Hello! Your forum has been extremely helpful. I have read a lot of the various posts and even the link for "Dummies", which I DEFINITELY am!!

Can anyone tell me what exactly I should be looking for in purchasing a DVD-R? The main thing I want to do with it is to transfer video of my kids from my Canon Mini DVD camcorder to a DVD disk and send it to my grandparents in Florida! We already subscribe to the DVR service through DirecTV. However, I am pretty sure that I need a special type of DVD player to do the transfers though.

Can anyone suggest a certain model....or at least what basic features I should look for? Is there anyway to know if the DVD disk I record on will play in other family members DVD players? I am clueless.

Thanks in advance for ANY help you may offer! :confused:
Jen in Illinois

This is best done with a computer which can extract the video directly from the mini DVD and burn it to a full-sized DVD.

Otherwise you can use any standalone DVD recorder by plugging the video and audio outputs from the camcorder to the DVD recorder and then playing the video to the DVD recorder in real time.

Thank you!! You know, I am messing around with my computer, I have Windows XP and MovieMaker. For some reason, the program will not detect my camcorder. I probably have it hooked up wrong! I will continue to mess with it....and thanks for the standalone suggestion!
Jen

^^What dvd software cam preinstalled on your pc? You should be able to use that to import video off your camcorder.

Ok, I feel like a bit of a fool now. Apparently, I need a simple DV cable to connect the mini camcorder to my computer. I have a ton cables, but not that one. I will run out and get one tomorrow and try that first!! Jen

Ok, I feel like a bit of a fool now. Apparently, I need a simple DV cable to connect the mini camcorder to my computer.

I am not so sure a DV cable will do you any good. If you had a Canon MiniDV camcorder and your computer had a firewire port, that would work. But you have a Canon DVD camcorder and I believe DVD camcorders output some form of MPEG2 over a USB port? You may have a hard time capturing digital video over a cable from a DVD camcorder. Probably the easiest way of capturing that video is to put the MiniDVD into your computers DVD drive and finding some software that can do the transfer from the DVD to your hard drive. But then you will have your video as MPEG2 files on your hard drive that most software can't handle. There is probably at least one software program that can do the job but I don't know what it is or where you can get it because I didn't make the mistake of buying a MiniDVD camcorder. MiniDV is so much easier to work with. There are many others that have done what you want to do. Hopefully one of them will chime in and tell you how they do it.

Dave

b6jpick:

Hello Jen, and welcome to the forum. To get back to your initial question about which DVD Recorder would be your best bet for the transfers you are looking to make, I would recommend the Panasonic DMR-EZ17S. It's one of the least expensive ones out there and it has a DV Input which is very necessary for what you are looking to do.

You really can also do this on a computer, and if all you need is a cable it may be more beneficial to not pay the $199.99 for the Panasonic, but if you are interested in a DVD Recorder that can do what you need, the Panasonic would be your best bet. It even has a Four Hour (LP) Mode which yields great Video quality, so you would probably be able to get all of your transfers on One or a couple of DVD's (depending on how much you have to transfer).

DVD camcorders do not have DV output because the video is recorded in MPEG2 and not in DV format. They usually have AV outputs and sometimes USB ports.

As Dave said, the best bet would be to take the mini-DVD and dub it to DVD-R on a computer with a DVD writer. The alternative would be to copy it to a DVD recorder using the AV outputs, resulting in reencoding, and a decrease in PQ.

Hello Jen, and welcome to the forum. To get back to your initial question about which DVD Recorder would be your best bet for the transfers you are looking to make, I would recommend the Panasonic DMR-EZ17S. It's one of the least expensive ones out there and it has a DV Input which is very necessary for what you are looking to do.

I wouldn't bet my life on this but maybe the back 40 of the farm. To the best of my knowledge, DVD camcorders do not output standard DV so buying a DVD recorder that has a DV input wouldn't help her. She could connect the analog outputs (audio/video) to the analog inputs of a DVD recorder but any standalone DVD recorder should work for that. But using the analog ports will result in some degrading of the video but probably not enough to be objectionable.

Dave

The main thing I want to do with it is to transfer video of my kids from my Canon Mini DVD camcorder to a DVD disk...Can you tell us exactly what model of camcorder you have? That might help with our suggestions of how best to deal with this.

DVD camcorders usually come with software that you can use with your PC to create DVD disks that will play on ordinary DVD players. If you have a computer with a DVD burner that's probably the cheapest way to go. Even if your computer doesn't have a burner, it may still be cheaper to buy one for the computer rather than buy a stand-alone DVD recorder.

