Someone dropped off an ancient old camcorder to IT that they don't want anymore and I get to take it home

[Apollo the Just]

I have been playing around with it some. I don't have the analog out cords yet so I can't actually properly capture the footage, but it appears to record smoothly and as expected. BUT, if i record in the SP mode instead of LP, the footage is incredibly choppy and audio cuts in and out.

(this is like the opposite of what is supposed to happen, because if it is recording more slowly the information density is higher so it is reasonable to assume it will **** some stuff up? but like, whatever. it works in LP, LP is recommended anyway if you are playing off of the camcorder and that is what I am doing, and besides.. im not here for 1080p hd ****, im here for the aesthetic. so i'm good.)

Which MEANS, if my goal is to have as many different tools at my disposal to experiment with ****, and it is; I am going to have a lot of fun with this. I can use LP if i just want things to look good but i can use SP if i want some intentional authentic distortion. (SP is also probably better for snapshots, which I will absolutely also be playing with.) also, i can easily **** up the footage if i want just by specifying the wrong order to deinterlace in software. i'm buying ML's old dazzle off him so i can compare how the footage looks on that versus the gv-usb2. this is going to be so much fun

edit: also there was some footage of a montage of pictures someone took of a stuffed lion and elephant on what appears to be their office desk. i accidentally recorded over the start of it but the rest is intact. i intend to digitize that once i get the analog out cord from ebay and ill send it to the department i got the camera from in case it means anything to anyone

[steeze]

Now you can interview murderers.

Spoiler.

or you can be the murderer.

[Apollo the Just]

I've been experimenting with this, trying to get a feel for how to use it before i bring it to Aselia con at the end of March. I've got 4 more cassettes and a second battery on the way in preparation.

Here is some incomprehensible footage of me sewing Regal Bryant's crop top from Tales of Symphonia that I accidentally recorded over/in the middle of some early test footage of my tortoise. It's recorded on my phone because the analog out cables haven't come in yet.

[CaptHayfever]

...Crap, now I'm gonna die in 7 days.

And remember, "I'm-a squinting my eye & turning off & on & on & off the light."

[Apollo the Just]

Alright I have been playing with this all day. Unfortunately I still have to wait on the analog out cable to come in before I can actually see what its footage will look like digitized, but just from reviewing the footage on the camera itself--

* I need to film slowly or the image gets choppy. This is largely mitigated by filming in LP but not completely; for some purposes it might be fun to film in SP intentionally FOR that effect. (also, may be a screen viewing problem that won't be an issue when viewing the analog output? remains to be seen!)

* I really love the color balance on it?? I took progress vids of my Regal cosplay on it and when I took detail shots on my phone the colors were so glaring and obnoxiously saturated (and super blue) by contrast. The color depth and balance on it on the auto setting are really nice.

* Lighting is a pain in the ass though. It's so essential to have even lighting everywhere because it can't handle highlights to save its life. Combined with the fact that it is standard definition, you're not going to get any detail at all on very white images unless your lighting game is on point and you have NO harsh light sources AT ALL.

* I love the whirring sound it makes so much. I haven't gotten a chance to really experiment with its audio. I'll try recording myself on cello tomorrow to test.

[DarkZero]

watching you get this excited about messing with a mid-2000s camcorder is honestly very wholesome

[Apollo the Just]

Alright, everyone, I have some bad news but I'm hoping to work past it.

I've been completely unable to get an A/V out signal from this camcorder. It's either the cord I just bought, or the jack on the camcorder. If it's the cord then that's easy but I'm salty because I just bought this one. If it's the jack, that seriously sucks because that is pretty much my only way to digitize the footage I have here without major headache.

I know it's not an issue with my capture card setup because I completely removed that variable by connecting the camcorder directly to my CRT TV's video input.

I literally do not have any other devices with TRRS out that I can think of to potentially test this, either.

