I have been pointed to this newsgroup with this question. Please have
pity on a beginner.

What I'm trying to do is to take in video and audio from a VHS video and
record it straight into a PC. If that works, I have another project for
which I'd like to take in the video via the s-video input on the
camcorder and audio via the composite input and interleave these within
the camcorder then send to the PC. The VHS videos are mainly PAL or
NTSC, I'm not certain what format the s-video stuff will be in (are
there lots?) and I haven't yet seen the hardware that will send the
video through the s-video connector. So for the moment I'm just trying
to do the standard thing of getting old VHS video tapes into a PC as
standard mpeg or avi files

I'm advised that a mini-DV camcorder is the cheapest way of getting a
hardware interface into the PC, so I'm trying to find which camcorders
will take analogue video and audio in and squirt them out via firewire
to be turned into avi or mpeg files on a PC.

Canons in general seem to have composite, but not s-vid inputs.

After a debacle with a JVC thing that had misleading info in the copy of
the instruction manual on their website (the refund is pending but I've
lost a lot on the postage) and having wasted days looking up this sort
of info, I wonder if someone here could suggest a model number. There is
some urgency as I have 2 second chance offers pending that didn't reach
their reserve on ebay. These are JVC GR-DX77 and DX100.

I wouldn't be asking here, but JVC support hung up on me today, and say
it will take some days to respond to the email I've sent.

The people who sent me here were suggesting that I just use a USB2 type
of device to take in the analogue video. I've got one of these, but the
audio is sent separately to the laptop soundcard and I think that is on
a different clock from the usb, causing the sync to drift slightly. The
picture quality is not brilliant either.

I've tried recording to my cheap DVD/HD recorder, but I think that puts
something weird into the files (maybe some digital rights nonsense and
nothing I'm working with is protected in any way).

--
Bill

In message , Mark
writes
On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:56:36 +0000, Bill wrote:

I'm advised that a mini-DV camcorder is the cheapest way of getting a
hardware interface into the PC, so I'm trying to find which camcorders
will take analogue video and audio in and squirt them out via firewire
to be turned into avi or mpeg files on a PC.

BTW, you probably know this, but if your VHS video source is copyright
protected many consumer devices will detect the presence of the
Macrovision and prevent you making a pass-through copy.

Thanks. Most of the stuff I've got should not be copyright protected
unless the standard old video recorder it was recorded on did something
extremely clever.

Thanks also for the info re the Canon.
--
Bill

In message , Bill writes
I have been pointed to this newsgroup with this question. Please have
pity on a beginner.

What I'm trying to do is to take in video and audio from a VHS video
and record it straight into a PC. If that works, I have another project
for which I'd like to take in the video via the s-video input on the
camcorder and audio via the composite input and interleave these within
the camcorder then send to the PC. The VHS videos are mainly PAL or
NTSC, I'm not certain what format the s-video stuff will be in (are
there lots?) and I haven't yet seen the hardware that will send the
video through the s-video connector. So for the moment I'm just trying
to do the standard thing of getting old VHS video tapes into a PC as
standard mpeg or avi files

I'm advised that a mini-DV camcorder is the cheapest way of getting a
hardware interface into the PC, so I'm trying to find which camcorders
will take analogue video and audio in and squirt them out via firewire
to be turned into avi or mpeg files on a PC.

Canons in general seem to have composite, but not s-vid inputs.

After a debacle with a JVC thing that had misleading info in the copy
of the instruction manual on their website (the refund is pending but
I've lost a lot on the postage) and having wasted days looking up this
sort of info, I wonder if someone here could suggest a model number.
There is some urgency as I have 2 second chance offers pending that
didn't reach their reserve on ebay. These are JVC GR-DX77 and DX100.

I wouldn't be asking here, but JVC support hung up on me today, and say
it will take some days to respond to the email I've sent.

The people who sent me here were suggesting that I just use a USB2 type
of device to take in the analogue video. I've got one of these, but the
audio is sent separately to the laptop soundcard and I think that is on
a different clock from the usb, causing the sync to drift slightly. The
picture quality is not brilliant either.

