PC won't recognize camcorder

[AndrewL.]

I plugged in my Sony D8 camcorder into my laptop via USB but the a message popped up saying the device wasn't recognized as the drivers weren't installed. Where do I get them?

[cooper83]

http://esupport.sony.com/CA/p/select...0c29747aa61a40

[dirtroad]

I have a TRV480, and it is not possible, no drivers available. I transfer via Firewire on to a DVD using a Sony DVD recorder then load into my computer for editing. If you have a computer that can handle firewire, that will work.

When I called Sony they said I needed a Sony computer for it to work, but it just won't work with USB no mater who makes it.

And Sony wonders why they are loosing market share,.....and money!

[AndrewL.]

Damn! I got all tickled pink when I saw the camera had a USB minijack yesterday and thought I saved $100 on the cost of a firewire converter.

Not really surprised though. As soon as the camera wasn't recognized I thought the drivers might be unavailable due to obsolescence.

Why aren't the damn things just plug and play?

[BGY11]

I seem to recall that for their tape-based camcorders, Firewire was the only way to copy data from the tape to a PC; the USB port was just for transferring photos that were uploaded to a Memory Stick (if the camcorder supported that).

[dirtroad]

I did read somewhere it does work with Windows XP, but I have never tried it. Do you have access to a computer loaded with XP you could try it on?

I will try this weekend on an old computer at the lake, and report back.

The reason I bought it was we had 8mm tapes (analogue), and it digitizes those automatically, plus you can take stills directly off the analogue movies, albeit at a low resolution quality. Mine is about 7 years old, and only gets used when we looking for multiple angles on recordings, as the memory card units are so much faster and convenient.

[Jake]

I have a Sony D8 machine and a Hi8 machine. The USB is for stills or webcam mode. You can also store low bitrate videos on the memory stick card IIRC. Firewire is the only way to get DV off that machine. It is 25Mbps video. I have a firewire card and it works with Windows Movie Maker on XP Pro. No drivers needed. The digital pass-though is a great way to digitize older Hi8 and 8mm tapes.

I have been archiving my "8" tapes as WMV.

[AndrewL.]

I realized I could replace the hard drive for my blown laptop (which has a firewire jack} and use that as a backup drive and save the cost of a firewire card.

Alternatively, could I use an analog RCA plug capture card and get it off the camcorder that way and still have it captured as digital video?

[Nighthawk 1]

Originally Posted by Jake

I have a Sony D8 machine and a Hi8 machine. The USB is for stills or webcam mode. You can also store low bitrate videos on the memory stick card IIRC. Firewire is the only way to get DV off that machine. It is 25Mbps video. I have a firewire card and it works with Windows Movie Maker on XP Pro. No drivers needed. The digital pass-though is a great way to digitize older Hi8 and 8mm tapes.

A bit off topic...
Jake: your last comment has me interested. I have a whole shoebox filled up with Hi-8 tapes. My current camcorder is an older model, no firewire option so I have been using a Roxio composite connection for transferring. I did one the other day and a two hour tape was 28GB! I've read about the digital pass-through however it means finding a compatible camcorder (DV is it?). Is this my only option? Getting all the tapes done by a company would cost a fortune.

[BGY11]

Originally Posted by AndrewL.

Alternatively, could I use an analog RCA plug capture card and get it off the camcorder that way and still have it captured as digital video?

You just answered your question there. RCA is analog, so you'd be capturing a much lower-quality analog signal (which would be converted back to digital by your capture card). It would work in a pinch, but the results won't look nearly as good as they would if you were able to capture the digital data over a Firewire connection.

[Jake]

Andrew, The method you describe is not as good as direct off the tape. The reason is a composite AV cable is a choke point for quality. By going with a digital pickup you eliminate that step.

Nighthawk, These older D8 camcorders can be found at yard sales and online. People even toss them out once they get a new shiny HD camcorder. it is worth looking around.

But yes the only option is finding one of these units. Note that I may have confused the name of this functionality. There are two important features. The first is the backwards compatibility of 8 and Hi8 tapes. That means you drop in an old tape and it spits out a digital signal via firewire.

Then there is the analog to digital conversion using the units RCA inputs. This is good for hooking up your old VCR. The camera acts like a capture card in your PC. Except the encoding is done in the camera and sent via a DV bitstream to your PC over the firewire.

Since DV is always 25Mbps you can expect it to be approximately 11GB/hour. This video can be compressed down to 2GB without any issues using a modern codec. I tested at a bunch of compression settings and even WMV at 1GB/hour it was fine on my monitor. Your biggest enemy is the light level in the video. If it looks grainy (due to low shooting light) then compression artifacts will be hard to notice in the 1-2GB/hour range.

Geek Alert: Lots of useful technical video format information here,

http://www.modeemi.fi/~leopold/AV/VideoFormats.html

and

http://users.tkk.fi/iisakkil/videoformats.html