Copying Camcorder Footage To Dvd - How?

woohoo

Hi,
I am complete novice to this and have previously sent away mini DV cassettes to a company to copy them onto a DVD, but would like to do it myself. I have a laptop with a DVD rewriter and the camcorder is a JVC mini DV one. I went to Currys and Comet to get the right 'wire' to connect camcorder to laptop, but they both gave me a firewire one. I don't have firewire on my laptop. Is it possible to do it by USB - can't seem to find the right lead. Any advice greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Gadge_2

You can get a PCMCIA adaptors for firewire

have a look on EBAY, it will give you an idea of the price without getting ripped off by a company that seems to view people who walk through their doors as potential £1000 spenders

woohoo

Wow quick reply thanks- OK - I have looked and they seem cheap!! (Thats good right?!) Could you just explain what this is and what it does. How does it attach to my laptop?? (Excuse the non techie terms here...:o )
Thanks again

woohoo

Do I need to get this installed by a professional?
Thanks

Gadge_2

No not installed by professional.

They use the credit card slot on the side of the laptop, your machine should have one, what model laptop do you have?

editing software probably came with the camera or use xp movie maker to edit

you would need to make sure that the laptop beefy enough to handle processing the files.

woohoo

Hi again,
I have the dell inspiron 1300 - I had the memory upgraded to 768 (?) 700 and something. Do you think this will be OK? I simply want to copy the cassettes? Also the device you mentioned - if I get the firewire one and plug it in to the slot on the side ( there is one - hopefully the right one??) that should be it??
Many thanks again,

symy@nufc

try THIS good for video help

Gadge_2

I think that your machine should be ok to do it, it may slow right down whilst it deals with it though. so don't expect to be burning cds at the same time!.

These PCMCIA cards will allow firewire to be connected, If my memory is correct Firewire works about the same speed as the USB2. however the PCMCIA interface may cause it to slow down a bit.

Hopefully some editing software came with the camcorder, if not have a look in your camcorder manual ,for any settings that may need to be made for connecting up the firewire lead


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Movie_Maker#Importing_footage

should give you some reading!

there are several third party programs which will burn to DVD, such as ULEAD or MAGIX, have you got any editing software

if you down load a evaluation copy it will probably have a watermark that shows up every few minutes across the screen on the end copy,

If you don't have any software, I would try several evaluation programs off the net checking simplicity of use and end results, before making any decision that would involve parting with cash

woohoo

Thanks to you both. Will have a read of your recommended sites. Will windows movie maker not do the job?

movieman

Movie Maker will let you edit the movie, but I don't think it can output to DVD.

If you're not going to do any editing of the footage (e.g. cutting out any crap bits) you may find it's cheaper just to buy a standalone DVD recorder with a Firewire input than to buy a card, cables and software for your laptop.

Gadge_2

I agree with Movieman and I don't think movie maker can output to DVD, shame as it is fairly straightforward to use

I did use AVS video converter from here, and found it very easy to use but it is not free, and the eval version does leave a watermark

http://www.avsmedia.com/VideoTools/index.aspx

But as I said earlier try several eval ones until you find one that works for you, most people will recommend what they find easy themselves to use