I've tried recording to my cheap DVD/HD recorder, but I think that puts
something weird into the files (maybe some digital rights nonsense and
nothing I'm working with is protected in any way).

I wanted to do the very same thing and I got a Canon MVX460 which has
DV-in and DV-out. It does have pass through and I can capture from my
Sky+ TV, a Panasonic DVD recorder player and a Hitachi VHS cassette
player (I use Edius 4 to capture and edit).
It uses an AV cable into the 460 and a firewire cable out from 460 to my
laptop. Don't know about s-video though.
HTH
--
bertieboy

"Mark" wrote in message
...

My old canon MV500i has S-video in/out.

Do you use the camera in "VCR" or "Camera" mode to use pass-through?

"Bill" wrote in message
...
I have been pointed to this newsgroup with this question. Please have
pity on a beginner.

What I'm trying to do is to take in video and audio from a VHS video and
record it straight into a PC. If that works, I have another project for
which I'd like to take in the video via the s-video input on the
camcorder and audio via the composite input and interleave these within
the camcorder then send to the PC. The VHS videos are mainly PAL or
NTSC, I'm not certain what format the s-video stuff will be in (are
there lots?) and I haven't yet seen the hardware that will send the
video through the s-video connector. So for the moment I'm just trying
to do the standard thing of getting old VHS video tapes into a PC as
standard mpeg or avi files

I'm advised that a mini-DV camcorder is the cheapest way of getting a
hardware interface into the PC, so I'm trying to find which camcorders
will take analogue video and audio in and squirt them out via firewire
to be turned into avi or mpeg files on a PC.

Canons in general seem to have composite, but not s-vid inputs.

After a debacle with a JVC thing that had misleading info in the copy of
the instruction manual on their website (the refund is pending but I've
lost a lot on the postage) and having wasted days looking up this sort
of info, I wonder if someone here could suggest a model number. There is
some urgency as I have 2 second chance offers pending that didn't reach
their reserve on ebay. These are JVC GR-DX77 and DX100.

I wouldn't be asking here, but JVC support hung up on me today, and say
it will take some days to respond to the email I've sent.

The people who sent me here were suggesting that I just use a USB2 type
of device to take in the analogue video. I've got one of these, but the
audio is sent separately to the laptop soundcard and I think that is on
a different clock from the usb, causing the sync to drift slightly. The
picture quality is not brilliant either.

I've tried recording to my cheap DVD/HD recorder, but I think that puts
something weird into the files (maybe some digital rights nonsense and
nothing I'm working with is protected in any way).

--
Bill

I have a Panasonic camcorder with AV in /out, a S-VHS in/out and fire wire
in/out connectors. I use a Sony VAIO laptop with a fire wire in/out
connector.

I did a lot of transfers of old videos (S-VHS, HI8), as well as many copies
from home movies, TV and/or videotape. I use the S-VHS input of the Pana
for the video (for S-VHS & Hi8) and the AV in for TV and the audio part in
all cases. (The camcorder is in VCR mode for videos and in camera mode when
making copy of old home movies projected on a white piece paper or on a
waxed glass).The laptop is connected thru the fire wire to the camcorder
(and to a DVD burner). I use Scenalzerlive for capturing; other such
Premiere and Moviefactory have be successfullybeen tested. Reason for using
Scenalzerlive: it has time code and optical scene detectors which permits
to split the video for further editing with Premiere (adding title, music
etc). For this reason the capture is in AVI format . I tried to capture in
mpeg2 format and burned straight on a DVD disk; it worked pretty well but my
laptop is not fast enough (850MHz) so it was not a "true" capture/burning
(the burner start immediately but as the system cannot follow: a buffering
occurs and after say 20 -30 min of recording the HDD was full !

Pretty easy and working good even with old camcorder, PC and DVD burner!



jacques

"Mark" wrote in message ...

Do you use the camera in "VCR" or "Camera" mode to use pass-through?


Detailed instructions here (just about readable):

http://www.fixya.com/support/p394779...-10142/page-83

and

http://www.fixya.com/support/p394779...-10142/page-84

Tape must be absent.

Thanks, Mark. I'll report back to the group as to whether it works with
Canons XL1 & XM1