Can I upload my DCR-HC62E tapes to my computer using a USB3

[Bazzoni]

Can I upload my DCR-HC62E tapes to my computer using a USB3

[blaireau_photo]

Hello Bazzoni - Welcome to the Sony Forums

This camera is equipped with both iLink (Firewire) and USB sockets and if your PC is equipped with USB3 - these ports should be backwards compatible with older USB formats. Successfully transferring the video to your PC will depend upon which version of Windows that you are using as for the older camcorders, USB transfer is not always supported in Windows Vista / Windows 7.

Feel free to post your computer details here if you have any problems. There is also a guide available at http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/topics/videotransfer.

Thanks,

Simon

[Bazzoni]

Hi Simon, Thanks for your reply. I am buying a new Dell computer, Dell say they do not fit firwire ports they have been superceeded by USB 3. which is supposed to be faster than firewire. My computer details is Intel core i5-2320 processer (3.0GHz, 6MB), 6144MB Memory. NVIDA Ge Force GT640 !GB graphics card. and windows 7 home premium 64 bit. Thanks Andrea

[blaireau_photo]

Hello again

Am I correct in assuming that this will be a desktop computer as opposed to a laptop? If so, you can fit an internal Firewire card as long as you feel comfortable opening up the case (the cards are relatively inexpensive). However, you should check the warranty with your new PC first of all to make sure that opening it up doesn't invalidate the warranty as every PC company seems to have their own rules about this.

Thanks,

Simon

[Bazzoni]

yes it is a desktop but Dell say there is no space to fit one.

thanks

Andrea

[blaireau_photo]

Hello again

Please tell me the exact model number that you are looking at with Dell and I will take a look.

Simon

[Bazzoni]

Hi, thanks, it is an Inspiron 660 BTS (£529)

Andrea

[blaireau_photo]

Hello again

I have taken a look at the Dell site and becuase this is described as a 'mini case', there may not be the necessary expansion slot(s) inside to fit an additional card. If Dell have confirmed to you personally that there are no PCI/PCI-E slots available on the motherboard for adding a FireWire card, it will not be possible with this system. If importing video from this camcorder is going to be important to you, you may wish to consider getting a larger cased PC which should have the slots available.

Another solution, which may have a small loss in picture quality (for most people, this shouldn't be noticeable) would be to pick up a USB video capture device which can be found online for less than £10 usually. These usually have composite inputs for sound and video (red, white, yellow etc) and it is relatively easy to find one that is compatible with Windows 7. The capture of video has to be done in real time but if you are only going to be casually working with this video, this may be the best solution.

Thanks,

Simon

[Bazzoni]

Thank you Simon for all your help, I think I will have to have a rethink, take care.

Andrea

[blaireau_photo · Accepted solution]

No problem Andrea

It is a problem faced by a growing number of users these days where Firewire is falling out of favour yet with older camcorders, there is little or no software support for USB transfer when using Windows 7 (or Windows Vista).

There is one other option that sprang to mind earlier. When I had a similar problem in the past I just ended up installing an old copy of Windows XP as a seperate operating system and that allowed me to use USB to obtain the video from my camcorder. If you have an old copy of XP lying around this may be worth thinking about as well as you can save the video data to a specific folder and then access it once you reboot into Windows 7.

Thanks,

Simon