I'm working on digitising hi8 tapes. I was using the original Canon camcorder the tapes were shot on to record via s-video into virtualdub2/amarectv via a gv2usb capture card, however both were giving me audio drift issues that I couldn't reliably solve. I do have a ViewCast Osprey 260e PCI-E Analog Video card on the way which I was going to replace the gv2usb with, but I later discovered you can capture hi8 tapes via firewire from a backwards compatible digital8 Sony camcorder, which would reliably keep the audio in sync.
I am using the Sony TRV355e Digital8 Camcorder and my mid 2012 macbook pro with it's inbuilt firewire port to record. All of my footage has a transparent green line on the right side of the frame. See this
image. I have tried multiple capture softwares, however this problem seems inherent to the way my camera processes the tape. After searching this forum I found multiple posts on this issue, but the only solution offered was to crop the green line out. This means losing part of the footage underneath, which
iscaptured properly via s-video, which I really don't want to lose.
All of the posts I have seen focus on solving the users problem with their particular set up, but instead I am asking whether there is
any solution at all possible to record hi8 via firewire without this issue - whether that be with a different camcorder, or a different kind of dv capture device. Otherwise, is there a method to get reliable audio sync during the initial capture of hi8 tapes, and for that matter, any other kind of tape without needing to fix it in post?
I do also have a Panasonic DMR-ES15 on the way which I was planning to use with my S-VHS player - I don't know if that would help at all in capturing hi8 via s-video into say, the superior Viewcast I will have.
Thanks!
