[Wylug-help] Video from Handycam (tape)

[Steven Dodd]

On 18/02/2012 19:30, Anne Wilson wrote:
> I bought the Handycam for my husband, maybe 5 years ago, and at the
> time did a 30 second clip for testing.  I remember playing with the
> clip on kdenlive.  I haven't touched the camcorder since.
> 
> As my husband didn't like the Handycam, we recently gave it to our
> daughter, and now I have the situation where she wants me to take off
> her recording, onto a usb stick.  The problem is that my memory fails
> me.  I have a strong feeling that I used a firewire lead to get the
> recording onto a computer - but the only computer I have with a
> firewire input is my server, which runs Scientific Linux.
> Unsurprisingly, their repos don't offer kdenlive (and I can't even
> remember whether kdenlive is what I used to get the recording).
> 
> VLC has settings for capturing streams, and I could use a USB
> connection to this laptop - but nothing I've tried makes it see the
> camcorder.
> 
> I know there are firewire to USB adapters, but if the direct USB
> connection isn't making the content available, I can't see why that
> adapter would - unless the firewire part provides information to the
> system that USB doesn't.
> 
I've not used a Handycam, but if it is similar to our old Canon DV
camcorder, the USB connection is only for getting still images off the
internal memory card.  Firewire was the only way to access the video.
Thus a Firewire to USB adapter may make a difference, although video
capture software may not look on USB for a camcorder.


> If anyone can point me in the right direction I'd be hugely grateful.
>
I used dvgrab to simply pull the raw DV off the DV tapes, which I then
used a video editor to produce something more coherent.  This may not be
applicable to you depending on what recording medium your Handycam uses;
but may be worth a try anyway if that's in your distribution.

-Steve.