Video recorded in ESP mode

[Rogan D. <ro...@da...>]

Hi folks,

I'm relatively new to Firewire on Linux. Well, I tried to get it working 
several years ago, but was unsuccessful.

My aim is to transfer a bunch of videos that I recorded using an old 
Canon MV550i. Those that I recorded in the standard SP mode can be 
transferred OK, and this is not a problem for me.

However, the camera also offered extended recording modes where the 
camera could record up to 3 times the nominal recording time on a 
standard tape. Like a fool, I thought this was a good idea, and some of 
the footage is recorded in this mode.

When I tried this last time, I simply got a blank screen when I tried to 
transfer using dvgrab. I also note the following warning in the manual:

"You cannot transfer images recorded in SP or LP mode to a PC (as of
January 2002)."

I was wondering if there was any solution to getting this video onto the 
computer, other than using an analogue capture card?

Is it possible to transfer the raw bytes of the recorded video, and then 
try to decode them after the fact?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Regards,

Rogan