Capture From 8mm Camcorder?

BullittMustang · Post by **BullittMustang** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 5:24 pm

Is it possible to capture video from my old Sony 8mm camcorder and make a dvd using the VS10+ software? My computer does have analog inputs,S-video and composite. I have been using a stand alone dvd recorder connected to my tv for this but now that I have VS 10 I was thinking about trying the process on my computer. Thanks for any help.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:14 pm

If your camera has S-video OUT, then connect that to the S-video IN on your computer. Also connect the audio RCA connection (or connections if it is stereo. As you may be aware, S-video gives better quality, but does not carry an audio signal.)

Depending what the card is in your computer, you might be limited in the format in which you can capture from the analogue camera. The best format is DV, but you probably won't be able to set for that. If not, then set it for capture of DVD-compliant mpeg-2. Being an analogue source, you would probably not need to use a bitrate higher than 6000 kbps.

You would need, however, to run your own checks to see if the quality of the video captured this way is better or worse than that captured when you connect the camera to the stand-alone DVD recorder...

BullittMustang · Post by **BullittMustang** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:56 pm

Thanks for the reply. I am having trouble getting my 8mm video to the computer. I open up VS 10 and then click on capture. Then another window pops up right away and says changing field order. It gets to 50% then stops and the VS program stops responding and I have to do a control,alt, delete and end the program. I am able to get the video from my 8mm camcorder to play through a sonic program that came on my computer so I must be doing something wrong with the VS software.
Any help would be great! Thanks

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 9:14 pm

Do you have any idea of what brand/model the capture card in your computer is? I ask because not all cards are created equal. Some will only work with their own software, or at least work better with the software they came with. The Sonic software thus may have been tweaked to work with your card.

It is also very common for people to capture with one program and edit with another. So as a work-around, unless someone comes up with a solution, you could capture with Sonic and then use the Insert Video command to open it in VS10 for editing.

BullittMustang · Post by **BullittMustang** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 9:54 pm

Thanks Ken, It is a Conexant Falcon Video Capture. I can record from the camera with Sonic but it limits the recording to 1 hour at high quality even though I am recording to the hard drive. I think it is limiting this because the software thinks that is all that will fit on a dvd. Also there is a small weird stripe of blurred video along the very bottom of the played back and recorded video. I save it to a folder in my computer and the program only wants to open with the Sonic software. PLease help!

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:05 pm

I did a quick Google search, and from what I can see, the Connexant devices use a chipset which has significant compatibility problems with both other hardware and with particular software. I could not find a reference to Video Studio, but suspect that it may share this incompatibility problem.

Apart from the Sonic software and its limitations, is there any other video-related software on your computer? I am thinking in particular of a program called Winfast PVR2000 which I see works with the Connexant chipset (it also works with Hauppage cards, which have incompatibility problems with VS, as well as with Winfast branded capture cards, which don't appear to have the same incompatibility problems).

Anyway, I used to have the Winfast DV2000 card on my computer, and I used to use PVR2000 to do the capturing, and then open the captured mpeg-2 in VS for editing. It worked well and indeed gave me more capture quality settings than were available in VS for this purpose. It does not capture in DV format, however.

BullittMustang · Post by **BullittMustang** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:21 pm

Thanks Ken, I can capture it with Windows Movie Maker but there is no sound? It still has the blurred stripe along the bottom end I don't know what that is. Thanks

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:46 pm

The blurred strip is typical of analogue captures. It is tiny, and is way outside the overscan area of your TV. In other words, it can be totally ignored as it will not be seen when played back on your TV. I get it all the time and just ignore it.

I don't think Movie Maker is any solution. You will only be able to capture in WMV format, and apart from your current audio problems, you will find that it is a somewhat problematic format for VS to handle. It can be done, but WMV is highly compressed and takes ages for VS to convert to mpeg-2. The latter conversion has to take place if your intention is to burn DVDs. You'll probably also lose quality in the conversion.

Did you search for PVR2000 or is it on one of the CDs which should have come with your computer?

BullittMustang · Post by **BullittMustang** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 11:09 pm

Thanks Ken, I looked, no PVR200 on my system. I guess I'll have to stick with the stand-alone dvd recorder for my old 8mm tapes. I'll use the VS10 software for my new Sony SR100 recordings. I still think I maybe doing something wrong with the VS. I don't have the 8mm camcorder connected and if I click on capture the software freezes after the changing field window pops up. I don't know why that window pops up right away anyway! Also at the top under tools there is a change capture plug-in option. Does that have anything to do with it? Or does it just freeze because it doesn't work with the Conexant Falcon Capture?
Thanks

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 11:40 am

Regarding your Conexant Falcon please view
http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=14874

JustOneOfMany · Post by **JustOneOfMany** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 3:57 pm

Hi BullittMustang,

Maybe relevant or not ? But do you have NTFS file system or Fat32 setup. If it is Fat32 you may encounter some problems while capturing more than 4 GIG of video. There is no information about your hardware set up.

Just trying to be helpfull.

Pierre

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 4:36 pm