Capturing Video from DV Camcorder

MarkG19

Newbie Joined: Jul 11, 2014 17:00 Messages: 5 Offline

Solved by

Jan 05, 2019 12:50

I have VHS-C (mini VHS) tapes from an old analog camcorder that I want to capture. My Sony TRV38 DV camcorder is capable of taking analog A/V in, from a VCR playing the VHS-C tapes, and digitizing it. The output goes out the camcorder's IEEE1394 (FireWire) port to my laptop computer running PowerDirector 12 where I capture it in .AVI format. I did this several years ago.

Now I am trying again and having problems. When I try to capture video in PD 12, PD 12 says there is no tape in my camcorder. As a result, it won't record the input from the VCR that it is digitizing. If I put a tape in the camcorder, PD 12 only records from that tape, not from the VCR input that it is digitizing.

Any suggestions on how I can make this work?
Thanks!

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Jan 05, 2019 13:40

See this link on how to do the analog pass-thru: https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00025739 .

MarkG19

Newbie Joined: Jul 11, 2014 17:00 Messages: 5 Offline

Jan 05, 2019 15:24

Thank you, I am following all of those steps already.

At step 12, my video capture software (CyberLink PowerDirector 12) will not record when I click on the record button (in the Capture tab/window). A pop-up message in PD 12 says there is no tape in the camera so it will not record.

Hans Solo

Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2019 19:04 Messages: 2 Offline

Jun 25, 2019 19:10

I have the same issue with Cyberlink PowerDirector 8 and 13.

MarkG19

Newbie Joined: Jul 11, 2014 17:00 Messages: 5 Offline

Jun 25, 2019 22:53

Quote I have the same issue with Cyberlink PowerDirector 8 and 13.

My solution was to use Sclive from www.scenalyzer.com. It's old software (2010) that is no longer supported. Since November 2010, licenses for Sclive are no longer sold, however, a fully functional license key, the manual and the software can still be downloaded for free on this website.

It will capture video even if there is no tape in the camera. You can then edit the captured .avi file in your own video editing software or use Sclive's rudimentary editing features.

Mark

Hans Solo

Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2019 19:04 Messages: 2 Offline

Jun 26, 2019 07:52

Great tip, thank you! Odd that in all the generations of Cyberlink PowerDirector (at least up through PowerDirector 13) they haven't fixed this bug.