The VideoLAN Forums

I'm just gonna say what I want to use; If it can be done, yeah, I'll want some
direction.

2+ older Sony tape based camcorders (DCR-TRV19, DCR-HC36, maybe a DCR-TRV840;
zero Windows discs for any of them), Linux (straight up Linux, no Wine to run
Windows based capture software), Laptop with only USB (so USB only for data
transfer), VLC, digital file for final output (I want no optical media in my
life).

If your answer includes needing a 'raw1394' layer for USB, as of kernel 2.6.37
raw1394 support is no longer available in the kernel (I'm running kernel 4.4.4,
too many things would break trying to use 2.6.35 or earlier) and raw1394 use is
deprecated (raw1394 hasn't been updated since April 2013, over 3 years ago).
Just not a useful path today.

I've read that there is an ability to use /dev/usb for video capture but the
process related configuring different video capture software.

VLC can do this?

if there is a v4l2 interface for this, yes. Else, no.

v4l2 has some components installed atm.

I see 2 packages are installed (v4l2ucp, and v4l2loopback-utils).
I see 2 packages not installed (v4l2loopback-dkms and v4l2loopback-source).

Am I likely to succeed as is? If yes, should I simply launch VLC and poke from inside VLC?

tyvm.

It's about V4L2 drivers, not V4L2-related packages.

Not sure where to look to obtain drivers.

Linuxtv.org?