[grahamricho]

Hi all I was planning to use my sony hc42 to transfer my old videos onto dvd, is it any good or would it be better to transfer with a stand alone Dazzle capture card , is there any difference in quality ?
How big a file would a 1 hour VHS be ? many thanks graham
p.s how would i do it with a Sony HC 42 ?

[senu]

Originally Posted by grahamricho

Hi all I was planning to use my sony hc42 to transfer my old videos onto dvd, is it any good or would it be better to transfer with a stand alone Dazzle capture card , is there any difference in quality ?
How big a file would a 1 hour VHS be ? many thanks graham
p.s how would i do it with a Sony HC 42 ?

I suspect via the camcorder, it would either be better or just as good as with the Dazzle .

If you first transfer to MiniDVtape ( as a digital tape copy) or do a pass thru ( explained below) using the camcorder to go analogue to digital " on the fly", you'll still end up with a DV AVI on your PC, for which 1 hr = 12.7Gb

I would save money and give the Dazzle a miss as your camcorder has AV in and Pass thru

Note too that Dazzle comes with a cut down version of Pinnacles software
Which is OK for capturing but.....( you can fill in the rest)

There are 2 ways you can use the camcorder

1) connect the VHS output to the AV input of the camcorder and put the camcorder on VCR . IF you are able to see the playing VHS footage on your LCD then you can record it to miniDV tape ( press record on the remote or camera if it has the appropriate button) This record button on the camcorder is different to the one you use to record when using camcorder to shoot video

or

2) connect up the VCR and camcorder as above with exactly the same set-up but also connect camcorder to firewire on the Pc simultaneously .

Once the VHS is playing and visible on the Camcorders LCD, it should also be simultaneously going to the PC via fire wire

In effect the camcorder turns the analogue footage internally in real time to digital and passes it out via firewire to the PC
This second method called "pass thru" is possible on the Hc 42.

On the PC there are no savings in terms of space either way.
While recording to tape first will cost you a tape and extra time spent to download to PC , it gives you a small portable digital archive of your VHS material should you need to re-import it
Either method is Ok otherwise.
Some camcorders go into sleep mode if there is no tangible activity after some time,
In order to do pass thru sucessfully you have to turn off this power saving mode if present else the camcorder will power itself down during the transfer.

HTH

I hope you got the second email I sent re APE2!