DCR-TRV350 to PC

connorhawke

What’s the best method to convert 8mm/Video8/Hi8 tapes played on this Digital8 camcorder to digital files on a PC? This cam doesn’t have AV ports and anyway apparently S-Video or FireWire preserve quality better. I have an EasyCAP DC60 and this cam also came with a FireWire (IEEE 1394) cable. The PCs I currently have with me don’t have S-Video or FireWire ports and I don’t currently have an S-Video cable so in either case I’ll need to obtain additional materials: 1) an S-Video cable to connect between the cam and EasyCAP DC60, and/or 2) a FireWire-to-USB device; in either case assuming I don’t use a PC with S-Video or FireWire ports built in. From what I read FireWire yields better quality than S-Video; would that make a difference with the analog tapes given the cam is digital? And will FireWire-to-USB work the same as a PC with a FireWire port or will there be issues? Or is there another method entirely I should use; this cam also came with a MiniUSB-to-USB cable? I plan to do this once, once and right, so I’ll (reasonably) invest in or find what I need for the optimal result. So which option would you recommend?

TLDR:
Which of these would have the best conversion result (assuming the cam is a DCR-TRV350 and will be playing analog tapes), and would 1=2 and 3=4 in conversion quality?
1. cam -> S-Video -> EasyCAP DC60 -> PC
2. cam -> S-Video -> PC with S-Video port
3. cam -> FireWire -> FireWire-to-USB -> PC
4. cam -> FireWire -> PC with FireWire port
5. another method; e.g. MiniUSB-to-USB
And for your selection what capture/additional software/drivers would you recommend (currently have OBS, EasyCapViewer).

Finally, in addition to the crucial question above, I’m wondering how much space a converted file would use if it’s between 1-2h. Would definitely prefer indistinguishable quality over lossless if the latter is anywhere close to 7GB/min as OBS claims.

MarkE19

Firewire from the camcorder to PC with a firewire port is your best option. Firewire to USB does not work in a simple cable, you need hardware conversion to use this route and there is likely to be a fair drop in quality as the likes of an EasyCap compress the video into MPEG-2 (DVD quality).
Using S-Video is going analogue to the EasyCAP. The EasyCAP then converts it to digital (also compressing in real time to MPEG-2). Any A>D or D>A conversion is likely to introduce quality loss, especially on a low cost unit such as these, plus the real time compression is of a lower quality than what is possible doing the compression on a PC running at it's own speed.
As S-Video is an analogue connection it is unlikely that any PC would have this as an input - unless it had an internal card similar to an EasyCAP. Although this could be a better quality conversion than the USB devices it is still not going to be as good as a firewire capture direct from the TRV350.

Does the TRV350 play the  older analogue tapes? I have a UK list of Digital8 camcorders and the 350 is not on the list, but I know other countries had different model numbers.

For around $10 you should be able to get a firewire card for a desktop computer. Windows has all the required drivers built in so no additional software or drivers are required, other than your capture & editing software of choice.

Video capture via firewire is compressed in the camcorder at 5:1 and once on the computer will eat up disk space at approx 13Gb per hour of .AVI footage. MPEG-2 can be at different bitrates but will typically be around 4Gb per hour of footage.

I would suggest using whatever editing software you have, as long as it works with the video formats you want to edit. If not we can then advise you further.

Mark.

connorhawke

The TRV350 plays older tapes yes. I'll look into pcs with a firewire port, otherwise I'll try a firewire-to-usb or s-video-to-easycap connection; I assume the quality degradation shouldn't be too noticeable but I'll see.

MarkE19

Firewire to USB cables just will not work, so don't buy them as they are a complete waste of money.
Tape capture requires a constant bit rate but USB 2 peaks at 480mbps and can and does often drop well below the rate required for tape camcorder capture. Plus USB and firewire are 2 very different protocols that simply will not talk to each other without hardware conversion.

Coming from lower quality analogue source material the drop in quality using the EasyCAP should not be too bad. However you would need to try it to see if it is good enough for you.
Just a point regarding using S-Video connection to the EasyCAP - are you aware that this is a video only connection so you will still need to use another cable(s) for the audio?

Mark.

connorhawke

I didn't realize I'd need a separate cable for audio. It sounds like this presents other potential issues besides just degraded quality. In that case I might as well just plunk down a little bit for a refurbished laptop with firewire port so I can do this right. Could use the extra storage anyway.

connorhawke

The pc/macs I currently have with me don't have ExpressCard/PCMCIA slots, but my mac has a thunderbolt 2 port. I heard a thunderbolt-firewire adapter with a firewire400-4to6pin (what came with the cam) to firewire800 adapter/cable will still work at firewire400 speeds so I guess I can try that.

connorhawke

I mean I would use the firewire method but looking at my DCR-TRV350 just now, I can't seem to find a 4 or 6 pin firewire port on the camcorder although the cam came with a 4-to-6 pin firewire cable and specs seemed to suggest this port would be available. Any ideas?

edit: never mind, didn't think the 4pin was for the dv port first as it didn't seem to fit but trying again just now it does although it's snug. I have a thunderbolt2-to-firewire800, now I just need a firewire800-to-400 and I'll be set to test this out.

connorhawke

For capture software I'm using OBS which is also available for Windows. The connection seems to be working. I want to capture using the original resolution of the tape. Should I use 720x480 as Kyle2000's tut specifies, or something else? The presets in the menu on my OBS are different and go as high as 1280x720 or "High". Can't find much info on Google about this. Leave Buffering unticked? What format should I use (tut suggests mp4)?

MarkE19

720x480 is the USA SD standard so I would suggest you use that.

Output format depends on your playback method. If recording to DVD then MPEG-2, but if using a media player then MP4 is likely a good choice.

Mark.

MarkE19

As you have found DV = firewire
But it is also often referred to as ieee1394, iLink (Sony)
Don't you just love the way they keep it simple for the consumer

Mark.