I've got a pile of parts coming for my new machine which includes my first DVD burner. The whole point was to convert all my home movies (currently on mini-DV tapes) to DVD. I have seen some inexpensive video capture devices but was wondering how the pros do it. What's the fastest, most stable solution for this kind of work. I *** my video camera will be the drive or source, unless there's a mini Dv player I could put the tapes into.

Any help would be appreciated.

I am not sure about mini-DV, but I use Pinnacle Studio 9 (version 10 is newer and better) to convert all my VHS to DVD. Perhaps you min-DV source would work with Pinnacle's hardware, PCI or usb.

Uhmmm I am not a 100% sure if it will work for you, but I just plug my Sony camcorder Firewire to my system, and download the files and burn to DVD. No HW required.

Take a look here for some great tips: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp [...] fault.mspx

Good luck

Is your Sony a digital video machine or a tape of some kind?

Thanks Guys

I don't know whether this is of any value to you but it's free. I only use it if I download a video file I can't play, then I use it to convert it.

http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

1.A good video capture device(Hauppage,Pinnacle,ATI,etc.)
2.A good program to encode and burn(Nero,etc.)

If you have an ATI video card with video in you can use that also.

woody240 I have a 10 year old Sony Digital handycam DCR-TRV110 that uses Digital 8 tapes.

Basically I put the tape in the camcorder and connect the camera to the computer, and since it is Firewire (really nice) Windows Movie Maker, does the rest, rewind, play, download, etc.

Very simple.

What is you Camcorder?

Most people don't realize this but, burned dvd's only last from around 2-5 years before degradation takes effect and they start becoming unreadable. The mini dv tapes have a much longer lifespan. If you just wanna give family and friends dvd's more power to ya, but if you're looking for long term storage - you might wanna carefully weigh your options.

good point, by all means, please dont erase or overwrite you precious family memories from the original tapes.

Good to know. The main reason was to pile a lot of tape(s) onto fewer DVD's and allow quick fast forward, rewind and if I have enough brain cells left I'll try to index them with some kind of preface... "Summer Vacation '07" that kind of stuff. However, if they will only last a few years it may not be worth the effort.

Sorry to be a bummer - I've been storing everything on a pair of hard drives (redundancy, in case one dies or gets dropped) and 500 gig drives are down to about $100 now. Buying Japanese manufacture dvd's will give you a little longer life (higher quality) but they are becoming increasingly hard to find. STAY AWAY FROM CHINESE DVD'S! They are incredibly low quality.

woody, absolutely worth. utaka95 has made lots of good points, yes burned DVDs may only last a couple of ear, but you can cheaply make copies as they degrade.

But one thing that we have not talked about which is more important than forward and rewind, is that unless you are brian dePalma, chances your tapes have lots of not so good stuff.

Before burning your dvd, you should do some editing. even minor editing will make your videos a lot more interesting.

I'm very interested about the comment about DVD life. My Dad recently passed away and the funeral home put together a fantastic DVD (more of a slideshow) using family pictures. I'd certainly like to preserve the memories and was wondering what options I have.
I've allready copied the DVD to hard drive but have had no luck in making duplicates - it keeps saying that it can't find the TOC (table of contents). Also, how do I determine which brands of blank DVD's are made in Japan vs China. Any other recommendations are appreciated and sorry to be jacking your thread, it just seemed my issues seem to be on the same topic.

I was hoping I could do the editing on my HD then burn the final to DVD. All the sections with Paris Hilton will have to remain unchanged.