Model Boat Mayhem

Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: Neil on December 23, 2013, 08:13:23 pm

Title: CAMCORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: Neil on December 23, 2013, 08:13:23 pm
I have an older cam corder that takes mini 8 dv casettes, and have about a dozen of them filled with family hols, kids growing up and interspersed, video footage of my models sailing......

I don't want to  tape it all on one dvd..........in fact I can't..........once upon a time I could just link the camcorder via a scart to my HDD/DVD/VHS recorder and edit them onto two different mediums............but sadly for some reason I think that the plug from the camcorder had broken, and I can get no output signal on the HDD....have changed leads, have changed the scart pickup for a new one, even bypassed the scart by just using leads, but can't get a signal from the corder to recorder at all.......

so the only option for me to go down is to find an adapter, similar to the one I have for music cassettes so that I could plug that into the back of the HDD recorder............but I CAN'T FIND ONE on the internet anywhere...............does anyone know of such an adapter that I could beg borrow, buy or steal.........failing that does anyone have an old Panasonic NV-GS120 camcorder with working download plugs that I might borrow for a week or so so that I could down load my mini 8 cassettes, please.

cheers, neil.
Title: Re: CAM CORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: Subculture on December 23, 2013, 08:19:00 pm
You should have firewire or USB on that camera allowing digital download to your computer. Is that kaput too?
Title: Re: CAM CORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: html on December 23, 2013, 08:22:38 pm
According to Google that model should have both USB and Firewire (IEE1394) outputs, they both can connect to a PC

Brian
Title: Re: CAM CORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: HawkEye on December 23, 2013, 08:34:41 pm

If it helps, I used one of these with my Hi8 and vhsc cameras, prices vary but here's an example -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brand-new-EasyCAP-DC60-USB2-0-Video-Adapter-with-Audio-Video-Capture-/251409492909?pt=UK_Computing_Video_Capture_TV_Tuner_Cards&hash=item3a892c6bad

HawkEye
Title: Re: CAM CORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: Neil on December 23, 2013, 08:40:39 pm
I've tried the usb connection into the computer but that don't seam to work either.....I think that that part of the camcorder is caput, and yet it will still record and play back on the camera.
will have a look at your link hawkeye.

cheers, all.

neil.
Title: Re: CAM CORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: Subculture on December 23, 2013, 08:47:40 pm
I see. That will be a borrow or replace job then. not worth getting these things fixed nowadays.

I'd recommend converting the source footage to Mpeg 4 H264 codec. you won't notice the difference in quality, but the film will take up a lot less space on disk. This is what all the modern HD cameras use.
Title: Re: CAM CORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: Neil on December 23, 2013, 08:59:13 pm
eureka!!!!!!!........I found another scart lead and tried it........finally got it to work, and am now transferring to vhs and then edit onto DVD so I can tape different things on different dvd's.

thanks guys.
Title: Re: CAMCORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: Martin (Admin) on December 23, 2013, 11:05:20 pm

On a related note, what free video editor software is there out there?
( Apps that come with cameras is next to useless! )

 Martin
Title: Re: CAMCORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: Neil on December 23, 2013, 11:15:04 pm
I wouldn't have a clue on that one Martin........not that technically minded I'm sorry to say. {:-{ {:-{ {:-{

it's been a triumph in technology for me to get this far, I am such a numpty with it all.
Title: Re: CAMCORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: Peter Fitness on December 24, 2013, 12:58:06 am

On a related note, what free video editor software is there out there?
( Apps that come with cameras is next to useless! )

 Martin



Martin, I use Movie Maker, a free download from Microsoft available here


http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows7/products/features/movie-maker (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows7/products/features/movie-maker)


It's fairly basic but more than adequate for my purposes.


Peter.
Title: Re: CAMCORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: Subculture on December 24, 2013, 08:02:48 am
Good and free tend to be mutally exclusive when it comes to video editing software. You can get very cheap and good though.
 
A couple of packages I have used-
 
Linux- Openshot. Good software, a little eccentric in the way you edit with it, and still a few bugs, but it is free and produces high end results in the right hands.
 
Windows- Cybershot Power Director. Good powerful editing software, works with just about any source footage, unlike windows movei maker which is a bit fussy. Makes good use of acceleration with modern multicore processors and can also harness the GPU for improved realtime fades/wipes etc. Not free, but can be picked-up very cheaply especially if you don't have to have the latest version (version nine onwards is fine). Earlier versions tended to be buggy, so avoid those.
 
Mac- imovie. Can't claim experience of latest versions, but have used it in the past, and always thought it was great.
Title: Re: CAMCORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: essex2visuvesi on December 24, 2013, 10:15:41 am
You can get an early version of adobe premier for free from Adobes website.
Ill post the link later
Title: Re: CAMCORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: HawkEye on December 24, 2013, 11:46:33 am

On a related note, what free video editor software is there out there?
( Apps that come with cameras is next to useless! )

 Martin



Best free editing software perhaps ?

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/best-free-video-editing-software-9-top-programs-you-should-download-1136264    :-))

HawkEye

Title: Re: CAMCORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: Subculture on December 24, 2013, 12:10:11 pm
Don't go much on that selection to be honest. I have used many of the packages in that link, and they're either very difficult to get to grips with, or just poorly suited to editing (although very powerful for some things, for instance virtualdub is excellent for converting codecs).

I see they mention Lightworks, which is incredibly flexible, but getting it to work is like trying to knit fog, and I simply don't need this level of flexibility.

As an amateur level movie maker, all I require is the ability to accurately edit clips to trim away the chaff, apply simple fades and/or a lap dissolve and apply some basic titles. All the rest of the gizmos that come with editing packages I ignore.

the worst aspects of video production are the lack of standardization between formats. When consumer level digital video appeared in the mid to late nineties, all the manufacturers got together and agreed on a common standard, which became known as the DV codec. This simplified things enormously, then after a few years HD formats started to trickle in, but they diverted from this standard, using the newer Mpeg 2 (DVD) codec. With the advent of card based cameras things got more complicated still with the introduction of Mpeg 4 codecs.

Small wonder then that consumers get rather bamboozled by it all.
Title: Re: CAMCORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: essex2visuvesi on December 24, 2013, 12:59:11 pm
You can get an early version of adobe premier for free from Adobes website.
Ill post the link later


https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?pid=4485850&e=cs2_downloads


you will need an adobe login in order to access the page
Title: Re: CAMCORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: jaymac on December 24, 2013, 01:07:24 pm
 An old warhorse is Serif  not much information as to the product but  I weaned myself with there early  photo stuff in the late 90's  and found it  very good .Adobe premier  yeah  once you work your way round it its good.  Any of the early Magix  video stuff  also good albeit not free but can be got cheap on Amazon
 
http://www.serif.com/free-video-editing-software/?MC=serppcfdmp&gclid=CLm995T1yLsCFSbHtAodiVQAUQ (http://www.serif.com/free-video-editing-software/?MC=serppcfdmp&gclid=CLm995T1yLsCFSbHtAodiVQAUQ)
Title: Re: CAMCORDER HELP PLEASE
Post by: HawkEye on December 24, 2013, 01:36:57 pm

I have always used Powerdirector, seems to open and edit anything you throw at it, not free (unless you want it to be) but there is £70 off at the moment -

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector-ultra/features_en_GB.html?&r=1