[roger21]

Hello all,
I have a panasonic PV-L578. It is a non-digital camcorder. it records on the smaller tapes that you then put inside a regular sized tape to watch on your VCR. I have a few questions:

1. Do you know how i can get the footage that i have took onto my computer to edit? I have heard i need some kind of wire? A firewire is it called? If a firewire, I hav noticed that there are a bunch of different kinds and sizes of firewires, would anyone know which size i would need or would a employee at a camera store know?

2.In the footage that I have took, the date and time are on the bottom corner of the screen. I have figured out how to take my footage without having that appear on the screen now. But does anyone know if there is a way to get rid of the time and date that appears on the screen from footage that has already been shot? If I put the tape with the footage back in the camcorder, can I somehow get rid of the time and date that way.

Thank you very much, I hope you get what I am talking about.
-Roger

[Whiteskin]

It depends on your type of tape. If i am correct, it's probably a High-8, or mini-DV tape.

If it's a mini-DV tape, look for an output port from your camera (try the manual). If it is firewire, you will see a little port that looks a little like this (http://devicebaystuff.com/images/6to4_firewire.gif) the smaller one. You will then need a firewire cable for the connection, plus a program to pull the video.

Sometimes cameras output using a mini-headphone jack like port. If that's the case, you will need a cable that splits into three RCA connectors, and a TV capture card to get at the video. I would bet it's the former, rather than the latter.

Best bet is looking in the manual. As for the date, that setting is almost certainly on the camera, somewhere. Do you have a flip out screen with which you can acess a menu?

[roger21]

Thank you very much for the quick reply.I will check out the manual about the ports and such.

The camera has a button on the top which says "display." This button will either make the date and time appear on the screen, or have it say nothing, whatever you wish. So this means that if I were going to film something right now, I could make it so the screen would not say the date or the time. Which is how i would like it. But the problem is that i have footage on an old tape and I would like to get rid of the time and date if possible. I don't think it is possible but I would like to see if it somehow is, wheater with some type of editing program or whatever. I tried putting the old tape in the camcorder and into the playback mode. Then tried hitting the "display" button to try to get ride of the time and date but that did not work. Anyone know any ways in getting rid of the time and date of footage on a tape that has already been filmed?
thanks you very much
-roger

[linskyjack]

Its not mini-dv--thats digital- he said its not digital.

[kiwiguy]

Its VHS-C

Its highly unlikely to have any firewire output on the camera, most likely just Analogue RCA.

[linskyjack]

Yup--then he needs something like the Canopus box to convert from VHS-C to digital. T

[roger21]

Yes,it is VHS-C. So i need something like a Canopus box? I will have to look into that.

Does anyone what the quality of the footage will be like when i transfer it to the computer? Compared to the quality of a digital camcorder?

Also, can anyone answer the question of the time and date appereance above?

thank you
-roger

[Whiteskin]

Quality will be les so, but then again it also depends on how you compress it. As for the editing out of the date and time, it may be on there hard, and the only thing I can perhaps think of is using video editing software to put a black bar across the bottom (or bottom and top, making it look like 16:9 footage)

[linskyjack]

Lots depends on the quality of the VHS-C analog footage. I just converted a bunch of VHS-C footage for an agency, and made a pretty effective DVD for them. Looks pretty good.

[roger21]

I have heard of hooking my vcr(with the tape in the vcr) up to my computer and the computer could somehow capture the footage that way?
Is this poosible?