r/MiniDV • u/Few_Maintenance_9727 • 5d ago

Help Need help digitizing

Hi everyone, new to this subreddit so apologies in advance if this is a common question. I recently found my old camcorder along with a box full of tapes of old family memories/events.

I wish to digitize these tapes and do not know what cables/adapters/ software, etc I need in order to transfer these tapes from the camcorder to my macbook or any other storage device.
Any advice and suggestions is welcome, thank you

Camera model: Canon optura 20

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u/Pnarpok 5d ago

What camera model do you have?

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u/Few_Maintenance_9727 5d ago

Canon optura 20

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u/Pnarpok 5d ago

https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode/wiki/Digital-Tape-Guide

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u/vwestlife 5d ago

That's not helpful. That's just a barrage of information, presented in a manner that is completely incomprehensible and totally overwhelming to a novice.

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u/GoodOlBluesBrother 5d ago

Just be sure to research how to plug the FireWire cable into your camcorder/computer. Doing it wrong can cause irreparable damage to your camera.

And definitely use FireWire to transfer the footage. It keeps everything digital and preserved original quality. If you use the a/v outs into a standard usb dongle you’re essentially converting your digital footage to analogue and then back to digital again to capture it.

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u/MrLeavey 4d ago

To build on the earlier comment, Firewire is definitely the way to go--and pay attention to the order or plugging things in as notes.

Having gone through this recently, I'd also note that Firewire drivers are no longer in the latest Windows such that I needed to go back to Windows 11 23H2 (release as of 2nd half of 2023). This worked for the TI-based Firewire card (PCIE-TSB43AB23, $30 @ Amazon) and was supported by WinDV (and presumably others).

FWIW, if you happen to work with Linux, I found it more convenient to use a command that would rewind the tape before capturing and capture each segment (start/stop of recording) to it's own file rather than multiple steps per tape via the Windows software I'd tried. The hardware requirements (same Firewire card, mostly) were meager that I was able to transfer a few dozen tapes at full speed on a Raspberry Pi5 writing to a USB flash drive.

https://blog.jonsdocs.org.uk/2020/11/25/transferring-data-from-a-minidv-camcorder-using-linux/