I have a sony VCR and a panasonic camcorder. I am trying to take VHS tapes and put them on my camcorder to eventually put them on my Macintosh computer for editing. What equipment and steps do I need to take to accomplish this? Many thanks to AfterDawn.com and all of its members for providing me and others with this valuable resource. JC
You should buy a capture card to bring video to your computer. When you copy your VHS tape to the camcorder then put them on your computer, you will loose 1 more generation (quality).
Thank you for the response, but I should've phrased my question better. I can currently get the images on my camcorder to my computer, but the problem I am having is getting the VHS tape footage onto my video camera. Thanx again JC
There is no reason I need to go from VCR>Camera>computer. I just assumed that was the easiest way. I am simply looking to get from VHS to my computer. Thanks. JC
.some cameras also have analog passthrough(digital cams only).some dont.read the manual to see if you have this..this means you can use the camera as a bridge from the vcr to the cam(its simply turned on..no motors being used) and then goes through the cam and into the puter via firewire..and if you choose to record it to the camera from the vcr liek you are then there is NO generation loss in this step.but it is faster to simply go straight to the puter._X_X_X_X_X_[small]john boy[/small]
Well, actually, unless you use an analog-to-digital bridge, you may encounter audio/video sync issues. Many factors contribute to this or cause it -- slow processor, slow or not enough memory, harddisk speed, etc. Using the method of VCR > digital camcorder > computer setup makes the digital camcorder act as the digital bridge -- eliminates the a/v sync issue. Of course there are plenty of folks recording straight analog with a graphics card without issue, many folks don't have such luck. Of course, consult with your user manual for this feature. Some low end consumer camcorders don't offer this function. I know the Canon Optura 20 has this (this is what I use)._X_X_X_X_X_[small]Build a man a fire, keep him warm for a day; Set a man on fire, keep him warm the rest of his life. http://www.jasongtaylor.com/[/small]
I'm considering the Optura 20, and I noticed that the literature on the web site says that you can record to tape, but doesn't mention passthrough. I'm relieved to hear that it does that. How do you find the quality on that machine? I'm seeing 1.33 MPixels, but still only 690K in video mode, comparable to the other machine I'm considering, the Sony DCR TRV730, which also has backward compatibility with the Hi8 format I've used until now. However, the Sony is last year's model and hard to find. Any advice? Paul Mason
The Optura 20 is very nice. You are right, 680K recording video, 1.33 MP for still shots only (ie, good enough to email and perhaps webpages). Beyond that, the CCD does a fine job under most conditions. Sometimes, under lower light conditions, you get a little grainy. Also, I've heard in very quite rooms you can get the noise from the tape motor recorded -- but this rarely happens for me and only in very quite rooms. Also, like most consumer CCDs, if you point the camcorder towards a bright light source, you'll get the bright light streaks in the video. Other than that, I love the thing. It was just in my price range ($599 at PCNation) for the features I wanted. Perhaps someday I'll get the nice pro 3-CCD camcorder, but I can't spend $1500+ on that yet. I think it is a great value for what you get -- but it is still a consumer-grade camcorder -- just with some nice features and 690K video (as opposed to budget camcorders with only 340K video).
