I'll most likely be posting here soon. After several months of contemplation, I finally bought the TRV-38. It should be here today or tomorrow. I plan on using Panasonic tapes(dry lubricant). I also would like to pick up telephoto and wide-angle lenses for the camera. Most of my use for the 38 will be drag racing videos and other car oriented fun stuff. I'll need the extra zoom of the telephoto lense to get good shots on the strip. I look forward to pestering other users for information and sharing what info I discover.

-JAson

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TRV-38

Congrats on your purchase.

I got my TRV38 2 weeks ago, and so far it fits the bill pretty well. I'll be using mine for R/C stuff, somewhat similar to what you'll be doing. Please share with me what you decide on the additional lenses. I am also looking for a tele and wideangle but don't know which one to pick yet.

Remy

Picked it up from FedEx this afternoon. I am recording mpeg on the memory stick right now to experiment with uploading to the PC.

Fun stuff!!!!

-Jason

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TRV-38

The only difficulty I experienced last night was getting XP to recognize the camera so that the included Pixela image software would work with USB streaming on in the VCR mode. I followed the instructions in the book exactly, but when XP tried to install software for the camera, it would prompt me that installing the non-XP certified software(or something similar to that) could possibly destabilize my system. I finally just let her rip and no problems yet. The Pixela software now works with USB streaming. I went and bought a firewire cable, but stupid me grabbed a Sony to Sony cable instead of the Sony to PC cable. Tonight I'll correct that mistake and work on my In car camera mount.

Question for anyone who might know: Once I get a DV cable to firewire for the camera, can I pull taped footage off the camera with built in XP software instead of using Pixela? (Pixela isn't really doing it for me )

I am thinking about investing in some good and legal video editing software. Some friends have mentioned Pinnacle to me. I'll most likely check that out.

-Jason

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TRV-38

If you're using win xp, try movie maker 2. You can download it for free from microsoft.
Ulead has a couple of video editing program that you can download for free 30 day trial.
I'm using Ulead's video studio 7 - for the moment it allows me to do most of what I usually need. I find it a bit better than pinnacle studio (v 8 or 9) because it has an extra video layer (pin. studio has only one).

Thanks for your reply and info.

Last night I got the correct dv cable for firewire and once I plugged the camcorder into the firewire port I was able to pull off avi footage from the tape. Very easy to work with now. I think I'll be uninstalling the Pixela junk.

I'll look into the software you mentioned and let everyone know what I am doing.

-Jason

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I made some halfway decent vids of some cars and figured I would post them. All the work was done by hooking up the camera to the PC through firewire and power on into the VCR mode. Then all I used was Windows Movie Maker to do all the work. I made my title screens using Paint Shop Pro, but paint would have sufficed.

(Please right click, save as)

03 Cobra Mustang Accelerate

6.0L F350 Accelerate

I am going to be trying an older version of pinnacle soon to see how that works. This weekend I should get the opportunity to make quite a few videos of drag racing.

I was able to film outdoors in sunlight and on a cloudy day and I am very pleased with the quality. I even used the 2x telephoto lens (VCL-2030S) I purchased through Sony with the 20% discount I received by registering online. The in car power supply (DCC-L50B) to plug into the videocamera should arrive from Sony today. The telephoto lens was good for zooming in on objects 25 to 200 yards away. It kinda sucked having to stop filiming and remove the lens when I wanted to get close to something, but it was manageable.

I have to say I am very pleased overall.

-Jason

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TRV-38