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...So I've just finished reading this thread from Dec 27th. Yep, I totally agree with TPFKAS: If one is capturing from a VCR, it really IS that easy, if one has a PC with a good VGA card in it; most of 'em have video inputs for this purpose. I've been doing it for years (not cards designed for gaming, I mean like the All-in-wonder type cards).
And yes, if one is capturing from a Firewire digital camcorder, it's as easy as connecting the output Firewire on the camcorder to the input Firewire on the PC and just about all video editing programs out there (pinnacle, ulead, etc) support Firewire capture.
...However, if one is one of those poor saps like GrandpaD who has a *USB* digital camcorder, like the Sony Handycams (mine is a DCR-DVD301) ...yer out of luck. <:(
To the best of my knowledge, there's only *ONE* application out there that knows how to find the Handycam on the USB, and can capture data from it to the computer - Pixela's ImageMixer. And it SUCKS!! It barely works on Windows XP home edition, but at least it works.
I use it to capture the video and picture files to project folders on the hard drive of my laptop, through Pixela's laborious, tedious picking - dropping to folder process. Then I bring the resulting files into my video editor's libraries, where I can manipulate them.
I've looked pretty much everywhere for a special cable, like a USB to USB transfer cable, That has circuitry in it that will take USB2 as input, and output to either 4-pin or 6-pin Firewire. Nada; they don't exist. Probably because the USB and Firewire specs are incompatible.
So, I'm currently looking for some kind of USB/Firewire HUB; some kind of powered device where I can plug in my camcorder, then use my Firewire cable to plug the hub into the Firewire port on my laptop or server.
If anybody knows of hardware like this, or knows of any software that can find and read data from a Sony Handycam, I and many, many others would shoooore appreciate a post from you here! :)
- GrandpaD
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