anyone recommend the best/easiest way to transfer video from an old Sony Handycam with the analog RCA outputs to a pc? I have firewire and usb connections, but short of installing a new card with converting capabilities, is there a reliable, fairly cheap way to get this into my pc? Thanks!

[rastasean]

well I have a recommendation that you may have thought about and it may NOT be the best/fastest/easiest way.

So do you already have a camera with firewire? Maybe you do. hook RCA camera up to it and put a blank tape into the firewire camera. once on that tape, play it to your computer and capture it.

There are USB RCA/s-video units available. I bought one when it was way too expensive and I could lend it to you if you don't find any other way.


this is the device I have:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/493527-REG/ADS_Technologies_USBAV_192_EF_Video_Xpress_USB_Video.html

[firmdragon]

8mm or vhs-c?

[Myco]

well I have a recommendation that you may have thought about and it may NOT be the best/fastest/easiest way.

So do you already have a camera with firewire? Maybe you do. hook RCA camera up to it and put a blank tape into the firewire camera. once on that tape, play it to your computer and capture it.

There are USB RCA/s-video units available. I bought one when it was way too expensive and I could lend it to you if you don't find any other way.


this is the device I have:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/493527-REG/ADS_Technologies_USBAV_192_EF_Video_Xpress_USB_Video.html

Thank you very much for your kind offer. Should I end up going this way, and your offer is still open, I may take you up on it.

[Myco]

8mm or vhs-c?

I believe they are the 8mm cassettes. I bought the camera back around 1996 for my daughters birth. I have all these little cassettes, and the Sony recorder only has the black, white, and yellow RCA analog outputs to plug into say a VCR. Rather than dig out my old VCR and a tape I'd rather just be able to play the cassettes back in the recorder and run it through an appropriate digital converter and just capture it on my pc.

Thanks for your feedback everyone.

[chicofishhead]

If they are 8mm or Hi8, the best thing to do is find a Digital8 camera which will play them back.  It digitizes in-cam and outputs through the firewire.  However, not all Digital8 cameras are reverse compatible, which I found out the hard way.
Since my original Digital8 started eating tapes and my replacement doesn't play Hi8s I have been running them out the audio RCAs and video-S of a Hi8 cam through my PD170 which digitizes and outputs through firewire.

[Myco]

If they are 8mm or Hi8, the best thing to do is find a Digital8 camera which will play them back.  It digitizes in-cam and outputs through the firewire.  However, not all Digital8 cameras are reverse compatible, which I found out the hard way.
Since my original Digital8 started eating tapes and my replacement doesn't play Hi8s I have been running them out the audio RCAs and video-S of a Hi8 cam through my PD170 which digitizes and outputs through firewire.

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of myself. I do have a newer Sony Handicam that is digital, but I wasn't completely comfortable that it was backward compatible and these are family tapes that can't be replaced, that's why my preference is to play them back in the original camcorder and take the analog output and work with that.