Sony Says My Camcorder cannot connect to pc...

[SMCross]

Hello, This is my first post here. I hope the nature of it isnt offputting. I'm not the sort to join a community for a quick answer and go. I'm really trying to learn more about photography but have run into a brick wall with this one. :mad2:

In 2002 I bought a Sony Handycam CCD TRV308. Up until now I have used it for very basic things and never even attempted to connect to the PC for editing. However now as I have more time, desire and technology available to me I want to start using my PC to edit and create DVD's with footage from my camcorder.

Immeadietely I was struck by the camera's lack of any obvious ports for connectivity with a PC. After alot of searching online I was only growing more frustrated So I called Sony to perhaps buy the required cable directly from them. The associate I spoke to on the phone seemed less than enthusiastic about helping me and simply told me that my camcorder will not connect to the PC. I asked if there were any way around it, such as adapters etc. The associate laughed, said no, and told me I need to purchase a new camcorder.

I just refuse to believe that there is no way for me to do this, I also refuse to replace a camcorder that has very few "miles" on it and for all other purposes has proved to be a fantastic purchase.

Now I am on my own searching blindly for an adapter or cable of some sort. If aanyone has any knowledge about this sort of thing I would appreciate your guidance.

FYI, I have a brand new computer. Dell inspiron 530 running Vista of course. Although I am not certain I believe I need a cable that can run from my cameras A/V out to one of my PC's USB ports.

Thanks so much for any input you may have.

-Sarah

[SMCross]

I may have answered my own question.

Do I need a "Dazzle" capture device? Or are there alternatives to this?

[Skyman]

as far as i am aware you you need to connect the camera using the firewire port. sony also call this an i-link connection and it also goes by the term iee1394. Anyway most digital video cameras have one hidden away somewhere and if your computer doesn't have one, you need to have one put in (not so easy on a laptop, but less than $20 on a desktop) If you have a laptop that doesn't have a firewire port then a Dazzle will do an ok (but not great) job. Firewire is digital to digital though so their is no quality loss. The Dazzle converts analogue signals to digital, so you are going from digital on the camera to analogue and back to digital. if your camera isn't digital (i thought the 308 was though) I would still recommend the firewire equivalent to the dazzle, canopus make one called an advc110 this will cost you a bit more than the dazzle but the quality will be much much better.