I have two Sony DV Tape camcorders and I replaced my first one with the newer version only to find out it no longer had a video input.

The reason I like this is frankly it's the easiest way I've found to remove programing from my Directv Tivo and then download it to my NAS drive. I then can use any PC or my linktheater to watch and of the stored programs from any TV in the house and it's in a safe and convienent place.

Now I think I'd like to purchase a new camcorder with a hard drive of it's own which would cut one step out of the recording that I do now with my Sony DCR-PC330 camcorder.

I'd like to upgrade to one of the HD-hard drive units sony has but hey guess what, they don't have video inputs.

I found a non-HD Sony the DCR-Sr300 and for the most part it seems to be a good unit but I'd sure like to move up the HiDef recorder.

Any one know of any non sony units that I should look at?

BTW, I thought along the way that for my non-HiDef maybe I'd just pick up a good USB Mpeg encoder and so I purchased the Pinacle 710-USB for $150 and it drops more frames than it keeps half the time. I'm using a 2 GHZ machine with 1 Gig of memory and it makes no sense. If it's doing all the encoding than all I'm doing is copying the Mpeg2 stream to the Laptop and saving it to the hard drive so why the dropped frames?

BTW2, My mediacenter Helios X5000 will play Hidef files from the NAS drive.

Any ides, please...

John

Update: Although I was told the Sony had inputs it does not. I'm now loking at the JVC everio gz-mg555 and I've read the manual and it does have video inputs.

john

It's weird that many cameras don't have inputs. I think the only input my Sony SR7 has is the usb2 port, which simply lets me move stuff back and forth to it's hard drive. I don't know of a way for it to actually record data through it, and the manual doesn't say anything about doing that.

The JVC camera you mention has a smaller hard drive (30 gigs) and is only Standard Definition.

Larry Becker

I've been upgrading Sony camcorders for years and have always used the line in for something, computer video or video from some other device. Every camcorder from Sony had it until I upgraded from my DCR-PC100 that had inputs to the DCR-PC330 which no longer did. This DCR-SR300 is going back tomorrow and I'm moving from Sony to the JVC unit. It seems like a great feature but it's a feature I could not find on any Hidef camera. I would love to move up to a hidef Hard drive camcorder but I really want this input feature. It's just som much easier recording video to it.

John

I wonder if it's a digital hi def issue... Even though my Hi def Dish Network pvr records in hi def, it only lets me make copies off the recorder in standard def. I use a dvd writer to do that, and it works ok, but only through composite or s-video outputs.

I have an ANCIENT Sony Hi-8 camera and stand alone recorder that I could record through the inputs on, but it was only s-video as well. It was designed to facilitate editing. That's all there was 15 years ago anyway. Now they gather dust -- I can't imagine anyone would be interested in such equipment, and I am totally spoiled with the hi def and hard drive recording I've got now.

The JVC might be a pretty cost-effective way to go about this for you.

Larry

How about firewire - it's bi-directional.
I can read and write to my Canon HV-10 using the firewire port.

The JVC seemed like a good idea but I've found out it records not to Mpeg but a propietary file and so that's out.

I don't need to record from inputs in hidef but I'd love to have a Hidef camera and if I found one that would allow me to record to it through a analog input that would be great.

j

The Canon HV20 supports analog inputs but only records standard def via the analog in. It will also transfer video digitally using FireWire between two camcorders and keeps the format of the original tape - so MiniDV stays MiniDV, HDV stays HDV.