Best way to capture video from mini DV tapes to hard drive?

[nwgal65]

Hello. My old Sony mini DV camcorder was stolen. I want to buy a used one so I can transfer many years of home videos to my hard drive to edit and then burn to DVD. Does the quality of the used camcorder matter here? I assume I need a capture card, and if so, does that quality matter? Any recommendations? Novice here, thanks for any help.

 

[RealBeast]

I had the same issue a few years ago, and despite having loads of computer equipment I found that the easiest solution was to buy a freestanding DVD recorder (or in my case a combo VHS and DVD recorder) that has inputs on the back to attach your video camera. It is a very easy way to get the material in digital. It is pretty easy to edit and manipulate the files once in a digital format.

I think that I got my recorder on clearance at WalMart for under $100.

 

[nwgal65]

I had the same issue a few years ago, and despite having loads of computer equipment I found that the easiest solution was to buy a freestanding DVD recorder (or in my case a combo VHS and DVD recorder) that has inputs on the back to attach your video camera. It is a very easy way to get the material in digital. It is pretty easy to edit and manipulate the files once in a digital format.

I think that I got my recorder on clearance at WalMart for under $100.

 

[nwgal65]

Thank you! I also have old VHS-C tapes. With your setup would I be able to also transfer from VHS to DVD? I imagine so but wanted to ask. I have one of those VHS cassette units where you out the tape in.

 

[RealBeast]

Yes, with the combination VHS/DVD recorder that I have I can record from tape to disk.

Generally, the DVD only recorders that I looked at all had inputs that you could record from another player, such as a VHS player.

My decision was just a matter of buying a unit at the best possible price. This time of year is a good one to look at older technology like DVD and DVD/VHS combo recorders online and in brick and mortar stores like WalMart and Best Buy. Just be sure to look at the inputs to insure that you can record to the DVD from a hand held camcorder. Some of the DVD recorders of the same brand as a hand held have auto record features that control the process with a single button push.

It's been a while since I've seen a VHS-C, but I think that I had a carrier that allowed using the C in the VHS player so I could record onto the DVD. Not sure if those are around anymore though.

 

[nwgal65]

I learned a lot. Thank you. Yes I will need to find one of those adapters for the VHS-C tapes when I get to working on those as that camcorder has long since stopped working.

 

[Paperdoc]

What is proposed above MAY be affected by the "quality of the used camcorder". Your tapes have their data stored as digital info. To use a stand-alone DVD recorder fed by Composite Video and stereo audio, your playback device (the used camcorder) will be converting the digital info back to analog and sending it to the recorder that way. This process also involves using a Composite Video feed between devices, and that is not the best quality, although pretty good.

I have a Sony DV tape camcorder that uses a similar system for recording. It has an IEEE 1394a port (aka Firewire 400) that you can connect to a computer's IEEE 1394a input port IF you have one. Then you can copy the actual DIGITAL data on the tapes directly into your computer's hard drive, with no conversion to analog signal by the camera, and no re-conversion of that back to digital (i.e., analog video capture) at the computer end. This will preserve all the quality of the digital information currently contained in your old tapes. It does not require any special "quality" of the user camcorder - it only requires that it actually can read your old DV tapes and send them out on an IEEE 1394a port. Added bonus: with the driver you would need on your computer to handle the DV camcorder, you can basically control all of the file transfers from your computer - the commands to control the camcorder during the file transfer are sent to it along that same IEEE 1394a cable.

That is how I do transfers of DV files from my Sony DV camcorder to my computer.

 

[RealBeast]

^ +1

Yup, I use firewire from my Sony handheld to the Sony DVD recorder, works great with one touch control.

 

[Paperdoc]

So, RealBeast, your DVD recorder has a Firewire input also, as well as the Composite Video input. Nice design that makes a lot of sense.

 

[RealBeast]

So, RealBeast, your DVD recorder has a Firewire input also, as well as the Composite Video input. Nice design that makes a lot of sense.

Yes, and I got it at Best Buy one day wondering through looking for clearance items, it was like $50. RDR-GX330, has loads of composite and S Video connectors but the iLink (1394) on the front caught my eye.

I only shop Best Buy for clearance items, a couple years ago picked up the last 6 APC UPSs that were too high end for that store, like $450-500 retail range for $80 each. The salesman thought I was nuts when I took them all, but they are now all working away at various customer installs (and I split the savings with them).

 

[Paperdoc]

Very nice piece of equipment.

In my case, using the Firewire port on my desktop, I can simply copy a file from the Sony DV camcorder to a hard drive folder. Or, I can use my video editing software (Cyberlink PowerDirector) to read in the file from that device, edit as needed, then save the result to a hard drive. The advantage, as we both appreciate, is that there is no loss of video quality because we avoid two conversions for DV to analog, capture and conversion back to DV.