Driver download?

[Eireann]

I have two - count 'em, two - camcorders that were given to me.

One is several years old. The other is older. Say, turn of the millennium older.

I have FireWire now, and it works, which I know from plugging the cameras into the port and being told that the device driver is downloading, then receiving a message that the driver download failed.

I do have two drivers from the manufacturer of one of the cameras, and the damned thing won't install. I haven't been able to find the driver for the older camera.

Newer camera: Samsung VP-D31

Older camera: JVC GR-DV1800e

If I can't get the drivers working, where can I get a piece of hardware to read the mini cassettes?

[corwin02]

I have two - count 'em, two - camcorders that were given to me.

Newer camera: Samsung VP-D31

Older camera: JVC GR-DV1800e

If I can't get the drivers working, where can I get a piece of hardware to read the mini cassettes?

I can only find a windows 98/windows 2000 drivers for the JVC and the samsung
http://www.helpdrivers.com/cameras/JVC/GR-DV1800/
http://www.nodevice.com/driver/VP-D31/get70625.html

So if you have an old PC with 98 or W2K you can install them , copy the stuff off and then copy it to your machines

Do not install these on XP or W7!! they will most likely trash your PC since in general where it comes to drivers OS's are not all that downward compatible

[wolfie]

What kind of mini cassette do the 2 camcorders take? The 2 I know of are 8mm (you'd need an 8mm deck, and pretty much the only consumer-level decks for it are built into camcorders), and VHS-C (tape and recording format are same as VHS, there's a "shell" adapter so you can play the tape in a standard VHS deck).

Do the camcorders have standard A/V outputs (yellow RCA plug for video, red and white for the 2 audio channels)? If so, you've got another option - pretty much any video capture card to read the signal through the "analog hole". The one I've heard the most about is the ATI (now AMD) All-in-Wonder.

[Eireann]

They both take mini DV cassettes. These cassettes are freely available, but... I have no way of downloading the footage on them. Neither of them has an A/V output.

[emax4]

Look for a hidden compartment somewhere with an A/V output. VCRs don't have FireWire, and there had to be some way to hit PLAY on the camcorder and have the video show up on the TV set. Better yet, Google the model of the camcorders to find a PDF manual online that has this information.

[Eireann]

Okay, I FINALLY found them. One is on a part that fits on the back of the older camcorder, in the battery slot. It's a single, round opening. The other is on the front of the newer camcorder, and it's the kind of plug you see for monitors and such (I'm not very technical, I know).

So, what now?

[Chromatix]

One of them is probably a "triple jack" - the plug that goes into it looks like a stereo headphones jack, but with an extra section which carries a composite-video signal. It should be easy to find a cable that has one of those on one end, and three RCA jacks on the other, like this one:



Your description of the other socket is very ambiguous, but it might be a HDMI socket - these are sort of trapezoidal. It might also be a mini-HDMI socket, which are the same shape but a different size.

[Eireann]

Here they are:

[Eireann]

And the second one:

[Ironclad Alibi]

These links might help you:

Samsung VP-D31 Manual

JVC GR-DV1800e Manual

[Fire_on_High]

Do not install these on XP or W7!! they will most likely trash your PC since in general where it comes to drivers OS's are not all that downward compatible

Actually there's a reasonable chance the win2k driver would work fine on XP. Create a restore point and give it a go if you feel lucky.

[wolfie]

Did a bit of browsing on the JVC manual, and it looks like one of the connection options is the standard "4 conductor 3.5 mm plug to 3x RCA plugs" cable. My browser doesn't like the online Samsung manual, and from the picture you gave, it looks like a proprietary connector. Getting nonstandard accessories for older electronic devices is VERY difficult.

Are the tapes interchangeable between the 2 camcorders? That would make things easier, since you'd only need to be able to hook up one of the camcorders. For reasons I mentioned, you'll probably have more luck with the JVC.

[Eireann]

The tapes are interchangeable, yes. I really don't know what to do with this setup. I installed a legacy driver for FireWire, but I haven't rebooted yet, so we'll see what happens. I did discover that when I plug in the Samsung, the computer automatically tries to find a device driver for it, then tells me that it couldn't, because the device was unplugged. It wasn't unplugged, but it looks like it just shuts off after about a minute.

[Chromatix]

I've never tried to do video editing using Windows, but I'm always surprised about what it seems to need drivers for. A camcorder attached over Firewire operates using a standard protocol which should be understood by the import function of any good video-editing software. Then again, the same is true of USB joysticks, mice, keyboards, hard disks... all of which Windows will happily spend a full minute "installing" a driver for if you haven't plugged that precise device into that precise socket before.

[Eireann]

Some (small) success. When I turned on the computer a few minutes ago, and waited until it was up to speed, I plugged in the Samsung and turned it on. A window popped up telling me that a digital video device had been detected, and what did I want to do?

The window then disappeared. I attempted to import it, but the computer didn't show it as being connected. Which makes me wonder if it's the camera, rather than the computer, that dropped the ball this time.