[ArubaBob]

Help, Need advice on best way to transfer video from MiniDV camcorder to my PC. I am looking at buying a new PC and want to make sure it has the FireWire port or whatever is needed included.


Open for recommendations.


Thanks,

 

[chucky2]

Since you probably have Windows XP, just use Movie Maker 2 that comes with windows to get the video off your miniDV.


1 hour of SD miniDV (I don't know what HD miniDV takes up) takes up almost 13GB on the hard drive when you bring it down using the DV-AVI setting (which is the highest quality and recommended).


Once you have it on your PC, you can obviously edit it.


You will need a program that takes that .avi file Movie Maker created and composes it into a DVD and burns it to a DVD. Movie Maker itself will not do that.


Good Luck!


Chuck


P.S. The latest Movie Maker that runs on XP did not come in XP original, and maybe not even SP1 for XP. So it'd probably be a good idea to jump on the Windows Update site and look in the Recommended Updates section (or whatever their calling it now) to make sure you don't have a Movie Maker update waiting there for you...

 

[<><]

i've tried movie maker before and it didnt work for me....

i use CapDVHS to get transfer to video from camcorder minidv to pc using firewire port, download here: http://www.yamabe.org/soft/CapDVHS0306e.zip


It's very simple to use, hit play on your camcorder, hit record on the program, and thats it, it saves it in its original quality to the location you specified

 

[chucky2]

NewEgg list of add on cards that have Firewire, use Power Search to ween down to what you really need[/url] One more thing:


If you find a PC you really want and it doesn't have a Firewire port on it, you can always add one. Here's a whole list of candidates:

Add on cards with Firewire at NewEgg.com


Chuck