Camcorder Query

[RJH]

Here's a question for all you experts out there with camcorders. I have an early Sony DVD camcorder which is great but cannot be edited with Windows Moviemaker on the PC as DVD is not a recognised editable format. My question is, can I get any software to convert it into something editable or am I going to have to replace it with a camera with another format and if so what would be the best format. All advice gratefully received.

Cheers
RJH

[Gray]

I use a sony DV camcorder. The video is easily transferable to computer with great quality. Works fine with Windows Movie Maker and other such apps.

[RJH]

Thanks. What does a DV camera record onto - tape or a type of memory card?

[Alex Brown]

A DV Camcorder records onto DV tapes. However, if you have a 'mini-dv' socket on your camcorder, it's likely that you'll be able to extract the video directly from the camcorder to the computer using a firewire socket on your computer if you have one of them.

What model camcorder do you have exactly?

There are applications around that extract DVD video onto 'AVI' format which can be editted in movie maker, but the majority of them are not cheap.

-Alex

[J S]

The DV cameras record onto a tape

There is a piece of software called imtoo mpeg enconder which converts most formats into AVI, MPEG, DivX, WMV, MP4, MOV, RM, H.264, 3GP, PSP, iPod, CD, MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, M4A, APE, FLAC, OGG which movie maker will recognise.

I think you can download it for free here

http://www.imtoo.com/mpeg-encoder.html

James

[RJH]

Its a Sony DVD 91E. One of the early ones and I don't think it has a firewire socket - although I'm not sure I would recognise it and to make matters worse I have lost the manual!

[Gray]

Firewire socket would like like a USB port. As far as i know there are two sizes of firewire so its likely to be small if on the vid cam. Where as USB is rectangular, Firewire has curved corners at one end on the larger size and the for the smaller size on of the long edges is a kinda u shape. Hope that makes sense!

My budget was limited when i got my camcorder. Ive got Sony DCR-HC22E. does what i need it to do and comes with a fantastic cradle for it to sit in and charge whilst copying the tape on to the computer through the DV link.

[Richard B]

I went through exactly this process last year! I bought a Sony DCR-DVD202E which I didn't get on with at all. Fortunately I had gone in to Dixons at Heathrow, told them what I wanted it to do, and asked for their recommendation, so getting a replacement was straightforward. I now have a Sony DCR-HC90E

Anyway, for digital editing there's only one recording media type - mini DV. It's a very small tape, about 70mm x 50mm x 15mm typically recording 60-90 minutes of video in a digital format. And there's only one method of transfer to PC - Firewire. Confusingly, Firewire is also known as iLink or DV in/out (some camcorders are out only) or IEEE1392. No DVD camcorders that I've seen have this interface.

Avoid hard disk camcorders (unless they've improved hugely!) and avoid using USB for video transfer.

I tried a couple of shareware applications for converting DVD video to .wmv but they were appalling!

[RJH]

Many thanks Richard and everybody. I have now learned more with this thread than countless trips to PC world / Jessops / hours on the internet etc! I don't know why I didn't think of this before

RJH

[Tim M]

avoid using USB for video transfer

Is the quality of the video less good when done by USB than Firewire?
Ive got a Sony mini DV camera (cant remember the model number). I always use the USB socket (dont have firewire on my puter) and Ive never been very impressed with the quality - can only "download" it at very low resolution. There don't seem to be any options for making it better in the Sony Software. Is the solution to get a Firewire card?