Video Asylum

TVs, VCRs, DVD players, Home Theater systems and more.

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RE: Digital Video to PC [Firewire to USB]

Posted by bassbinotoko on August 21, 2019 at 12:41:30:
Install a Firewire port on the computer? I've had the best results using the Firewire port on an Audigy 2 ZS sound card (compared with motherboard Firewire or a Firewire-only card). Those cards could be picked up cheap at computer recyclers like Freegeek. (It's nicest to get the version with the Live Drive front panel, but a bare-bones version still has the back-panel Firewire port.)

As for capture software, I've recently been using WinDV to transfer MiniDV recordings. It can also record streaming video from a camcorder. So, play your SVHS recordings into a MiniDV camcorder (that has analog inputs) and the camcorder will digitize the audio and video and send it to the computer over Firewire. For the best quality analog captures, there should be a Time Base Corrector involved; TBCs can be standalone pro devices, but VCRs, camcorders, and capture devices may also include that function. My setup involves an SVHS Sony VCR that claims to have TBC, and the analog video from that goes to a Sony camcorder that also claims to have TBC. Either way, I'm getting better looking captures than I got when I used various PC analog capture cards.