Transferring Video from Sony Handycam to PC via USB

How I got into this:


(Please note that this procedure is not meant for high quality videos. For high quality, you have to use FireWire. This is only meant if you have nothing but USB available with you and you want to download videos to your computer.)

I recently bought a SonyŽ DCR-HC40E camcorder. After some shooting, I wanted to transfer the footage to my PC using the supplied USB cable and there I was stuck and helpless. I searched the web a lot and found that many people are having problems transferring video from handycams using USB.

With a little help from Sony`s Asia-Pacific Support site, I can now transfer the video to my PC using USB (and mind you its USB v1.1 not v2.0). I use Windows Movie Maker (WMM) for the purpose. However, I can transfer only in 320x240 frame size. At 640x480 the capture becomes choppy. May be a faster computer / more RAM / USB 2.0 can capture at higher resolution. By the way, 320x240 is about the frame size of a VCD. (NTSC 352x240, PAL 352x288).

My configuration :

I have used the following configuration:

The Sony site provides the steps to transfer video to PC using Picture Package, which will create a collage of your clips with some background music. This may be nice for some applications. But it takes a lot of time to capture and process the video. I think it spends much more time processing the video that actually capturing it.

I am giving below the steps to transfer the original video using Windows Movie Maker.

Steps to transfer video from Sony HC40E Handycam to an Windows XP PC:

  1. Make sure that you have installed the USB driver for the handycam. You can download the drivers from this link: Sony Asia Pacific Support Website--Download Page for HC40E USB Driver for Windows.
  2. Connect the handycam to the AC adaptor (the same as putting it on charge).
  3. Set the handycam to USB stream mode. (Press P-menu, press MENU, Press EDIT/PLAY, Press USB MODE, Press USB Stream.)
  4. Set the tape at the point from where you want to start capturing in PC.
  5. Connect the handycam and the PC with the USB cable. (USB-Mode appears on the handycam LCD / viewfinder.)
  6. Start Windows Movie Maker.  Click on the 'Capture..' link to start the wizard.
  7. Select the Sony Digital Imaging Device. Click Next.
  8. Specify the file name and path for the capture video. Click Next.
  9. Select the desired capture format and Click Next. (Leave it to recommended setting if you are not sure.)
  10. The dialog box now displays the Start Capture and End Capture buttons on the left and preview window on the right.
  11. Play the tape on the handycam. The video from handycam should appear in the preview window of WMM.
  12. Click the Start Capture button to start capturing the video. Click End Capture to pause or stop recording.
  13. Click the Finish button. The .wmv file will be saved in the path specified in step 7.

The screen capture below shows the above steps:

However, please note that you need firewire to capture the full quality video from a handycam. With firewire, you can capture full D1 frame 720x576, which is the size of the DVD-Video frame.

Insight

When the handycam is set to USB Stream mode, it echoes the playback or recording to the USB port as a stream. If you set your handycam to CAMERA-TAPE mode, it will send the image from the lens to the USB port. This allows you to use it as a web-camera. If you set it to PLAY/EDIT, it will send the playback image to the USB port.

Therefore, any software can be used to capture the USB stream from the handycam. Just set the handycam to USB Stream mode and play the tape, and start capturing the stream in the PC. So, if you do not have WMM, try other software capable of capturing USB video stream.

The Picture Package software supplied with handycam is able to control the handycam also. Just press Start Capture button and it will play the tape automatically. It does not captures the sound from the handycam. This may be to use the whole USB bandwidth for video (i.e. picture) only.

Hope this article provided you the information you expected. Have a nice time capturing your videos to the PC!

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Feedback and Questions:

From: A. Maity

Q1.What is the quality of the video captured,particularly when burned on a CD?

The quality of captured video is good. I am yet to try buring the video to CD, but from my previous experience, it will be as good as any VCD, if you record for NTSC. 352x240 is the native frame size for NTSC VCD. It also depends on the software you use to record it to VCD. VCD requires MPEG-1 video and there are actually many factors which can affect the quality. You can not use DVD format, which requires 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL) frame size. To capture in that size, you need Firewire.

Q2.What do you do about the sound?

I am not sure what you mean by this. The original sound is captured in the .wmv file created.