Yesterday I grabbed a old home movie shoot on VHS. I put it in the vcr and hooked it up to my Sony Digital 8 camcorder(I don't want the wear and tear on my XL1s). I would like to put on Digital tape then edit on the mac and put all the old movies on DVD. But when it tapes I only see black! I'm going to go back and try it again and check all the setttings etc. But you can transfer VHS to digital can't you?

Yes, you can convert the VHS to Digital - it just depends on the hardware. Your Sony camera may NOT be capable of it. The XL-1s IS (the XL-1 was not). I use a deck for this purpose. Many others use a device such as the Canopus ADVC-100 to convert between analog and digital.

I was doing that just yesterday with a Sony TRV-510 (Digital 8) camera connected to an 8mm camera. Recorded fine in digital format, so I would think any Sony D8 camera would work the same. Be sure you are in VTR mode. I've read that you can go directly to firewire out without recording to tape, but have never been able to get that to work. Has anyone been able to do that successfully?

I think you have a setting wrong. One of the selling points of digital 8 is it's ability to transcode to DV. I think every Digital 8 has that capability.

Jeff

I've transfered from Hi 8 to the digital 8 with no probably. This VHS tape was recorded in 1987 on a big RCA camcorder. It seems like a simply set up,,,I'll go back and check everything. If not I'll use the XL1s. That VHS tape won't last forever!!

My D-8 (Sony TRV525NTSC) requires a menu selection to go AV/DV. That may be your solution.

I tried the XL1s to and nothing is coming through. I guess i'll try a different VCR

If the VCR you have is outputting to a tv monitor alright, then that's not your problem. If you have analogue out of your vcr, then you should be able to run it into the Canon and transfer it. Check you menu settings.

Or buy a transcoder like advc100... but Your Canon Xl1s should do it.

I tried a different VCR and it works fine. I guess that old RCA VCR was the problem.