Hello!
I have an old analog Sony Handycam TR-805E Hi8 camera from the 90's and I wanted an upgrade. I checked prices, and for an good HD camera I needed 600€ or more. For a good 4K camera I needed more than 850€ and of course I could not afford either. I am talking about a proper video camcorder with many features, not an action camera! So I decided to upgrade my old analog camera to digital using an external digital recorder. Naturally, my first thought was a Digital 8 video walkman or a miniDV video walkman. This is a portable Digital 8 or miniDV video with or without an embedded screen that can accept an analog video signal from my old camera and record it to digital DV format. These are no longer available new, only in sites like Amazon and eBay and in working condition cost above 300€. I could afford that, however I need a PAL model, not NTSC which are more difficult to find and pricier. So, plan B, use a portable little device that can accept an analog video signal and record it in digital format on a microSD card or USB flash drive. Most of them are crap recording at 640x480 resolution which looks worse than VHS tape! No thanks! I would rather record in analog Hi8 format and digitize on the PC with my analog capture card to get much better picture. After more research I found a model, Unisheen UR230A that can record in full standard definition resolution of 720x576 for PAL and results are comparable to digitized Hi8. This is a reasonable compromise as Hi8 tapes are not easy to find and cost too much compared to a microSD card or USB flash drive. So I ordered it and recorded some tests. Overall I was very pleased with the results, having in mind this is analog standard definition video. OK, they are not as good as DVD, but at least are comparable to Hi8 and in fact they are a little better since they are not degraded by the tape, the full quality of the lens is captured directly deinterlaced in progressive scan.
Now about my weird issue: When connecting the USB flash drive to my LG smart TV or I connect the HDMI cable to the device and the TV to play the videos, they look OK with normal brightness and vivid colors. When I copy the video files in the computer and play them with ANY player, including MPC-HC, VLC and Microsoft Movies & TV, they look much darker. I tried to search for a solution online, but could not make it look normal. It's not like 0-255 to 16-235 and vice versa, they are much darker, like the gamma value is off. I tried in MPC-HC using the MadVR renderer to change the gamma from the default linear 2.20 to linear 1.80 and the video appeared a little brighter, but still not normal. Is there any setting I am missing? Needless to say that any other videos I have look normal in all media players. Only analog videos look darker. If they looked darker on TV as well, it would make sense, but on TV they look normal, so it must be some weird flag in their metadata that affects the gamma value or something else and makes them play too dark. The format I use is AVC with MP4 container. The device also supports HEVC but I selected AVC to play them directly on TV as my TV doesn't support HEVC. I haven't checked if HEVC videos look normal. The device supports both S-Video and composite (RCA) connection but I chose S-Video for best results.
Thank you in advance.
Here are the specs of the device, if you need them:
Here is a MediaInfo report of a sample video, just in case you see something I don't:
Let me know if you need screenshots of how the video looks on TV and on the computer to compare.
I have an old analog Sony Handycam TR-805E Hi8 camera from the 90's and I wanted an upgrade. I checked prices, and for an good HD camera I needed 600€ or more. For a good 4K camera I needed more than 850€ and of course I could not afford either. I am talking about a proper video camcorder with many features, not an action camera! So I decided to upgrade my old analog camera to digital using an external digital recorder. Naturally, my first thought was a Digital 8 video walkman or a miniDV video walkman. This is a portable Digital 8 or miniDV video with or without an embedded screen that can accept an analog video signal from my old camera and record it to digital DV format. These are no longer available new, only in sites like Amazon and eBay and in working condition cost above 300€. I could afford that, however I need a PAL model, not NTSC which are more difficult to find and pricier. So, plan B, use a portable little device that can accept an analog video signal and record it in digital format on a microSD card or USB flash drive. Most of them are crap recording at 640x480 resolution which looks worse than VHS tape! No thanks! I would rather record in analog Hi8 format and digitize on the PC with my analog capture card to get much better picture. After more research I found a model, Unisheen UR230A that can record in full standard definition resolution of 720x576 for PAL and results are comparable to digitized Hi8. This is a reasonable compromise as Hi8 tapes are not easy to find and cost too much compared to a microSD card or USB flash drive. So I ordered it and recorded some tests. Overall I was very pleased with the results, having in mind this is analog standard definition video. OK, they are not as good as DVD, but at least are comparable to Hi8 and in fact they are a little better since they are not degraded by the tape, the full quality of the lens is captured directly deinterlaced in progressive scan.
