Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

OK. Got a Panasonic MiniDV camcorder which I know has a digital output.
I've also got a PC with a DVD recorder.

What I want to do is download the video and create my own DVDs. Don't
know where to start....

1. How do I physically connect camcorder to PC? Do I need a firewire
card on the PC?

2. How do I download and capture the video? What format does it
download as?

3. What do I use to author the DVD?

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

On 26 Nov 2004 02:38:12 -0800, "paulfoel@hotmail.com"
<paulfoel@hotmail.com> wrote:

>OK. Got a Panasonic MiniDV camcorder which I know has a digital output.
>I've also got a PC with a DVD recorder.
>
>What I want to do is download the video and create my own DVDs. Don't
>know where to start....
>
>1. How do I physically connect camcorder to PC? Do I need a firewire
>card on the PC?
>
>2. How do I download and capture the video? What format does it
>download as?
>
>3. What do I use to author the DVD?

1. Yes, using a firewire connection is the most obvious solution.
Install a card to get a firewire port on your pc if it doesn't have
it. Alternatively you can use an analogue output in providing the pc
with a analogue capture device, via usb or in the form of a pci-card
of some sort.

2. You will capture the video, with a suitable program that supports
DV through firewire (MovieMaker in WindowsXP, Adobe's Premiere, Sony's
Vegas, Ulead's Media Studio Pro etc.), in a format known as: dv-avi.

3. Try DVD-Author from www.Pegasys-inc.com . Or search via the
internet with a search engine ( www.alltheweb.com , www.yahoo.com
etc.) on 'dvd' and 'authoring' for loads of software capable in doing
so, in a more or less advanced way.

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

<paulfoel@hotmail.com> wrote ...
> OK. Got a Panasonic MiniDV camcorder which I know
> has a digital output. I've also got a PC with a DVD recorder.
>
> What I want to do is download the video and create my own
> DVDs. Don't know where to start....
>
> 1. How do I physically connect camcorder to PC? Do I
> need a firewire card on the PC?

Yes. (99.7% of the time)

> 2. How do I download and capture the video? What format
> does it download as?

The video comes through the Firewire as a DV stream.
The capture software decides what format to store it as.
Frequently this is an AVI file. Sometimes conversion to
other formats (like MP2 for DVDs).

> 3. What do I use to author the DVD?

What software do you have? DVD writer drives very frequently
come bundled with DVD authoring software.

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Nero

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Is there a decent free package? Or a cheap-ish one? (I notice that
Adobe Premiere is around £60 [$100] )

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

"Richard Crowley" <rcrowley7@xprt.net> wrote in message
news:10qei8b5dhst9b8@corp.supernews.com...
> <paulfoel@hotmail.com> wrote ...
> > OK. Got a Panasonic MiniDV camcorder which I know
> > has a digital output. I've also got a PC with a DVD recorder.
> >
> > What I want to do is download the video and create my own
> > DVDs. Don't know where to start....
> >
> > 1. How do I physically connect camcorder to PC? Do I
> > need a firewire card on the PC?
>
> Yes. (99.7% of the time)
>

I have a question along these lines. I'm not too sure what a firewire cable
is, or even whether I have the right card. I have a Sony Digital8 camcorder
with a Digital Video-out jack. I plug a cable from that into my USB port.

Am I part of the 0.3%? Is this why I get poor quality video?

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Nute said:

>I'm not too sure what a firewire cable
is, or even whether I have the right card. I have a Sony Digital8 camcorder
with a Digital Video-out jack. I plug a cable from that into my USB port.>

Only some Digital8 cameras have a USB port, but they all have a firewire port.
That is what you need, but your computer may or may not have a firewire input.



Dave
http://members.tripod.com/~VideoDave

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

"Nute" <nute923@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:F9Kqd.1219$R87.358@fe58.usenetserver.com...
> "Richard Crowley" <rcrowley7@xprt.net> wrote in message
> news:10qei8b5dhst9b8@corp.supernews.com...
>> <paulfoel@hotmail.com> wrote ...
>> > OK. Got a Panasonic MiniDV camcorder which I know
>> > has a digital output. I've also got a PC with a DVD recorder.
>> >
>> > What I want to do is download the video and create my own
>> > DVDs. Don't know where to start....
>> >
>> > 1. How do I physically connect camcorder to PC? Do I
>> > need a firewire card on the PC?
>>
>> Yes. (99.7% of the time)
>>
>
> I have a question along these lines. I'm not too sure what a firewire
> cable
> is, or even whether I have the right card. I have a Sony Digital8
> camcorder
> with a Digital Video-out jack. I plug a cable from that into my USB port.
>
> Am I part of the 0.3%? Is this why I get poor quality video?

Without knowing exactly which model camcorder you are talking
about we can only guess that it is typical of most camcorders.

USB1 is too slow for full-frame, full-motion video (even
for DV which is already compressed 5x). USB1 is fast enough
only for transferring still pictures and for low-quality video
(i.e. "webcam')

If you want the full quality that your camcorder is recording,
you must use 1394/Firewire (or "i-Link" as Sony calls it)