Very New to VideoStudio

[detectingdavid]

My VideoCapture device arrived but still no joy even following lata's instructions.

I set the camcorder to play and left it running:

1) I have tried just a mini USB to USB
Capture Video option
- I get the error no video capture driver is installed or no device is connected.
DV Quick Scan
- The Quick Scan option box opens but no options are available (first attachment)

2) I have tried connecting to the the A/V port on the camcorder and running it through a AV2HDMI mini box, taking the A/V cable via the RCA (Yellow/Red/White) connectors to HMDI output, I then connected the VideoCapture and then to USB on my PC
DV Quick Scan
- The Quick Scan option box opens but no options are available (first attachment)
Capture Video option
- I can click on the Capture Video and it starts recording but I have no preview and when I stop the saved video is blank (2nd attachment)

The cable connection setup up photo is also below.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong

[detectingdavid]

Sorry, I forget to reply on the Format option question; this shows MPEG2 HD but I cannot change it, this is the only option on the dropdown.

Mini DV Tapes are normally transferred to the pc using Firewire, Transferred in that they are not recoded so what you get is the same as on the tape, DV.Avi
I guess computers nowadays do not have Firewire aka IEEE

As you are connecting via USB you should be able to transfer as the USB speeds have improved over the years especially if you have USB3.

From the capture tab Capture Video there is a Format option, probably showing DVD, are you able to select DV (Digital Video)

I have not transferred DV for a long time and certainly not using 2023, If you are still having problems I will dig out the old camcorder to see how it performs with 2023

[lata]

Hi
Do you have the software that came with the camcorder
A program called PlayMemories Home
I found a download here, maybe worth a try

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/supp ... /downloads

[Vdanny]

Hi David,
Your Sony camcorder only has a USB 1.0 port so will only transfer at that speed regardless of the USB ports on your computer. This is too slow to transfer DV video content fron tape. The Elgato video cature device I mentioned came with capture software. Did the unit you purchased have anything or a location you could download a capture utility from?

[Ken Berry]

Did the capture device come with any software? Often you would need to use that software to download the video as files on your computer, then open and edit those video files with VideoStudio.

[Vdanny]

Hi David,
I can see from your picture that you have connected a composite video to HDMi converter and you will capture the video as you would a live stream. You can most likely use the freeware OBS Studio software to accomplish this. Then, as Ken mentioned, you can import the capture into Videostudio. My guess is this setup will not produce the best video reproduction but perhaps it will be a pleasant surprise. This unit is most often used to connect old game systems or DVD players to modern TVs without analogue video inputs.

[RobertOZ]

Have located my Canon MVX330i Mini DV camera, (purchased 2005), spare batteries, cables, even located the IEEE 1394 transfer cable
Next is to charge the batteries and check if they can still hold the charge, then replace the Lithium battery in the camera.
Turn it on and check that everything is still working, especially forward and reverse (reverse seems to fail first)
If all good, then purchase and install DV card, looking forward to resurrecting this 18 year old camera

Edit
After some 10 years or more in mothballs, camera appears to be fully functional, everything seems to work, playback in camera looks good. Will now order a Firewire 400 PCI Express IEEE 1394a card, cost is AU$35. Card ordered, should take 3/4 days, ended up costing AU$40.29 including freight and GST

[Vdanny]

Hi Trevor,
It is cool that the USB streaming works with your Panasonic GS400. I remember when that 3 chip camcorder came out and I was filled with avarice. How was the streaming quality vs Firewire capture? I didn't think Sony released any miniDV camcorders with that capability but David's does have this but drivers compatible with modern computers seem to be dire. Hopefully the link to the Sony PlayMemories Home software you provided will have what he needs. I apologize if I steered anyone in the wrong direction.

edit: I found the driver for XP and the fact that you have to enable USB streaming in the camcorder menu. The Sony site states "The USB Streaming feature is not supported with the Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems.",so I imagine 10 and 11 are out. I have now seen a few examples of the quality you can expect from this and it is not very good. The videos show a lot of compression artifacts and less that perfect motion. I think Firewire or analogue video capture is your best option if you want quality results.

[Ken Berry]

detectingdavid -- a thought just occurred to me... Long ago when DV was relatively popular, we used to tell people having trouble with earlier versions of VS and DV capture, to use a small free third-party program called WinDV to capture their video. Just the other day I happened to come across a reference to WinDV and found it was still available at http://windv.mourek.cz/ It says there that development of it has been discontinued, but it still works. So you might want to download that and see if your can get it to work with your setup.

But using any capture software which came with your capture device would still be my first choice...

[lata]

Hi
I don’t think you have steered anyone in the wrong direction, its just different ideas as to how David can transfer the DV-avi footage.
I must be fortunate that the GS400 can transfer using USB, video studio can check for dropped frames, there are none, not one frame is dropped, to be expected as there is no transcoding going on just a transfer of data.
The files look as good as firewire transfer.
The GS400 software also has pass-through capability, AV to DV converter maybe its that which helps with USB transfer.

Hopefully the Sony software will help.

As for the connection from camcorder to pc
1 / A/V to Mini device - hdmi to pc,
Or is it
2/ A/V to Mini device – hdmi to usb to pc

[Vdanny]

Hi Ken,
WinDV is great and still works but requires Firewire. VirtualDub might work with his current setup.

[Vdanny]

Hi Trevor,
Thanks for your reply. I think the GS400 seems to be outputting quality video wheras the Sony seems to be doing severe mpeg compression in-camera before the stream goes out.

[Vdanny]

Hi,
I think the worst thing about transferring from miniDV tapes was the reality that the capture had to happen in real time. I doubled my capture capability by adding a VHS/DVD recorder to the mix. The unit (JVC DRMV5S) even has a Firewire port that I can use to attach to my camcorder. I can then use the VCR remote to control the camera when connected. If I wish to edit the video further, I can access the files on the recorded DVD using Videostudio.

[lata]

Upps, thats a typo,, sorry about that, I'll update the post, embarassing

[RobertOZ]

In addition to Ken's post above about WinDV, back in the day when we all had Mini DV cameras, a very popular capture program which we used was SceneanlyzerLive, it is still available today as a free download http://www.scenalyzer.com/, have just installed it in Win 10