Hooking a camera to a computer.

Off-topic
1

Ok i want to make a movie for on here. The only problem is that i don’t have a usb port on my camera. Is there something i could buy that would let me hook up my camera to the computer?

I have this camera.
http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-Sony_CCD_TRV118

Thanks Kelly.

2

You have an analog camcorder. It has no memory and it does not digitize the image. It looks like it records to tape. I don’t know if there is a device with software that will take its S-Video signal out and convert it to some digital video format. There probably is such a device. The other thing would be to digitize from the tape itself. Hopefully you’ll get a response from John Childs, Brian MacKenzie, Dan Heaton, Jeff Groves, or someone else who knows what they’re talking about.

3

Ok i hope one of them see this. Thanks.

4

You’ll need to do an analog video capture. There are several ways of going about it. There is specialized hardware that will let you capture video, you can record it to a DVR (a VCR like device that records to a hard drive or DVD-RW), or directly to your computer if you have the right video card.

Here’s one guide that explains how to capture video directly to your computer: Guide to capturing, cleaning, and compressing video. I’ve captured video that way. It’s a bit of work to get it all set up. And it requires that you have a video card that takes TV input.

I now have a DVR that lets me capture video on to a DVD-RW disk. It does the messy work, but the DVRs are a bit expensive.

Then there are various hardware gadgets that allow you to capture video directly to your computer. You can use those gadgets if your video card doesn’t have TV input. But the results from some of those hardware gadgets can be very poor or quite good. It depends on the quality and design of the gadget.

If you don’t have the right video card you should be able to find a used video card with TV capture input for not much money. Obsolete old generation video cards are quite cheap.

5

A lot of TV tuner cards have a video in connection that you could use and most of these cost under $100, though I don’t know how good they are at doing captures. With a Hi-8 camcorder like you have, you’ll want to find a capture card that has S-video in to get the best quality.

6

I thought I’d post this question here rather than start a new thread…

Is there any way to use a video camera as a webcam with MSN Messenger?

Andrew

7

If you connect it to a video capture card, you should be able to. I know when people have tried to view my non-existant webcam, the got to see channel 4. :slight_smile:

8

I have a Handycam like that although it cost $500 and it is digital. It looks almost exactly like that.

9

I’ve been using an ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder for a couple years now and am really pleased with the quality. It has a tuner, S-video and composite inputs and outputs, and it hooks into your sound card… with a Dolby 5.1 sound card and speaker system, it’s my home theater system. When I got the card it was $299 US but I’m sure it’s half the price by now. It comes with video capture software and just about everything else (software) you could need to interface with the card. Pretty sweet package :slight_smile:

10

I use to use this one http://www.viewcast.com/products/osprey/osprey220.html
Simply because all broadcasting facility services use to have them, and they have these 19" breakout boxes.
They often appear on eBay for good prices.

11

Another guide for analog video capture is here: Afterdawn video capture guide. And there is also a forum there dedicated to analog video capture.

12

The ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon has awesome video capture (not to mention TV), and since it’s about 4 years old you can get one pretty cheap most likely.

If you don’t want to replace your existing video card (or you have a cheap computer without an AGP slot) Hauppage (spelling?) also makes some good TV cards.

Or just find a friend with a TV card and a CD or DVD burner :smiley: