s-video output on Digital8 camcorder?
 

Hello,

I am trying to digitize all my video 8 tapes into a lossless video format. I have two camcorders: a Sharp VL-E765 video 8 camcorder that the tapes were originally recorded on, and a Sony DCR-TRV330 Digital 8 camcorder that I burrowed from a friend. I recorded the same tape using both devices with a analog to USB dongle and I was surprised that both recordings looked different. I understand that for video 8 and high 8 tapes, using the firewire connection on a Digital 8 camcorder compresses the image and makes it lose much of its color data. But when I recorded the tapes I used the composite output on both camcorders so I was surprised that there was any difference. The Video 8 camcorder only outputs one channel of audio, but to me the color seems to more vibrant than the Digital 8 camcorder, though the overall video quality looks about the same.


So my question is this: Is the Digital 8 camcorder converting the signal to a DV format then back to analog or does the composite and s video outputs both output a purely analog signal the way a normal video 8 or high 8 camcorder would?


I would like to add that when I actually record the tapes I'll use s video instead of composite, I just used composite for the test because the video 8 camcorder didn't have one.

You should compare the S-Video captures not the composite, if one only has S-Video it is automatically the winner regardless how its composite output looked like.
To answer your question about the Digital8, Yes D8 camcorders don't have a true analog output path, the signal gets digitized and stabilized first and then converted back to analog for output but not in DV standard (though no one knows what chroma sub Sony uses in their line TBC, we just assume that they are not stupid to not use 4:2:2).

In the other hand, Video8 and Hi8 camcorders equipped with line TBC act like a D8 camcorder when the TBC is on, but when it is off they output true analog signal.

Some D8 may bypass the DV circuits, but many/most do not. It's something to be aware of. Testing required. DV is obvious at 200%, color loss, gray smears, color tint changes (especially stark reds and greens and blues).

DV is output via firewire only, It is not fed back to the analog outputs, But the analog came from an internal ADC/DAC conversion for D8 camcorders, according to the diagram below:

Digital8 Camcorders:
Analog tape -> ADC -> TBC/DNR -> DAC -> Analog output
Analog tape -> ADC -> TBC/DNR -> DAC -> DV Encoder -> Firewire (iLink)
Digital tape -> DV Processor -> Firewire

Analog Camcorder:
Analog tape -> ADC -> TBC/DNR -> DAC -> Analog output - When TBC on.
Analog tape -> Analog output - When TBC is off.