Sony DCR-PC10 Capture
 

Hey everyone newbie here,

I am trying to ascertain the best way to transfer over 60 Sony MiniDV (DVM60PR) tapes to a non lossy format to store on my computer to be able to viewed over apple tv, or just simply on the computer, with also the ability to burn to a DVD in the future.

I just got done trying VIDBOX (bought from amazon) and was less than impressed. There was a very noticeable loss in video quality, compared to playback via composite cables direct from camcorder to tv, the software "captured" in an mpeg format, it had zero options for editing, and would allow me to convert to mp4 for a further loss in quality. That, on top of added judder/stutter in the captured video when panning or zooming, judder that does not exist in the original video when playing from Sony camcorder. I used simple audio/video out to the VIDBOX device, would using an S-video cable fix the issues related to the problems above? It also has a DV in-out which I assume to be firewire, but it went unused in this VIDBOX endeavor.

Honestly I am just looking for the best way to capture the video in a digital format on my computer that preserves the current quality on the DV tape, if anyone has any experience or opinion regarding the best way to do this I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. Thanks!

MiniDV tapes are digital and should be transferred to computer as such no need to a capture device, If you have a desktop PC you can add a PCI firewire card and connect your camcorder via a firewire cable, use WinDV to transfer the tape. On Mac you need a firewire to thunderbolt adapter, I don't own Mac so I don't know what program to use to copy DV stream to Mac.

As noted above, the DV information transferred over fire wire is the data read off the tape. There are no additional losses beyond what were incurred with the initial DV encoding to tape (and any tape read errors). You can archive that data. It can be transcoded from the DV computer file to what ever intermediate e.g., lossless) codec you want to use for editing at a future date as needed. And it can be transcoded to MP4 or other efficient distribution format for viewing convenience on what ever platform you chose. However, retain the original DV files for your archive.

Thanks guys, I do have a desktop PC I recently built, would perform this task seamlessly I would think, I've just never done this before so I'm wading into new territory. Would this firewire card work for my needs?

https://www.amazon.com/Syba-Firewire-PCI-Express-XIO2213B-Chipset/dp/B006DQ0KD2/

And any suggestions for a firewire cable that would surely be compatible with the Sony DCR-PC10? Is it as simply as just installing the firewire card, connecting camera to the computer and using the stated software, the software just picks up the digital file from the tape? No need to rewind, play thru tape, etc? I'm assuming there are some older firewire drivers I would have to install as well... Thanks for the replies guys.

That card will likely work if it fits your PC and OS.

Win 7/8/10 generally require the so called "legacy" driver. It is shipped with 7, but needs to be D/L with 8 and 10.

Transfer from tape is a real-time process. It takes and hour (plus setup time) to transfer a 1 hour tape. The tape is played back during this process. (Tape is a linear/sequential media, not random access like memory cards.)

Some DV capture software can control the player via firewire. The user interface provides VCR-like on screen controls.

Any reasonable priced firewire cable should work provided it has the right pin-out. Typically 4 pins connector at the camcorder, 6-pin at the card. But keep the cable short and avoid the cheapest 99 cent specials.

It is generally better to use A/C power for the source player. Avoid hot swapping the cables. While you can in theory, many people have blown camcorder ports doing it. Some systems may want a certain power-up sequence to properly recognize the camcorder.

Also, be sure the camcorder is set to a playback mode, not a record mode, or the handshaking with the PC software might allow transfer to the PC. (Some camcorders default to recorder mode and communicate that over firewire).

In summary it is not difficult, but with some systems it can be a bit tricky to get everything working together.

Thanks dpalomaki,

Under the amazon reviews it says it works seamlessly with Windows 10, and I'd be putting it on a Asus z390g MOBO:
(2 x PCIe 3.0 x 16 (CPU)
1 x PCIe 3.0 x 16 (PCH, at x4 mode)
3 x PCIe 3.0 x 1 (PCH))

So I think I'm covered, another review says it has 2x 1394b and 1x 1394a, is there an advantage to using the 4pin/6pin over the 4pin/9pin, because I see more of the latter...?

Also do you agree with other recommendations that I got that WinDV is the software to use?

I have been using A/V power for the camcorder so I'm good there. I think I will pull the trigger on that firewire card, it seems like people have had success with it. I'm still confused as to how video is actually stored on these MiniDV tapes. Originally I thought they were actual tapes and required a "capture device" to pull any video. Now I understand that they are digital, but I'm confused because they're digital but you can't just pull the video file off the tape, it does require playback through the whole video, which intuitively makes me think that it is spinning tape... confusing.

DV is just like Digital8, the camcorder record the video from the camera imaging sensor converts it to digital and store it on tape as digital data, The same data can be extracted and transferred to computer via a firewire port and saved as a AVI DV files, Due to the limitation of the DV hardware the data can only be read and streamed in real time as it was recorded in the first place. There are few media players, stand alone or software based that can still playback native DV files.
WinDV and Scenalizer Live are good DV transfer apps. CapDVHS is another option but it was specifically geared towards D-VHS transfers.

UPDATE: A little follow up for those on this thread who helped me out or anyone who stumbles on this thread in the future looking for a fix.
I have it working like a charm at present.
I purchased this card: Syba SY-PEX30016 3 Port IEEE 1394
And this FireWire cable: RocketBus 4-Pin to 6-Pin
Both from amazon.

I installed the FireWire card on an Asus z390 Mobo, I downloaded WindDV, I opened WinDV plugged Sony PCR-DC10 into computer via FireWire, WinDV detected that there was a device plugged in. Then I clicked capture in WinDV, began playback of tape on the handycam controls, and WinDV saved an avi file for each record/stop moment on the tape (average of 30-60 field per tape; total 13Gb per tape). Beautiful playback of video comparatively, as there is no loss in quality. No legacy drivers were installed to make this process work, it was very plug and play.

Many thanks to all on this thread who helped me out.

I do have one more question: I love that each time stamp is a different avi file as I will now easily be able to edit the video and combine as I like, especially in creating “chapters” for a dvd application, but many of the files are only short snippets that are 10-20sec long. Is there a software that anyone recommends that combines multiple avi files into a singular avi file with no compression/loss of quality? For one storage/backup application I’d like to combine all avi files into a singular avi file for each tape (all 63 min off one tape), thanks again!