Hi all I am new to the forums and want to say in advance thanks for all the help. The problem I am having is I have an older Sony Handy Cam (DCR-HC20) that I have transfered videos from to the PC. To do this I used a Fire Wire to USB connection. The quality of these videos is not that great. Its hard to remember now because it seems so long ago however I feel like the quality of these videos are less than the quality of a VHS tape. They just arent that great. I refuse to believe that DV is a lesser quality than VHS I could be wrong but I feel like people wouldnt of jumped on to this newer technology for such a loss. Am I wrong or does the problem lie with using fire wire to USB. Does a Fire Wire to Fire Wire connection improve or decrease quality loss? Is the paticular DV recording camera I am using just that crappy perhaps? I appreciate everyones help! Just a little more info FYI incase it helps. The comp is a Dual Core with all the fixins so no worries there. I used Windows Movie Maker to Capture the files then ended up using Sony Vegas Pro to edit and render. Thanks again let me know if you have a question.

Hi all I am new to the forums and want to say in advance thanks for all the help. The problem I am having is I have an older Sony Handy Cam (DCR-HC20) that I have transfered videos from to the PC. To do this I used a Fire Wire to USB connection. The quality of these videos is not that great. Its hard to remember now because it seems so long ago however I feel like the quality of these videos are less than the quality of a VHS tape. They just arent that great. I refuse to believe that DV is a lesser quality than VHS I could be wrong but I feel like people wouldnt of jumped on to this newer technology for such a loss. Am I wrong or does the problem lie with using fire wire to USB. Does a Fire Wire to Fire Wire connection improve or decrease quality loss? Is the paticular DV recording camera I am using just that crappy perhaps? I appreciate everyones help! Just a little more info FYI incase it helps. The comp is a Dual Core with all the fixins so no worries there. I used Windows Movie Maker to Capture the files then ended up using Sony Vegas Pro to edit and render. Thanks again let me know if you have a question.


I think Movie Makers quality is the problem try to capture it with Vegas. I havn't used movie maker in a while but i think it's the problem.

OK Im going to try that right now. Will take an hour or more doing it on and off and from capture to render but will post back as soon as im done. Thanks

Dissension...
Why are you going firewire to USB? Does the cable have firewire on one end and USB on the other?
That's probably why the quality is bad.
Use a firewire cable (both ends) I think for Sony it's called i.Link...Go out the camcorder firewire into the pc firewire card.

Going from Fire Wire (On the camera) To USB on the comp because I do not have a fire wire port on the computer. Will that definitely cause a quality issue? I was afraid it was. I could spend a few dollars on a fire wire. I wont bother putting a card on the comp Ill just run the fire wire to my DVD/VHS Recorder and then rip the disc on the comp. Will that for sure make a difference? I had been led to believe the only diff between firewire to firewire and firewire to usb was speed. Still not done capturing with Vegas btw. Had to step away for a bit but am doing now and will update when done.

It will definitely make a difference, probably a huge difference.

I'm not really familiar with this, but Sony's firewire is called "i.Link".

http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid183_gci749630,00.html


You should ask around or wait for someone else to respond in this thread, but the case may be that the Sony connectors don't use the same number of pins as other firewire standards. This may be important because you don't won't to force/bend any pins in a connection, especially on your camcorder.

As far as the pc firewire card, you can get a PCI firewire card easily for $15. Again, see what is involved with Sony. I just wanted to respond to alert you to this.

OK Im going to buy the cord tommorow and hope that also helps. I will say that I used Vegas to capture instead of Windows movie maker as recommended by Johnny and that has made quite a notable difference. It still doesnt seem to be even at VHS quality. However people closer to the camera are much much clearer. People farther in the backround are still very very blurry and hard to make out even the details on their face... outside of obvious like mouth eyes etc... but that was definitely a step in the right direction. I will repost after I have obtained the cable and have tried that route as well however will continue to check for more advice in the meantime. Thanks alot Johnny and XFWS. I will also mention while capturing on with Vegas I noticed at the bottom of the window it said source= 320x240...... what a horrible resolution... The question is, is that the maximum resolution output by the camera or a lessened resolution due to the fire wire to USB.... I hope its the ladder.

