connect sony dcr trv 110e via i link to samsung computer

[joskirr86]

Hi,

I have some sony 8mm tapes recorded on my  old sony camcorder ccd trv45.

I also have a digital8 sony camcorder dcr trv 110e. As i understand it, this will transfer my tapes via i link to my samsung r620 laptop computer,as there is no i link conection on my laptop computer, i purchased an i link to usb connector, (usb 2.0 a male to 4 pin firewire ieee 1394),the firewire end will not fit in the camcorder as it does not push far enough in,i do not want to push it to hard for fear of damage,so my questions are,

(is the i link a slightly different size connector to firewire) ?

(can you tell me exactly what cable i should use)?

(is it possible to have an i link socket fitted to my laptop computer)?

Please help,at 68 i am struggling to understand modern technology and would appreciate any advice.

Kind Regards

John.

[blaireau_photo]

Hello John,

As far as I am aware, there are no effective converters/adapters that will allow you plug a firewire lead into a USB socket and furthermore, any examples that I have seen in the past have had problems with compatibility. If you let me know your exact make and model of laptop, I will take a look at the specification to see if it is possible to fit a firewire socket as it can be a bit of a lottery. It all depends on the exact model and the details should be printed on a sticker attached to the base of the unit.

Thanks,

Simon

[joskirr86]

Hi Simon,

Firstly thanks very much for your quick reply,

My laptop is a samsung (np-r620-fs02uk) purchased new in 2010.

My camcorder is a sony dcr-trv-110e, its an old digital8 model but it has backward compatability with sony standard 8 and hi 8 tapes.

The camcorder has an i-link socket which i understand is the best way to transfer my 8mm tapes

to my computer.

However i have no i-link or firewire socket on my laptop  ,so i purchased a  lead from pluscom (0.5 meter usb 2.0 a male to 4 pin firewire ieee 1394 cable lead adapter) however when i tried to connect the firewire end into my  sony camcorder it would not push in far enough,it looks the right size and shape,but i dont want to damage the socket by pushing it in too hard,so i think this is the wrong cable.

Hope you can help.

Kind Regards

John.

[blaireau_photo · Accepted solution]

Hello again

I have taken a look at the specification of this laptop and I have noticed that you should have an Expresscard expansion slot located somewhere. You can purchase an iLink Expresscard from retailers such as Amazon which you can then install into the computer and this will give you at least one functioning iLink socket. One example is listed on Amazon and the review page is here (I am not allowed to post direct sales links but the product purchase page can be accessed from within this link):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B006FXV84S/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Once you have this installed, you should be able to capture video using either your own video software or the free version of Movie Maker that is available with Windows. There is also a guide published by Sony which gives further information about transferring video to a computer and it is available here:

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/topics/videotransfer

Thanks,

Simon

[joskirr86]

Hi Simon,

I am so very gratefull for your help,my Samsung laptop does have an Expresscard slot on the front left hand side,I have purchased a Expresscard from Amazon today, and look forward to using it.

One last thing if you don't mind me asking,I have around forty or so ninety minuet tapes to convert from Sony 8mm cassettes to DVD,I understand that for every hour of tape it takes around 13gigabite of space on my hard drive,I have been looking at the possibility of purchasing an external hard drive and storing them all on this before editing them,does this sound logical to you and if so could you recommend what external hard drive would be the best to purchase,I value your advice and once again would be grateful of your help,hope you don't mind.

Kind Regards

John.

[Mick2011]

Hi John

It's generally not important to get the very fastest drive available. While you can get USB 3.0 externals that deliver blistering read-write times, I stilll use USB 2.0 drives quite happily for video recording and playback without issues. That said, USB 3.0 is almost unavoidable at the moment and often backward-compatible with 2.0.

Buying is probably best besed on GB/£ and a good, branded USB 3.0 1TB drive shouldn't cost you more than £70, giving you up to 90 hours of full-resolution video storage. Larger capacity often works out cheaper per GB, so you may want to look at 2GB or 3GB drives as options.

Cheers

Mick

[joskirr86]

Hi Mick2011,

Thanks for the information,there are so many to choose from I am still unsure about what I am doing.

At the moment I am looking at a Verbatim 47514 it is 2tb and USB2 only, priced on amazon at £81.36.

However I have also noticed  a Verbatim 53020 1tb with Esata and USB2 connections at £86.55,

and  a Freecom 56066 1tb with usb3 backward compatable to usb2, firwire400/800, and Esata connections at £108.70.

I only mention these last two because my Samsung computer has all these connections,and I thought it might give me better connectivity options.

I still am not sure what I am doing but thank you for your help.

Kind Regards

John.

[Mick2011]

The eSATA/firewire drives will be the fastest but you should be fine with USB 2.0 and considering you get twice the storage for the same price, I'd go for the 2TB one. Faster connectivity is nice, but not essential. As you're looking at storage the only drawback of this choice will be the longer write times. WIth video files this can be considerable, and eSATA is upto 10 times faster than USB 2.0, but I'd still regard it as a bit of a luxury.

If you want options such as USB 3.0, Firewire and eSATA you will pay for them, often quite dearly... the cheapest drives have the simplest connectivity options, so really that's a choice only you can make. USB 2.0 isn't likely to be obsolete any time soon, but you may feel you can 'future-proof' your purchase now by buying into the newer/faster interfaces now.

Hope that's of some help.

Mick

[joskirr86]

Hi Mick,

Thanks for your help and advice,I am sure you are right,I am still looking, but now I have the extra information from yourself i feel I have more confidence in making a decision.

Many thanks

Kind Regards

John.

[blaireau_photo]

Hello again John

Please let us know how you get on with the whole process. That's some good advice from Mick about the storage as I have always put a lot of consideration into future proofing for a little extra money

Simon