MiniDV recorder

[tricky 100]

Anybody know what i need to buy hardware and software wise for my computor so that i can transfer my minidv tapes to DVD . My computor is about a year old and has a DVD drive and separate DVD burner , is it easy to install myself. Computor numpty im afraid .
Richard.

[mark_T]

Richard, Just about to get into this myself so hope what i am saying is correct.

The hardware system to use is called Firewire - a bit like USB but quicker I think. I have ordered a firewire card for the laptop and matching cable that will plug into my camcorder (DV out socket). I hope it is just a case of playing the tape and letting it stream to the hard-drive, and then use Windows Movie Maker to edit and burn to DVD.

Good luck
Mark

[road2ruin]

Morning Guys,
See the Cricket? Probably best not to talk about it.

Ok so down to burning your own DV tapes. Well firstly it is quite easy and you can get all the software applications you need free over the internet if you wish. To start with you will need a computer with a firewire port (also called IEEE1394 and ilink) basically you will have got a cable with the DV recorder and it should fit into one on your coimputer. As your machine is only a year old I will be surprised if it doesnt have one already. Next you need some software to record the image. You usualy get one of these free with the DV recorder so if you did use it. The process is simple load up the software plug in the DV recorder to the computer and turn the DV recorder on. Windows will normally detect the recorder and ask you what you want to do, normally prompting to use its own movie maker software. If you dont want to use windows own then fine but it is quite easy. Alternatively you can use the one that came with the DV player. How the software works is to record the image into a specific folder on your harddisk in an AVI format (which is very large quite a few GB for one hour of footage). The software controls the DV recorder so you can rewind, play, stop fast forward all from the button on the screen and the Dv recorder follows automatically. When you are ready click record and away it goes.
When it has finished copying to the hard disk you need to then convert the AVI file to VOB format for burning to DVD. There are lots of programs about or this NERO burning rom is quite an easy and fully featured one. It costs about a tenner and will not only convert the file format but will also let you construct menus and subtitiles and then actually burn it all to disk. Ulead also do DVD makers too which are cheap and fully featured. You can also get other free soaftware but they are usually for experienced users.

Thats about it.

[ThePassenger]

If you need a firewire card for your PC, www.novatech.co.uk are selling their own brand 3 port jobbie for £12, I'd paste a link but Windows has decided forget how to cut n' paste.

[tricky 100]

Cheers guys , will have a look for this port later , does it look like a USB port or will it say firewire, i know theres some USB ports on the back and for some reason two on the front . Hope its already got one as im not keen on opening it up and messing about inside .
Thanks Richard.

[meeja]

tricky 100 said:

Does it look like a USB port or will it say firewire

It should say Firewire, or IEEE1394.

If it is a Sony product, it might just say i-link

On the whole, a USB port looks like this (note the symbol)


and a Firewire port looks like this



Keep an eye out for the Firewire logo too....



Edited to add:

Laptops generally only have a "mini" port for firewire.... they look a bit like this:

Edited by meeja on Monday 18th December 16:09

[tricky 100]

Thanks Meeja, Bummer typical not got that on mine . Theres some spare slots at the bottom so presumably this card would go in there , but when i open up the case would it be obvious where to plug in the new wire loom ?
Give me a car to fix any day.

[ThePassenger]

tricky 100 said:

Thanks Meeja, Bummer typical not got that on mine . Theres some spare slots at the bottom so presumably this card would go in there , but when i open up the case would it be obvious where to plug in the new wire loom ?
Give me a car to fix any day.

If you're talking about a desktop unit then I assume you'll be buying a PCI card, it'll plug in to one of the white sockets on the large PCB. It'll only fit in one way and you will need to remove one of the blanking panels from the metal chassis.

You might need to connect a floppy power cable from the wiring loom to the card, you might not. These are small 4 pin connectors with a raised bit running from one end to the other and indented at the bottom.

[meeja]

ThePassenger said:

If you're talking about a desktop unit then I assume you'll be buying a PCI card, it'll plug in to one of the white sockets on the large PCB. It'll only fit in one way and you will need to remove one of the blanking panels from the metal chassis.

If you apply a tiny amount of common sense, (and read the instructions!) then adding a firewire card will probably rank about as difficult as changing a wiper blade.

If your PC is running windows XP, then it really is as simple as turning the PC back on after you have fitted the card, and "follow the instructions" that Windows will pop up onto the screen for you.

You will be capturing DV video onto your PC before you know it.

ALl you'll have to do then is get some bigger hard drives! (Once you start capturing video, Hard Drive space seems to evaporate!)

[GJR]

Hi Guys,

I posted this yesterday in 'Photograpy and Video' but it was suggested I might find help here.

I'm about to start the capture of home DV video tape so that I can put it onto DVD but I have a couple of Qns....

First, what's the best format for burning to DVD in terms of quality... or does it not matter?? My capture card gives me a whole range of formats eg, mpeg, avi etc. but is there any particular one that displays better on DVD?

My other Qn. is about resolution. I guess the greater the resolution the better but is there a minimum I shouldn't go below? For instance, my capture card defaults at 352x288 PAL. Would this resolution give good TV quality play back or should it be higher? I'm just trying to make a trade off between resolution and file size. I have just under 2 hrs of footage which will fit onto a double layer DVD in terms of time but not in terms of file size (mpeg-2).

Cheers

G

[tricky 100]

Thanks meeja and passeneger , just looked on ebay at them and your right looks pretty straight forward so ill order one and give it a go . Nice Porsche by the way .
Richard.

[leosayer]

I found that it's best to close all unnecessary programs and not to use the pc while the transfer is taking place, otherwise I get drop-outs.

Might be my ancient pc of course.

[road2ruin]

GJR said:

Hi Guys,

I posted this yesterday in 'Photograpy and Video' but it was suggested I might find help here.

I'm about to start the capture of home DV video tape so that I can put it onto DVD but I have a couple of Qns....

First, what's the best format for burning to DVD in terms of quality... or does it not matter?? My capture card gives me a whole range of formats eg, mpeg, avi etc. but is there any particular one that displays better on DVD?

My other Qn. is about resolution. I guess the greater the resolution the better but is there a minimum I shouldn't go below? For instance, my capture card defaults at 352x288 PAL. Would this resolution give good TV quality play back or should it be higher? I'm just trying to make a trade off between resolution and file size. I have just under 2 hrs of footage which will fit onto a double layer DVD in terms of time but not in terms of file size (mpeg-2).

Cheers

G

DVD's only operate in one format which is mpeg2 and in one resolution which is 720x576. Whilst it is possible to convert any format to a dvd and indeed any resolution either the quality when converted may be poor. What you will need to do is capture as an mpeg2 if possible then convert the mpeg2 to a DVD file (VOB) before burning (additional software may be needed) you cant just burn an mpeg2 file to dvd and expect your player to play it as it needs other files to help it structure menu's, etc.

[GJR]

Thanks road2ruin,

Just what I needed to know, cheers.

G