Is it easy to get a video from a mini-dv to my computer?

Question

I know that unlike mini-dvd's, hard drives, and flash memory camcorders, mini-dv camcorders record to tape and use a compression other than mp3. However, I previously learned that the video quality is much better. So, how do you get the mini-dv video to save to your computer as an mp3? Do you press play on the camcorder and then it sends the video to your computer via usb or firewire? If that is how you do it, does the camcorder automatically convert it to an MP3 or do you then have to take an additional step of converting the video file to an MP3?

Don't mean to sound stupid but I really have no idea how this works despite being fairly computer savy.

Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Most Mini DV cams have a fire wire port to transfer the video to your PC. You run the tape on the cam and the fire wire captures it. I believe most transfer in MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 format. Most video editing software will allow you to save it to most standard formats, should you need it to be different.

Some have a USB Port, but this only lets you capture video from the camera to the PC, much like a webcam does.

I hope this is helpful. Good Luck.

Answer 2

Hey. Its me. From yesterday. Anyways I was going to send you an email, but I saw your question here so I'll answer it here.

Once again, you got one part right. You plug the camera into the computer via firewire (although USB transfer cameras are available as well, but firewire still gets the best results), and you hit play and you record everything. However, the footage isnt recorded as mp3 (which are sound files, but even the sound isnt recorded as an mp3) files, or mpeg-4 or even mpeg-2. The footage records to your hard drive as an avi file with dv compression, which means that 5min=1GB, or 60min=12GB. Before you run away screaming, its not really that bad. First of all, you probably have a huge hard drive anyways, and even if you dont, a cheap one can be bought for as low as $50. Also, after you've edited the video and burned it to a DVD, you can delete the files on your computer (well, duh), so if you're a fast editor or dont have a lot of stuff to edit, then you can delete your files pretty fast.

So what do you actually need to transfer video? Well first off you need a firewire port (which is also known as an iLink or IEEE 1394 port in case you come across these names). If your computer doesnt have one, then you can buy an adapter card from an electronics store (the "helpful" store associates will help you find one). Or if you can transfer via USB, you can do that as well (although not all programs support USB transfer). Also, most dv cameras have a usb port, but they are often used for transferring still pictures and not footage, so refer to your manual for the standard to use. when in doubt, go with firewire. Then you connect the camera and turn it on, and open up the program on your computer, and you can control your camera from your computer. Use the play, fast foward, rewind, etc. keys to find the footage, and then hit record to capture. After its done, it automatically creates a file wherever you told it to save to. Its as simple as that.

Good luck choosing a camera, and all that jazz. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

It can depend, if your camera has a firewire connection port then you have some options.

On a Mac it can be really easy (for PC it was too much a pain in the *** for me to bother with). You connect the camera (in playback mode) with the firewire, open iMovie and it will recognize the camera and there will be a big button on the screen for "import." Press that and as it plays it records to the computer as a bunch of different clips (iMovie is smart enough to automatically make a new clip each time you stopped/started recording).

That's it. Once it's imported you can edit it (iMovie is actually a fairly potent software) and/or export the clips as DV files (just dragging and dropping them from the program to the desktop can do this).

I recommend exporting them as DV as that maintains their quality. From the DV file you can easily convert them to other formats but most (avi, divx, mp4 and especially wmv) will suffer some significant quality loss. You should edit or do whatever you want with the clips before reducing the quality and making them sizable.

Be warned though, DV files are higher quality but high in storage requirement. For a decent quality video image expect about 1GB per 5 mins.

Answer 4

Brad A,
It will be simple (simpler) if your camera has an IEEE1394 port. In this case your computer will also need the same port IEEE1394. For the connection between the two you will need a firewire cable (probably 4x6 pin). Having an editing software like Pinnacle Studio 10.5 your camera should be detected after connected and turned on. The software allows you to control your camera via PC and capture is very easy to do.
Your videos will not have any special compression and should be kept as is. The extension should be AVI (13GB per hour)
After editing your video, "Make a Movie" as you wish (burn onto a DVD)
Good luck!