One thing I did notice - I got a message that the camcorder was trying to detect a connection, when the cord was not actually plugged in all the way. I never got that message when it was fully plugged in. Also, one time (when it was almost fully plugged in, slightly loose) I got some slight jumps on the TV like it was trying to detect some sort of signal, but never got anything better and when I jostled the cord a bit it went back to just nothing.

I don't know if anyone here is particularly knowledgeable about TRRS-to-3RCA cords, but is it possible that the order of connections on the TRRS side and the corresponding out cords are not standard? I figured any TRRS-to-3RCA would work but I suppose it's possible that isn't true. I can buy one on eBay that's marked ~specifically for~ this brand of camcorder (not the specific model, but same manufacturer), and I suppose it's possible the order of connections aren't universal so I have to get that particular cable.

I'm gonna try and do some more research then I might just cave and order another cable. If that doesn't work, we might be in for a sad time, gamers. I'll have to think on what to do in that scenario.

EDIT: je suis un dumbass. im looking at the cable im pretty sure i bought and it is wired differently than the cable advertised on eBay as working with other camcorders from this manufacturer. i naively assumed that **** would be standard. time to buy another **** cable. for some reason the cable is not in my eBay purchase history so maybe i bought it somewhere else for some reason, so i cannot be 100% certain, but the fact that i got a "connecting" message only when it was not fully plugged in lends itself to this theory. i wish the camcorder manual specified the cable specs but of course it does not.

i am going to pay slightly more than this cable is worth because i found a listing that was selling them by the model from the specific camcorder line i have, and had a listing for my exact model, and even though i am pretty sure any cable that has the right pin/ground order would work fine, i will shell out the extra like $5 for the confidence that it should actually work this time.

[CaptHayfever]

I've used a TRRS-to-RCA red/white cable for years, but that only transfers audio; the video had to go via either RCA solo yellow or S-Video.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Apollo the Just]

TRRS definitely has the capability to transfer stereo audio and composite video - it has 4 effective pins (? wong term probably) which is 3 + a ground. The original cable this thing came with was a TRRS to 3RCA and the manual explicitly shows it hooking up that way to vcr or tv. i just didnt realize different connectors are wired differently - the one i think i originally bought has tip-to-sleeve audio audio video ground, whereas the one that i think is listed as compatible for this camcorder has the ground as one of the middle ring connections (forget which). i just didn't read into it when i ordered the first because i thought the order would be standard. oops. :^)

wouldn't be surprised if some models could only do one or another or had certain limitations as you're saying from your experience though.

anyway will update again sometime this coming week when the replacement comes in to see how things go

[Deepfake]

Yeah, I have a camcorder that uses a TRRS breakout cable to split 3 way to video and audio. It's pretty typical but can definitely be wired multiple ways. Keep in mind Android and Apple use different standards for their multi-channel audio, for instance. If you're brave you could possibly strip the one you've got and reattach in the arrangement needed, but those mini ones suck to work with and usually have a hair's width wire in them, which is a bitch to solder.

[Apollo the Just]

^ I considered it but then I decided I'm not quite that desperate and would probably **** it up. i do have a soldering iron but have only used it on very imprecise projects so far shall we say lol

[Apollo the Just]

language warning in video (see below)

SUCCEEEEEEEEEEESSSSS

A few disclaimers:

- This was my first test footage when I first got the camcorder. I hadn't purchased or ran the cleaner tape for 10 seconds yet, it took a while to determine what settings were the most reliable, and I was using the ancient tape that had been sitting in there since 2007. I have faith that now that I've done the cleaning and purchased new tapes my footage moving forward will be of a more reliable quality.

- I could have edited out the bit of my tortoise I accidentally recorded in the middle of this tutorial, but I left her in because she's perfect.

- there are some f bombs, not from me, but from my roommate, who was being a gamer in the background while i was recording this

- the production quality is '2005 home video'

This said, please enjoy this very informative tutorial on using double folded bias tape to finish your seams.

(The best news? Once the correct trrs-out cable came in, I just had to plug it into my capture card setup and everything was ready to go. I already have AmarecTV set up to deinterlace and OBS with a window capture for it.)