Yep, Let us know what is the model number of your Canon Camcorder & maybe we can tell you more about it.

My daughter has the Canon Elura 100 Camcorder & it has the following "Outputs" on it:

DV Output
(For Transfering Digital Audio & Video To A Computer Or DVD Recorder)

USB Output
(For Transfering Still Photos, Memory Cards & Etc To A Computer)

Composite Output Yellow, Red, White Connectors
(For Transfering Audio & Video To A DVD Recorder or VCR)

As above any Recording device that has a Yellow Video Input & Red / White Audio Inputs On It Can Record The Picture & Sound From Your Camcorder.

My daughter copies her Camcorder Tapes using her Panasonic DVD/VCR Combo recorder but it's an older model so it doesn't have a "DV" Input but from the DVDs she's sent me I think the Picture Quality is excellent.

She does have 2 DVD Recorders for dubbing so she usually make 2 copies of her camcorder tape at the same time. One for her & one to give out or save as a master DVD Copy but She also saves the tape so it can be copied in the future to the next newest format :)

If you don't get the answer your looking for here try posting it in the "Camcorder" section of this forum or Canon has an excellent help line that they will usually answer any questions you send them in 2 to 3 minutes by email or you can call them on an 800 line.

For what it's worth my daughter's Canon did not come with a DV Cable & it's probably because some devices that use a DV Cable are 4 Pin & some are 6 Pin so you have to know what the device uses that you want to connect the camcorder to.

Thanks to everyone for their input! You guys are so helpful!

I went and bought the DV cable, and you guys are right, it didn't work. The 4 pin end fit into my camcorder, but there was nowhere on my computer for the 6 pin end.

Ok, my camcorder is a Canon ZR600. It does not actually use a mini DVD. It has a cassette tape.

The camcorder came with ZoomBrowser EX. I am not able to get the video from my camcorder to my computer to play with it though! :-)

Thanks for any additional information! :-)

Jen :)

Thanks to everyone for their input! You guys are so helpful!

I went and bought the DV cable, and you guys are right, it didn't work. The 4 pin end fit into my camcorder, but there was nowhere on my computer for the 6 pin end.


You should be able to add a Firewire card to your computer for low cost that will take the 6-pin plug. Many of these cards also include multiple USB 2 connectors as well. DV video uses lots of hard drive space (about 1 GB per 5 minutes of video). It also takes awhile for whatever application you use to encode the MPEG 2 video after your edits for authoring and burning to a video DVD. Although it takes some time, it gets you nice results.

Alternatively you can buy a DVD recorder that has a Firewire input (also known as i-Link). You also can connect your Canon camcorder to any DVD recorder using the S-video and analog audio connections. There is some advantage to using the Firewire connection, though, because the DVD recorder will control your camcorder when connected that way.

Agreed that the OP should consider a DVD recorder with a DV input, but he will have to get a new Firewire cable, because most (if not all) DVD recorders have a 4-pin DV input.

Agreed that the OP should consider a DVD recorder with a DV input, but he will have to get a new Firewire cable, because most (if not all) DVD recorders have a 4-pin DV input.
Good point. Or get a 6-pin to 4-pin adapter. I have a couple of those on my 6-pin cable.

I'll just add that if you plan on doing a lot of Editing, Adding/Deleting Video, Adding Audio (Narration, Background Music & Etc) then I would go the Computer Route.

Also if you shoot your videos using the 16:9 Wide-Screen mode on your Canon 600 look for a DVD Recorder that will record the Wide-Screen picture to a DVD using a DVD-R/RW or a DVD+R/RW discs because I'm pretty sure that Panasonic DVD Recorders will only record Wide-Screen on DVD-RAM discs which will not play on most people's DVD Players.

If you don't care if the picture is Wide-Screen or not than a Panasonic will be ok because it will record a Wide-Screen Picture as a Regular 4:3 picture to DVD-R/RW or DVD+R/RW discs.

The DVD Formats that will play on just about all DVD Players except the really older ones are DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW discs.

I known my neighbor has an older Samsung & it does record a Wide-Screen picture when using the Front DV Input to DVD-R/RW or DVD-RAM but if you use the Composite (Yellow, Red, White) Inputs it only records in 4:3 no matter if it's DVD-R, DVD-RW or DVD-RAM.

My daughter records everything on her Canon Camcorder in the Wide-Screen mode & then records it to DVDs using the Regular 4:3 mode on DVD-R or DVD+R discs which she sends to me or her friends.