Ok I have a DV Camera!!!?

Question

I have a 8 mm ..i think "sony" and its DV..Ok well I hook it up to my computer using a usb cable cord. And the quality comes out bad! Is it the cable cord or is it my tape?? I mean it looks awsome when i hook it up 2 the tv but when i put it on a dvd it looks kind of pixilated and isnt as HDTV as on the tv??

Answer 1

Find out what exactly is that you have 8mm or dv. If its a 8mm its probably analog not digital which affects the quality of your picture when transferred to other sources. If its mini dv that you have your tapes are 100% digital which means there's is no loss of quality when you transfer to your computer or to DVD. If its dv you have to use your fire wire port to transfer to your computer. As for the DVD looking pixelated, it might be because the program your using to make your DVD is probably is compressing your video too much which makes the image look pixelated.

Answer 2

yeah first off is it a mini dv or 8mm digital 8?
If it is a sony digital 8 then I would use the i link
port on the camera but make sure your computer has a i link port. there are different terms for this: i link, DV, firewire and IEEE 1394. my gateway desktop has two a bigger one and a smaller one.
Go to sonystyle.com and they have the two types of i link cables the bigger or smaller one. the one on your camera should be the smaller one. Yeah i heard using a usb gives you worse quality then i link.
use Nero 7 ultra edition enhanced software. download it at nero.com. I have used nero products to copy some of my dvds to my hard drive. i swear the quality was better than the original! So get a sony good quality i link cable which by the way carries both audio and video to the computer. a good quality DVD like a sony the highest one they have and nero and thats it you should have a really great looking dvd! digial 8 (8mm) can look pretty good if you take the right steps.

Answer 3

OK. Let's set a few ground rules.

1. Always use Firewire to upload Digital Video (DV). Even if your PC will do it (and most won't) you'll loose a lot of quality because USB is too slow.

2. Use Pinnacle Studio. Everything else out there for under $1000 sucks. Studio is the best $100 you'll every spend.

3. Always write your output to your PC's disk first and then to the DVD. This will save you a lot of grief.

4. Before you make your DVD check all your setting. Make sure you are writing to the correct media type and chooose MPEG2 or MPEG4. More is better. Older copies of Studio defaulted to MPEG1 and the output would appear pixelated just like you are experiencing. I wouldn't recommend you use the software that came with your camera from Sony, it's idiot proof but limited.

Answer 4

**Once Again, 8mm is generally not DV, you probably have a Mini DV Camera. Also, never use the USB Port because of there lower quality. It will never look as good as HDV without a HDV Camera. Below I have outlined the steps to importing via Firewire***

-For this process you will need a Firewire Cable (sometimes referred to as an IE 1394). This will be avaliable at most Electronics Store. For a laptop you will generally need a 4-pin (Laptop End) to 4-pin (Camera End) connector. For a Desktop it is generally a 6-pin (Desktop End) to 4-pin (Camera End).

-Once you have your camera hooked up, open a Video Editing Program on your computer. Generally Windows will come with Movie Maker (located under accesroies), or on a Mac you have IMovie.

-In either of these programs, depending on your Operating System, open the capture tool. If you have properly connected your camera, and have it turned on, in Playback Mode (VCR Mode), you should see it now on the computer.
***NOTE: It is usually best to turn plug in the camera, turn it on and put it in Playback mode before starting the capture tool in the program.

-Once you see it on the screen, you should have a button that either says record, or looks like the record button. Press this, and the camera should start playing and recording to your comptuer. If the camera does not automatically start playing, press play on it.

-Once you are finished bringing in files, hit stop on your PC. You now have these files on there, most likely in an AVI format (The Highest Quality).

-You can then edit and manipulate it however you want, and export it as a movie. To put longer movies on the internet or DVD, you will probably have to downsize it to MPEG-1 or MPEG-2. This is another problem for another day.

Contact me if you need help on anything. Best of Luck
blakegadams*yahoo.com
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Answer 5

Because the video you have isnt the greatest quality and when it passes through the USB onto the computer it is compressed,which loses even more video quality. It will never look like HDTV because HD has either 1080 or 720 lines of resolution and your camera has at most 400 lines of resolution.

Answer 6

you are able to in basic terms seize pictures with a firewire cable. in case you have the port on your workstation and digicam then merely get the cable(it generally doesnt comprise the digicam) and connect it with that.