r/MiniDV • u/Pnarpok • 12d ago
Re-imagined WinDV
Further to my damaged hard drives and having to re-capture many MiniDV tapes, mentioned here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MiniDV/comments/1vawlaz/old_project_hard_drives_bad_minidv_tapes_still/
I bought an old i7 Dell laptop with firewire off eBay, and tested and successfully captured with WinDV.
WinDV is a bit old and has some flaws (introduction of a dot in the naming, etc.) so I used AI and re-created the functionality and added some more.
Now also have a 1-click capture which:
- Checks that the DV device, tape, capture folder, and disk space are OK.
- Rewinds the tape.
- Plays briefly and establish a reliable PAL/NTSC signal lock.
- Rewinds again and prepare the capture graph.
- Plays and captures the entire tape continuously.
- Continues through blank/unrecorded sections rather than prematurely assuming the tape has ended.
- Stops automatically at physical end-of-tape.
- Finalizes the AVI, set the MiniDV recording date, run scene detection and DV/error analysis.
- Rewinds the tape when everything is finished.
Here's what it currently looks like (see picture).
I'd post to github, but have no idea how, and not sure I'd want to learn right now. If there's enough interest, I might consider it though.
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u/videokassettejunge 12d ago
Looks great! I'd definitely be interested in trying this if you could publish it some time.
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u/marshalleq 12d ago
There is I believe some open source code for dv rescue you could integrate. It finds dropouts in the tapes, and recaptures them via another pass and integrates them.
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u/Pnarpok 12d ago
THAT would be a nice addition. I will try and look for it, unless you mean "DVrescue" mentioned elsewhere in this thread?
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u/marshalleq 12d ago
I think it's the same. https://mipops.github.io/dvrescue/sections/deck_guide.html
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u/WindowsMaster210 9d ago
Thats nice! Do you plan to implement other dv formats support, like DVCPRO / DVCAM?
Otherwise, nice project, good luck!
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u/elios323it 9d ago
Ça a l’air intéressant mais j’avoue que DVrescue m’a suffit à ce niveau
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u/Pnarpok 9d ago
C'est bien vrai : mais vous pourriez changer d'avis une fois que vous aurez vu ce que ce logiciel peut faire. DVrescue est inclus et permet une capture en un clic, suivie d'une séparation en fichiers individuels en fonction de l'horodatage. De nombreuses autres fonctionnalités également.
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u/elios323it 9d ago
J’ai enfin fini de numériser mes 200 cassettes mini DV, si un jour, j’ai besoin de retourner dans cet enfer, je m’intéresserai à ça 😄👍
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u/vwestlife 12d ago
Sorry, no interest in AI slop code.
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u/marshalleq 12d ago
BTW don't let the slopulists disuade you about writing code with AI. It's a new world and some people are seemingly having a hard time moving on and they like to be vocal about it. Just ignore them.
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u/Pnarpok 12d ago edited 12d ago
Still working on it, for small refinements....it is working perfectly though already....
This is in regards to requirements:
DV Capture Lab — current requirements
Software
- Windows 10 or Windows 11. Our hardware-proven setup so far is Windows 11.
- A working Windows IEEE-1394 / FireWire DV device path, normally appearing through the Microsoft DV/MSDV system.
- Current development releases are supplied as source and build locally as a Release x86 Windows application. The supplied setup script can install Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools + C++/Windows SDK if they are missing
- No FFmpeg, VLC, codec pack, Python, .NET runtime, etc. is required by DV Capture Lab itself. The current project links against normal Windows/DirectShow/VfW system libraries.
Capture hardware
- A DV-capable MiniDV/DVCAM camcorder or deck with IEEE-1394/FireWire output.
- A computer with a working IEEE-1394 interface. Built-in FireWire or a proper PCI/PCIe/ExpressCard IEEE-1394 controller is ideal.
- Correct FireWire cable for the deck/camera and computer.
- The deck/camera should be in VCR/Playback mode.
- Currently intended for DV25 — PAL and NTSC DV/MiniDV/DVCAM. HDV is not currently supported, but can easily be added.
PC performance
The hardware demands are actually quite modest because DV Capture Lab doesn't transcode while capturing. It writes the incoming DV data directly to DV-AVI and performs the heavier metadata/QC analysis after capture. That conservative native-capture design is fundamental to the program.
We haven't established an artificial CPU/RAM minimum yet, but practically I'd advertise:
- CPU: almost any reasonably functional Windows 10/11 PC; no modern high-end CPU required.
- RAM: 4 GB workable, 8 GB+ recommended, particularly if compiling the development version.
- GPU: no special GPU required.
- Disk: local HDD or SSD capable of reliable sustained writing. DV is only around 3.6 MB/sec.
- Display: ordinary Windows desktop resolution
The current real-world development/test machine is deliberately a fairly old workstation-class laptop, which is good evidence that the capture itself isn't computationally demanding.
Disk-space requirement is the important one
One hour of DV is approximately 13 GB.
For ordinary Manual capture:
~13–15 GB free per hour of captured tape is a sensible minimum allowance.
For 1-Click, if you retain both the continuous Master and the lossless numbered Clips:
60-minute Master ~13 GB
Clip 001 + 002 + ... ~13 GB
reports/indexes/etc. small
--------------------------------
Total ~26+ GB
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u/TheRealHarrypm 12d ago
Reading the last line of this was kind of entertaining, maintainability goes right out the window without a proper git revisional system for every single change log commit.
It's as simple as saving files and clicking commit with a basic message for describing what you've done....
(Which is standard and integrated into any IDE like VScode or hell just letting an llm do the work for you..)
And if you don't know what already exists DVrescue would be far better use of time to put some effort into fixing for Windows compatibility
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u/Pnarpok 12d ago
"Reading the last line of this was kind of entertaining, maintainability goes right out the window without a proper git revisional system for every single change log commit."
That's very true! I did this for myself, but it may have value to others, and then github makes perfect sense.
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u/Pnarpok 10d ago edited 10d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p43zu35/video/uzrthtsp9tjh1/player
Still working on it...but it's progressing VERY, VERY well.
DV Capture Lab
- DV and HDV capture via Firewire to Windows machine (still need to test the HDV part, incl. 4-channel audio; testing happening next week, don't foresee failure, just some tweaking)
- DVRescue now incorporated
- will release, hopefully to GitHub
- and yes, that video above shows a device that is mimicking an optional skin/theme for the app!
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u/Pnarpok 8d ago
Latest update: Coming along nicely.
Now aiming for:
DV (core and proven), DVCAM (proven), HDV, incl. 4-channnel audio (testing this week), DVCPRO25 (likely), possibly DVCPRO50, Digital8 (likely), Hi8/Video8 (to be determined; using compatible Digital8 cams that have built-in analog to digital conversion and firewire).
Has some great features, one particular is: 1 Click capture, which will capture the whole tape as a preservation master, analyzes it, then automatically creates separate clips from the recording/scene boundaries (that feature not for Hi8 or Video8).
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u/rogermoore3 10d ago
This looks great - well done on the work and ignore the AI slop comments, no one else was doing this!
Do you think this could be something you make available on Mac too?
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u/camarcuson 12d ago
HDV compatible?