Forget about Home Movies: Two Software packages render camcorders into a 15 GB Data Storage Device

A Professional Tape Drive For $60?

A few weeks ago DV Streamer launched a software package designed to transform just about any DV camcorder into a tape drive for data storage. The overall concept sounded so intriguing that we decided to run a test straight away. In principle, it comes in two software versions: DV Streamer Lite and DV Streamer PRO. While the Lite version can save one file only on a DV tape without directory structure, the PRO version lets you store up to 10,000 files with a matching directory depth.

Our Test Basis: DV camera Sony DCR-PC100E. A list shows all models compatible with the software

The interface: Sony calls it an I-Link - but there's nothing more to it than a FireWire (IEEE1394)