Does anyone know how I can download the video off my DV cassette to my computer, or at least a DVD? Thanks!?

Question

We have this digital camera that uses DV cassettes, and I want to be able to convert these to DVD one day, or at least an MPEG-type file on my computer, but so far I have no idea how to do so... Please help! :)

Answer 1

yes -

there will be a software CD with ur camcorder whic hu need to install and then connect the minidv camcorder to computer and convert the minidv format to the avi or mpeg format..

once done - u r ready to upload to a dvd or a cd or flash drive

Answer 2

First of all you need some capture software. You can use Windows Movie Maker if you don't have anything else.

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Right Click on Movie Maker and choose send to (Desktop). You can now launch it from there.

Secondly you need a firewire. This is usually silver and connects your camcorder to the firewire socket on your computer. It is very similar in appearance to a USB port but has a different shape.

They are very cheap and can be bought from any computer supplier.

(Note laptops have smaller firewire sockets than PCs so make sure you buy a firewire with the right connection for your computer)

Finally, connect the tiny end of the firewire to your camcorder and the larger end to your computer.

XP will immediately recognise your camcorder and a window will open up asking which software you want to use to upload the data from the tape. One option is to do nothing which is the one I usually choose. I then manually open the software I want to use (Movie maker or whatever). I then check that I have rewound the tape on the camcorder to the very beginning. Once I am satisfied that I have I then click on the capture option in the software. (In windows movie maker simply go File - Capture Video) You then have options to set the path to where you want to save it.

Note - without actually having a camcorder attached I cannot guide you through one final step. Before you press the capture button in the capture window that pops up once you choose "Capture Video" uncheck the box that says "preview" or something like that. This software is notorious for dropping frames if you preview whilst you are capturing. You can always look at the footage being captured on the camcorder monitor.

Once your footage has been uploaded, you can play it in Windows Movie Player or edit it in Movie Maker.

To burn the footage to a DVD you will then need some burning software. Adobe Premier Elements is reasonably cheap and produces excellent DVDs.

Best of Luck

Brendan (England)