Any idea how to download video from an alalogue camcorder to a laptop pc?

Question

i have a sony DCR TRV320 cacorder and a pc with Vista

Answer 1

no

Answer 2

Hai,

The Good news is that it is possible to get your analog video to your PC.

The Bad news is that it is now as straight forward as you might think.

SONY DCR-TRV320 is a great camcorder. I am a proud owner of one. But sorry to point out that TRV-320 is a DIGITAL camera (Digital 8). But it could play and record an analog Video(HI-8 or 8mm). It has a composite video output that you could connect to your TV to view the video.It came with an A/V Cable. It also have a S-VIDEO port and the MOST IMPORTANT it has an iLINK port or DV (Digital Video) port ( Also known as IEEE-1394 or FIREWIRE) which could be a great asset to you.

Your PC will have either USB/DV (or FireWire). If it has a FireWire(IEEE-1394) then everything is just fine. But let assume that your PC does not come with one.

Now you need to build (buy) the bridge to connect these two device. (Based on the assumption that your PC doesn't have a FireWire port) The second best option is to get an USB Video Grabber Device that make use of your USB port ( www.compusb.com/grxusb20vigr.html ) . If your PC does not have an IEEE-1394 port, you could add one by installing a PCMCIA Card.

Next get the correct cable. If your PC has a Firewire device, then get the correct cable (4 pin to 4 pin / 4 pin to 6 pin ). Or using your camcoder A/V cable to connect to the USB Video Capture Device.

The last hurdle is the software. There are free version of the software. Since you are using Vista, it came free with MovieMaker software. You could also use ULEAD VideoStudio (ver.11.5) or other software that able to capture from video.

There are various technical aspect such as video quality difference using DV (IEEE-1394) vs Analog Video Capture or TimeCode availibility during your capturing and editing.

I hope that the info is sufficient to help you.

Best Regards.

HASLAN ROS