Recording home movies to DVD

MDUK

I have just bought a new PC from Dell, I wanted to be able to save family films from the camcorder straight to DVD rather than video as I do now.

They had an option for video editing, I expected to have red, yellow and white inputs on the back of the PC when it came, however what I got was firewire.

Does anyone know of a USB adaptor that would allow me to do this (and would i need any additional software) I am not particuarly looking to actually do any editing or add titles and music, but if it is easy to do then i might give it a go.

payless

Some modern (pci) TV cards / USB TV plug in's , would do this - so long as you have the correct capture software also ( often bundled with card- although sometimes cut down versions , so not all formats covered ), it may also have editing options - but that will again depend on card/ package you buy.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00026Z6S8/qid=1121940573/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/026-6249945-6272424 does this without TV function
- but cheaper pci TV cards should do a similiar job

I did get Pinnacle Rave working , but it was a hassle , and since then purchased a standalone DVD recorder anyway , which IMHO is much easier, as I did not want editing function anyway

robnye

MDUK wrote:

Does anyone know of a USB adaptor that would allow me to do this (and would i need any additional software) I am not particuarly looking to actually do any editing or add titles and music, but if it is easy to do then i might give it a go.

i was looking for the same thing..... unfortunately the answer is simply - No

USB and firewire are different types of hardware.....

loobs40

a firewire connection is much much faster then a USB connection

MDUK

Payless that's exactly the sort of thing i was hoping for, the only thing better would be if i can get a firewire adapter for my camcorder!

Ill have a look on eBay see if i can pick one up a bit cheaper.

shrek101

Umm firewire is much better trust me. I do quite a bit of editing and my DV has usb in/out and I have numerous software to edit dv video. Most of this doesn't support usb2 but firewire does. Of the few that do work its slower even though usb2 is meant to be slightly faster than firewire400. USB 480 mbps where as firewire is 400mbps.

I got my firewire leads from here http://www.cableuniverse.co.uk/

Make sure that you get the right one's as they differ in pins so from pc to DV camera it could be 5 pins for pc and 6 for dv camera or vice versa

shrek101

Also you need minumum of 512mb of ram more the better I have 1gb and loads of HD space. I have a full 60 minutes of DV video on my pc now and it takes almost 8gb. It will fit on a dvd 4.3 though as it compresses teh video/sound a touch.

payless

I'm assuming OP camera does not have firewire option

shrek101

The other way is to sue a dvd recorder which is probably easier. But unelss it supports dvdram then you cant edit the video and put efefcts in. You could record teh vidoe to dvd-r (I ahve a Liteon 5006 recorder) then once that is done edit the video which will import the video on to the pc. I use numerous software to edit and some have diferent effects, filters. But for importing video I use Ulead videostudio 9.

MDUK

i have a camcorder with video tapes, output is yellow and white. unless there is a an adpator that either plugs into the camcorder and then links to my firewire port or converts the jack plugs to firewire i dont' see that i have a lot of choice?

onzey

Don't think there is such a thing.

Do a search on PCworld site using the word dazzle

It's a video editing kit (ignore card reader results) that has a device which will take the analogue outputs from your camcorder and connects to your PC via USB2. I've never used one myself so don't know how good/bad it is.