Now about my weird issue: When connecting the USB flash drive to my LG smart TV or I connect the HDMI cable to the device and the TV to play the videos, they look OK with normal brightness and vivid colors. When I copy the video files in the computer and play them with ANY player, including MPC-HC, VLC and Microsoft Movies & TV, they look much darker. I tried to search for a solution online, but could not make it look normal. It's not like 0-255 to 16-235 and vice versa, they are much darker, like the gamma value is off. I tried in MPC-HC using the MadVR renderer to change the gamma from the default linear 2.20 to linear 1.80 and the video appeared a little brighter, but still not normal. Is there any setting I am missing? Needless to say that any other videos I have look normal in all media players. Only analog videos look darker. If they looked darker on TV as well, it would make sense, but on TV they look normal, so it must be some weird flag in their metadata that affects the gamma value or something else and makes them play too dark. The format I use is AVC with MP4 container. The device also supports HEVC but I selected AVC to play them directly on TV as my TV doesn't support HEVC. I haven't checked if HEVC videos look normal. The device supports both S-Video and composite (RCA) connection but I chose S-Video for best results.
Thank you in advance.
Here are the specs of the device, if you need them:
Here is a MediaInfo report of a sample video, just in case you see something I don't:
Code:
General
Complete name : J:\VIDEOS\Unmontaged\Unisheen UR230A\251221_204732.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 47.9 MiB
Duration : 1 min 35 s
Overall bit rate : 4 193 kb/s
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Writing application : Lavf57.30.100
Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings : CABAC / 1 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=25
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1 min 35 s
Bit rate : 3 996 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 5:4
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.385
Stream size : 45.7 MiB (95%)
Codec configuration box : avcC
Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 1 min 35 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 2.19 MiB (5%)
Default : Yes
Alternate group : 1Let me know if you need screenshots of how the video looks on TV and on the computer to compare.
- Windows Build/Version
- Windows 11 25H2 build 26200.7462
Last edited:
My Computers
System One System Two
-
- OS
- Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (5699), 25H2 (8457)
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Acer Extensa 5630EZ
- CPU
- Mobile DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, 2000 MHz
- Motherboard
- Acer Extensa 5630
- Memory
- 4GB
- Graphics Card(s)
- Mobile Intel(R) GMA 4500M (Mobile 4 series)
- Sound Card
- Realtek ALC268 @ Intel 82801IB ICH9 - High Definition Audio Controller
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 1
- Screen Resolution
- 1280x800
- Hard Drives
- Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB SATA Device (250 GB, SATA-III)
- Internet Speed
- VDSL 50 Mbps
- Browser
- MICROSOFT EDGE
- Antivirus
- WINDOWS DEFENDER
- Other Info
- Legacy MBR installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, no WDDM 2.0 graphics drivers, no SSE4.2, cannot get more unsupported ;) This is only my test laptop. I had installed Windows 11 here before upgrading my main PC. For my main PC I use everyday see my 2nd system specs.
-
- Operating System
- Windows 11 Pro v25H2 (build 26200.8457)
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Custom-built PC
- CPU
- Intel Core-i7 3770 3.40GHz s1155 (3rd generation)
- Motherboard
- Asus P8H61 s1155 ATX
- Memory
- 2x Kingston Hyper-X Blu 8GB DDR3-1600
- Graphics card(s)
- GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 WINDFORCE OC V2 6GB (GV-N3050WF2OCV2-6GD)
- Sound Card
- Realtek HD audio (ALC887)
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Sony Bravia KDL-19L4000 19" LCD TV via VGA
- Screen Resolution
- 1440x900 32-bit 60Hz
- Hard Drives
- WD Blue SA510 2.5 1000GB SSD as system disk, Western Digital Caviar Purple 4TB SATA III (WD40PURZ) as second
- PSU
- Thermaltake Litepower RGB 550W Full Wired
- Case
- SUPERCASE MIDI-TOWER
- Cooling
- Deepcool Gamma Archer CPU cooler, 1x 8cm fan at the back
- Keyboard
- Mitsumi 101-key PS/2
- Mouse
- Sunnyline OptiEye PS/2
- Internet Speed
- 100Mbps
- Browser
- Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox
- Antivirus
- Microsoft Windows Defender
- Other Info
- Legacy BIOS (MBR) installation, no TPM, no Secure Boot, WDDM 3.0 graphics drivers, WEI score 7.4
