Record from camcorder to PC for newbies

[mauriceh]

I have used VLC as a playback app in Windows and Linux for a long time.
Now I have a new challenge:
I have a lot of tapes on Super 8 and Mini DV, and I realize those devices are not going to exist much longer.
I need to transfer all my videos to a hard disk on a PC.
This is where the newbie stuff comes in..

Sony DCR-TRV120 HandyCam, with firewire, attached to PC with Firewire port.
All is working, as it sees the camera.
By trial and error I figured how to start the camcorder playback manually and capture to a file.
Questions:
Can VLC control the camera?
What is the best format to use for the video and audio?

I will not likely get another chance at this, and some of these videos mean a lot to my family.
If there is anything like a HOWTO or guide on this that someone can point me to, I would be extremely grateful..

[mauriceh]

Replying to myself:
What I have done so far, and what I see:
Started VLC ( 1.1.5)
Went to Media
Convert/Save
Selected "Capture Device" tab
In capture Mode, I get 3 choices shown:
DirectShow
DVB DirectShow
Desktop
What do these choices mean or do?

Leaving at the DirectShow default, I then select my Video device:
Microsoft DV Camera and VCR
For audio I chose:
Default

I did not do anything in Advanced Options.

Clicking on the Convert/Save button at the bottom of the window, I get:
Source: dshow://
Destination: I browsed to a location and entered a file name
By default it wants to give the file a ".ps" extension, which tells my system this is a Postscript file. Not. good.
I manually change the extension to ".mp4"
I clicked the "Show the output" box.
This has the effect of painting a grey area on the screen when I start the capture.
Without this I get a black VLC screen with nothing in the window
But no picture
I can see the camera playback on the LCD screen on the camera, so I know it is playing back something.
I selected a profile:
Video - H264 + AAC (MP4)
I leave all the profile options at the defaults for now..

Looking at the location, I see a file growing.
After a bit I stop it, and try playing back what I have on disk:
Picture looks good, no audio though.

Trying again, I choose the system sound card digital input: "Realtek Digital Input, instead of "default"
When I start the capture now, I hear audio from my system speakers.
Yay!
Still no image on the screen, however, just a grey box.

When I stop this, and play back the result: Video is good, but still no audio.

I confess I am stumped.
I can capture video, but no audio.
System is getting audio as it plays on the system when I am capturing.
However it is not in the stream when I play back from the hard drive.

Any ideas?