Capture video from camcorder

[Toastrack]

I am trying to capture videos from a Panasonic camcorder (tapes) to my MX16 system using VLC Media Player.
I have got as far as being able to watch them in vlc, but I have failed to capture the video file to hard disk so that I can then edit the videos. The furthest i have got is to produce a file which then cannot be played.
The set-up uses the RCA output from the camera into a converter to USB; this part all now seems to work OK, so I'm left with the inability to capture the video to file.
Pleae, what else should I do, or is there a preferred option available via synaptic??

[chrispop99]

What is the full filename of the file you cannot play, including the dot extension?

What happens when in VLC you do Media>Open Capture device? Is anything shown?

Chris

[Toastrack]

I got a couple of filenames which I had specified in vlc. They appeared afterwards as [fname].mpg4 but on trying to play them vlc continued for the length of the recording (short, to test it) but without any video shot being displayed. Suggests to me that they were blank files, at least as far as video info goes.

I also tried using WIn10 and Windows medis player via my netork, and got exactly the same result - what seems to be a blank video clip.

Media>open video device shows blank first, but if I pull-down and select it shows /dev/video0

There is also a choice of /dev/video1.

[Stevo]

If you enable the advanced GUI in VLC, you get a "record" button you can press to record anything that it's showing. Does that work?

[Toastrack]

Interesting. Not sure how I get the advanced GUI?
At present, I see a Record option in the pull-down menu, but it's greyed-out, so not useable.

[linwinux]

When a video is over, stopped, or hasn't started playing yet, the record function is greyed out (I use right-click for just about everything menu/options related). Is it possible to start a video in VLC and then begin recording as soon as the movie starts playing?

Alternatively, is it possible for you to copy the actual movie file over to your computer, as in a file within the file manager, for example? If you can do that, then you can try to convert the file with either the app ... handbrake ... or with the app ... winff. Both of those do various types of conversion from one file extension format to another, if there's a problem recognizing a particular extension. Make a couple of copies of the movie first, so you can later compare the results.

If you don't have those apps installed, you can find them in the synaptic package manager.
Good luck.

.

[Earl57]

I use vlc to record anything I can view. To use the record button, go to View>Advanced Controls and click the box. Very useful for editing out the trailers, etc. and get down to the actual movie.

[Toastrack]

It's getting worse. I seem to have lost the original display format. But I have got a red record button now.
But playing from the camera now produces no display on the screen either - at least it was doing that OK.

In File Manager there's no sign of the video camera, so no hope yet of just uploading as a file. I guess this might be nearer to the core of the problem?

I can't find any sort of Device Manager in MX. May be there is one under another name?