OLD SCHOOL HELP! Sony PC100 to PC via USB

[freeflynick 0]

I recently dragged out my old Sony PC100 miniDV camera and tapes, and bought a Firewire/USB cable, but cannot get the computer to recognize the camera. I've tried Adobe Premier Elements to connect (it has a Firewire device option) but no joy.
Does anyone have any advice on how best to connect this old device to a computer to download these old vids?
Thanks!
Nick

Hobbes: "How come we play 'War' and not 'Peace'?"
Calvin: "Too few role models."

[hoipex99 0]

Had the same problem back then when manufacturers stopped using the firewire interface in PCs or Notebooks.

The Firewire/USB cable won´t work.

What you probably need is a Firewire PCI card to install in your PC.
That´s what worked for me at least.

https://tinyurl.com/ycgt3hmo

[freeflynick 0]

Bummer.....Unfortunately my PC is an all-in-one type, and so it is not possible to install a card like that as far as I can tell.
Thanks for the reply though!

Hobbes: "How come we play 'War' and not 'Peace'?"
Calvin: "Too few role models."

[DougH 270]

I am going to send all my old miniDV tapes to legacy box.

I bought a media conversion package on groupon for a pretty fair price, I figured it would be the easiest way of ever seeing those videos again.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[Coreece 190]

Deleted - Replied to the wrong poster.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Coreece

[Coreece 190]

On 12/10/2018 at 9:11 PM, freeflynick said:

Does anyone have any advice on how best to connect this old device to a computer to download these old vids?

As long as your camera has RCA outputs, which it should, you can get a converter that will record directly to an SD card like the one linked below:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1442241-REG/ion_audio_video2sd_video_2_sd_standalone.html

 

A long while back I bought an older version of this product that would covert the video via USB to your computer, but I'm not sure if you can find it as it seems to have been discontinued.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist.jsp&A=details&Q=&sku=1272460&is=REG&fromDisList=y

 

Personally, I think the conversion to SD in the newer model would be more convenient anyway. 

[skyfriend 0]

I don't have an answer for your specific question, but I recently converted all my DV-Tape to USB stored AVi files.   My camera is a PC-9 and I still had my old PC with FireWire card installed, but I didn't want to sit and babysit the uploads.

A free program called WinDV-1.2.3 had easy download from internet, simple user interface, and automatically created a separate AVI file for each recording section of the 1-hour DV tapes.  Best part was that it included the date and time in the file name.  

I don't think you'll get the same quality video and the original date/time information if you use the RCA or RF to capture-card options.

[Coreece 190]

On 1/26/2019 at 6:53 PM, skyfriend said:

My camera is a PC-9 and I still had my old PC with FireWire card installed. . .

I don't think you'll get the same quality video and the original date/time information if you use the RCA or RF to capture-card options.

I think the main issue is that he doesn't have access to a firewire card, so RCA is really the only option unless he sends the footage out to be converted.  There's always some quality loss when using analog RCA cables, but the loss would be negligible, especially since it's standard definition footage anyway.  The compression settings of the digital format you're converting to will play a more important role when it comes to quality.  That's true when converting from a digital source as well.

My concern would be that the VIDEO to SD device I linked above compresses 1 hour of footage into 500MB.  That seems like a lot of compression to me.  Not sure what that would look like. 

I believe the older model VIDEO to PC that connected to your computer via USB allowed you to manually set the compression rate if you needed to.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Coreece

[freeflynick 0]

Thanks Coreece - I found some similar devices for about $20 and will give them a try. I'm not too concerned about the compression as long as the output doesnt totally suck, it will be a decent solution for what I need.

Thanks everyone for your input!

 

[cjdskydiver 4]

I bought one of these a few weeks ago and have been digitizing all my old VHS tapes...works great...creates .mp4 video...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/625264-REG/Elgato_Systems_10020840_Video_Capture_USB_Analog.html

Now I have Couch Freaks 2001, WFFC 1998, among others, on my iPhone...those were the days... ;o)

If you want different formats, use AVC to choose from a plethora of options:

https://www.any-video-converter.com/

[cjdskydiver 4]

While on the topic of MiniDV tapes...I Firewired all mine to my PC a while back, and don't have a need for the camera any longer. If anyone has tapes lying around but nothing to play them on, I'm looking to sell the camera. It's a Sony PC1. Great condition. All the original accessories included, plus a bunch of batteries and tapes. PM me if interested. I also still have a Hawkeye camera helmet with a side-mount box, listed in the classifieds.