WTB Or Trade For: Sony Digital 8 Or Canon Mini Dv Camcorder

[Phog Allen]

Good evening gents. I am in the process of digitising a number of analog video tapes. To be precise, they were shot on a Sony Video8 camcorder that is approximately 15 years old. It does not even have an S video output. It is strictly a composite out device. There are two options available to make this easy.

The first would be a Sony Digital 8 camcorder which of course has a Firewire connection. Most, but not all, would play Video8 and Hi8 tapes. This allowed the Firewire connection to pass a nice DV-AVI file to the pc for editing. Some of the Digital 8 models did NOT read Video8 tapes so you would need to be sure.

The second would be a Canon Mini Dv like a ZR 40 or ZR 80. Other brands and models could be considered but the Canons had a very good reputation. Again, some of them had "analogue pass through" which allowed composite analogue signals to be inputted to the cam and then transferred in real time via the Firewire connection. Some other Mini Dv camcorders only allowed analogue capture to the tape itself and then you have to transfer to pc later. Again via Firewire.

Sorry to be so detailed but you kind of need to know what specifics it needs. If you have something you think may work PM me and let me know. I have tried eBay but condition and prices are beyond deciphering. Crazy.

Rules; Continental U.S. shipping only. No exceptions. I am also limiting this to members with one year or more good standing. This is an unusual item for BST and I want no misunderstandings. Thanks and I hope we can work something out.

Cheers, Todd

[Phog Allen]

Something like that was my first thought. But the prices keep me away. They are all used and I just cannot justify two to four hundred dollars for one. That gets to the territory of paying professional shop to digitise them for me. Sometimes you can pick up and old Mini Dv for well under a cnote. You just have to scrape around for it. I am hoping the B&B Brigade comes through. For about $200 you can buy a brand new Grass Valley(Canopus) ADVC 110 analogue to Firewire conversion box.

Cheers, Todd

[raisindot]

Is there any reason why you wouldn't consider using a video capture device like an Apple/Pinnacle Dazzle? I have an older version of this device and it takes composite video (video/two channel audio) from any camcorder and coverts them to digital and is sent to your computer via USB. Is Firewire your only option? I'm sure there are plenty of these kinds of devices out there with FW interfaces. The Dazzle basic unit is onl7 US49.

[Phog Allen]

Hi Raisindot. You know, it is kind of funny. I actually have one of the Dazzle 100 analogue to usb capture devices. It is what I intended to use for this purpose. I ran into a host of issues not the least of which is the flaky Pinnacle Studio 14 software. Suffice it to say the newer Dazzle devices like I have are mpeg only hardware encoders and this is what they pass to the pc. So no matter if my software will save it as dv avi files it has already gone through one lossy compression to mpeg. If I save the files as mpeg2(dvd) resolution I have to use the sucky Pinnacle Studio software which crashes my pc. This is a common problem with it. Otherwise generic software like Windows Movie Maker and Amcap save it as even poorer wmv at 640x480 resolution. Dazzles are great for capture live web cam footage and non archival footage but I won't use it for capturing family footage.

The mini dv cams capture the analog signals direct to dv in avi containers. An easy to edit intra-frame format. Each frame is an I frame which means I can split, separate, join, and save at will with NO re-encoding which saves hours. The lossy formats require; capture, transcode to editing format, edit, re-encode to delivery format like mpeg or wmv. Hours and hours. With the dv files I can edit quickly and only involves ONE transcode to whatever lossy format I need like mpeg2, wmv, or mkv/264. It is work no matter what but the poor resolution of the video8 tapes means the less generational loss the better.

Cheers, Todd

[cameraflier]

how about....

[dharasick]

pm sent.

[Phog Allen]

Cameraflier thank you for posting the pics. At the top edge of the lens adjustment it looks like a bit of damage. Yes/no?


Dharasick, thanks for the pm.

Todd

[kcb5150]

I have a sharp vlsd20 but none of the plugs or ac to see if it works, unfortunately