OT+ Camcorders with Pass-through

Sorry to post this here, but maybe someone can help out.

I'm trying to find which camcorders will take analogue video and audio in and squirt them out via firewire to be turned into avi or mpeg files on a PC.

After a debacle with a JVC thing that had misleading info in the copy of the instruction manual on their website (the refund is pending but I've lost a lot on the postage) and having wasted days looking up this sort of info, it occurs to me that someone here might have such a camcorder and could suggest the model number. There is some urgency as I have 2 second chance offers pending that didn't reach their reserve on ebay. These are JVC GR-DX77 and DX100.

Basically what I'm trying to do initially, and the driving force, is to take in vid and audio from a VHS video and record it straight into a PC. If that works, I have another project for which I'd like to take in the video via the s-video input on the camcorder and audio via the composite input and interleave these within the camcorder then send to the PC. Canons in general seem to have composite, but not s-vid inputs.

I wouldn't be asking here, but JVC support hung up on me today, and say it will take some days to respond to the email I've sent.

Regular readers of my OT questions will be pleased to learn that the sex-bolts aka sleeve nuts are now holding the windows back in on the boat, and that today I've successfully steamed some curved timber in the garden with the help of some scrap tubing fed through the fence from the half built M&S store down the road. In general, life is good.

Reply to
Bill
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You can do this with a card like a Hauppauge PVR 250 or 350, no messing about with camcorders. Also lots of small USB-style things that'll do it, price about £30 from just about anywhere.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

The best results I have had: -

VHS tapes: connect via Dazzle unit thru USB2 straight from your VHS VCR (use rca's only, s-video doesn't work, with a fully wired switchable scart to rca adaptor plugged into the vcr scart output). Use the Pinnacle Instant DVD software supplied with Dazzle to write directly to DVD in Mpeg2 format. This saves having to wtite to the pc and convert from avi, which is very time consuming and the second conversion can lead to audio synch problems.

8mm analogue tapes: I play these through a Sony Camcorder that can read analogue, and output via the firewire port straight onto DVD using Sonic MyDVD software. Again, straight to disc without additional converisons. Works well for me.

Dazzle will not work with the camcorder, audio synch problems.

I also tried Roxio Easy DVD writer which converts to avi first, and it took forever so I gave up.

Reply to
tiscali

In message , tiscali writes

This is sort of exactly what I want to do using a mini-DV camcorder with analogue ins.

I've tried a couple of the interface things similar to the Hauppage, but they have audio going in via the computer soundcard. On my machines at least, this seems to be clocked separately from the usb, so the audio and video drift slightly wrt each other. For my use - critical teaching videos - this isn't accurate enough, so I hope the camcorder will merge audio and video to a common clock. Also I've been told that using a camcorder helps correct the mechanical speed instability of the VHS player, which sometimes results in a bit of 'tearing' at the bottom of the picture. Regurgitate the syncs seems to be what I remember people saying it helps with. I know very little about video, love and lots of other things.

That's why I'm trying to find the model numbers from anyone who has done this.

Reply to
Bill

That's the early win-tv cards, the PVR cards take inputs via composite, RF (analogue aerial), audio in, SVideo etc and output an MPEG-2 stream of a quality and resolution of your choosing. The USB cards are similar. When I've used them to record of video, I've not had drift problems.

It's a hugely complicated and expensive way to do it when nowadays a £30 USB dongle will do the lot, and pick up telly too.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

My Sony 8mm can play both digital and analogue 8mm tapes, so there is no need for passthrough.

The vhs tapes play fine through the Dazzle hardware/usb2 combo, no discernible speed differences or audio synch problems.

try uk.rec.video.digital

Reply to
tiscali

Sony DCR PC104E

works well for me about 2 years old now, quite a few Sony MiniDV cameras of the time did it. Most of the Canons do too. The Sony has a USB out as well- don't use it, the quality is only good for emailing tiny videos. Firewire's the go.

Reply to
Natalie Drest

In message , Natalie Drest writes

Thanks. I've put that on my list of 'definites'. It's a huge list of 1. My 'possibles' number about 35 now.

I now have an offer on a camcorder from someone and am waiting for JVC customer support to answer my email. I've also got a usb2 hardware based video capture device on its way here.

Hopefully one or the other will do something like what I want, and I've now got something I can look out for.

Reply to
Bill

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