Good...be sure to find out if you need a specific Sony i.Link cable with x number of pins. You can probably count the holes on the camcorder's connection to be sure. A standard firewire cable might be the wrong amount of pins/or size and potentially could be damaging.

Also check for the correct pins on the other end; the pc or whatever device you are connecting to.

I've seen a lot of Sony-specific forums on the net. There might even be a forum at a Sony site or even the information in a knowledge base there.

nah no forum at sony unfortunately. that was the first place I checked. Thankfully I stumbled across this site though where so far you and Johnny have been very helpfull. Thanks again. Will update again tommorow

Dissension, I realized why you thought you were going "firewire to usb"..

A mini USB looks like firewire on one end and regular USB on the other, but it's actually a "mini-USB-to-USB" cable:

http://www.liquidware.com/system/0000/0016/USBmini_thumb.jpg

Regular USB on one end...... the other looks like firewire, but is actually what mini USB looks like...

...connects to:

http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/lifestyle/2001/hMiniUSBJack.jpeg

The symbol for USB looks like this:
http://www.technicalscribe.net/resources/usb.gif


...which can be confusing, because the firewire symbol looks like this:
http://www.iomega.com/cdrw/images/sup_zip1u_usb_symbol.gif

or:

http://www.build-your-own-cheap-computer.com/images/firewire.jpg


So, when you say you are getting a cable, make sure you are not connecting the smaller firewire end to the mini USB on your camcorder. - connect to the firewire on your camera.
Look at your manual or get a hold of one online to find out exactly where your firewire port is on your camera.

A Sony firewire i.Link cable looks like this:
http://www.yycomputer.net/products/cable/firewire4-6.jpg

You see one end is a larger firewire connection...the other smaller...but there is no USB (mini or regular) on this cable.


I'm stressing all this, because I've definitely heard of people forcing a wrong connection and bending pins in their camcorder.. if this happens, you may be screwed. The repair would probably cost more than the camera.

Here are a few forums:

http://videomaker.com/community/forums/forum/sony

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/

http://forums.cnet.com/5204-7594_102-0.html?forumID=59&tag=forum-w;forums06

I have an old SOny PC100E DV unit and my video was definitely better than VHS.

I would use a FireWire connection and save the file derectly to the HDD via Media Studio 6 VE. Once I had the 12Gb AVI file, then I would go to town with other software.

Seggers

Excellent post xfws.

Get the below.
http://www.yycomputer.net/products/cable/firewire4-6.jpg

That's what I use and it works great. I have an old TRV140 though. It was my understanding at the time I bought it, that using that firewire cable was the ONLY way to pull video off the camcorder at the highest quality. You could use USB but it would be highly degraded.

good post xfws!

LMAO!!! Great post XFWS! Now if only I had read that before going to the store today. I bought a firewire 4 pin to 4 pin. Got home was like hey... this isnt gonna work. Guess I needed 4 pin to 6 pin... Went back to store.. heyyy 6 pin is way too big... Looked at other connectors in the store.. Hey!!! I was using mini USB not firewire!! I had never heard of mini usb before so was completely unaware I was using it. So I returned home without exchanging only to find I just needed to plug it into a diff spot DOH!!! LoL!! So anyways I wanted to be cheap and I didnt buy a firewire card for my comp. Now Im running the 4 pin to the 4 pin on my DVD/VHS recorder and the quality looks 1000 times better as Im watching it capture it now. It also fits the whole screen now where as before it had some dead space on both ends of my wide screen tv. Im just gonna rip the dvd when its done so I dont have to spend the extra money on a firewire card. Thank you so much Johnny and especially XFWS!!! You have been a huge help. While Im here like I said I used Sony Vegas Pro to edit and do transitions and what not. However I would like to know if anyone has a software recommendation for editing with effects and transitions and what not. What do you guys like?

Now if only I had read that before going to the store today. I bought a firewire 4 pin to 4 pin. Got home was like hey...

Thanks guys..just trying to help out - don't want anyone to ruin their camcorder..
lol.. I knew that was going to happen, was thinking about it last night and posted it this morning.

Good to hear the quality has improved.
For standard definition, you can use Sony Vegas Movie Studio; lots of cool effects. Version 8 is cheaper now. If you plan on using HD in the future, you can also buy the Platinum Edition now, which covers both SD and HD.