Camcorder for tape to PC conversion

newmee

Hi all, you brain boxes have never failed me yet!!

I have some mini Dv tapes of when my DD was little and would like to convert them to dvd or another format HOWEVER ex is in posession of the tapes and won't let me have them because he apparently has a few of 'his own' mixed in with them and none of them are labelled!! :eek: He also very kindly 'borrowed' my camcorder and swiftly cash converted it...anyhow, past is past & I digress.
He says the only way I can have them is if I can borrow a camcorder for him to look through them first....I haven't managed to do this. However, after reading online I saw it suggested that a cheap option for converting (if you don't have the original machine) is to buy a cheap / low spec camcorder and a live wire (something like that) and copy them all to your PC to do with as you will. Is this correct? Is this easy enough? and is this, that I found on ebay fit for this purpose?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3MP-1-5-LCD-MINI-DIGITAL-VIDEO-CAMERA-DV-136-CAMCORDER-/320666385071?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_DigitalCameras_DigitalCameras_JN&hash=item4aa934baaf

any advice welcomed as I have been trying to get these off him now for 5 years!

Thanks

victor2

If he has a DVD recorder, get a cheap camera off ebay and get him to play the tapes on it, dumping each one onto a DVD, which you can then have.
I did a similar thing with old 8mm tapes I had from a camcorder. Was able to borrow an old camcorder that somebody had, and copied the tapes over. Took an age, but at least they're all on DVD now and I can pull bits from them into my PC should I desire.

newmee

neither of us have a recorder but sounds like a similar process to linking it straight to p.c. Did you look at the camcorder I linked to? If so what do you reckon? Thanks for responding :beer:

victor2

Camera doesn't take tapes, only SD cards, so won't be of any use to you.
You'd also still need a means to take the output from a camera and feed it into a computer.
Does ex only have a computer onto which he could dump the video then?

newmee

yes he does And thanks for spotting that re the card. I guess I'm better off looking for a second hand one which is tape compatible am I? Thanks for responding :beer:

victor2

I would think you'd need something like this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/EasyCAP-Video-Capture-Device-Audio/dp/B001G1NKXQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299688811&sr=8-1
to connect the camera (when you get one) to a PC, plus a shed load of free disk space!
Never done it direct to PC, but doubtless someone on here has, and can say what software it's best to use - built in or freeware of course.:)

gerdo

What you need is a camcorder that has a firewire port. This is necessary to transfer the images in high quality. You will also need software to capture the images. If you're buying a second hand camcorder, make sure the firewire port works, Sonys are renowned for the firewire ports failing.

googler

Unless you're looking to make more tapes, why look for a camcorder (i.e. a recording machine)?

Surely a better bet would be a standalone MiniDV playback deck - Sony used to make them, I'm sure......

doverswot

Newme

Finding a cheap mini DV camcorder on Ebay sounds like the best bet. The ones I've previously used require a firewire connection to transfer the information digitally to your PC. You may need to additionally buy a firewire connection for your PC as this doesn't come as standard. Once connected to your PC you can use the free MIcrosoft movie maker to copy the video.

Other names used for a Firewire port is DV out and iLink.

Good luck

Victor2's option would use the analogue output of the camcorder which would result in some loss of quality as you'd be taking the video from digitial to analogue and back to digitial again.

Re disk space required, a 1 hour SP mini DV tape will reqiore approx 15GB of disk space

newmee

googler wrote: »

Unless you're looking to make more tapes, why look for a camcorder (i.e. a recording machine)?

Surely a better bet would be a standalone MiniDV playback deck - Sony used to make them, I'm sure......

definitely not wanting to make more tapes, but advice I read elsewhere suggested that buying a cheap second hand one just for the purposes of transfer was a hell of a lot cheaoer than buying a playback deck (they quoted £700 - £1000):eek: maybe I'll have a look at the player.......

newmee

doverswot wrote: »

Newme

Finding a cheap mini DV camcorder on Ebay sounds like the best bet. The ones I've previously used require a firewire connection to transfer the information digitally to your PC. You may need to additionally buy a firewire connection for your PC as this doesn't come as standard. Once connected to your PC you can use the free MIcrosoft movie maker to copy the video.

Other names used for a Firewire port is DV out and iLink.

Good luck

fantastic advice, thank you so much :A