I’ve found forums that specialize in this type of thing, but I’ve found recommendations for WinDV, which apparently wants to use FireWire. I have a PC without that, and I’m wondering if someone has a recommendation on getting this video onto the PC, and converting it into easily playable PC files.
[ol]Buy which camera? I need a USB connection, it seems.
[li]Use which capture software? I do have this list of suggestions: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/dv[/li][li]Convert to which file format?[/li][li]Use which converter?[/ol][/li]Thanks in advance for any help I can get.
I use the free vid capture that comes with Nero. Works great. I filmed a performance of a play for my University’s theater dept. Transferred it to the pc and we made dvd’s for the crew and cast. DV captures uncompressed. A pretty large file. But then you can make a xvid, mpeg or dvd. Whatever you want.
You should add a firewire card to your pc.
heck it’s only $16
a usb to firewire adapter cable. I’d have concerns whether USB would drop frames during capture. <shrug> I just don’t know. I guess you could try it and see.
Is there any solution that works via USB? I’d rather not buy FireWire just for this.
The usb / firewire cable is supposed to work. I linked one above for 4 bucks. Walmart or Best Buy might stock them. I’m lazy and just click on Amazon myself.
It will take your camera’s firewire data and send it into usb of your computer.
Never used a cable like this, but I know they’ve been around several years. I’d guess they work ok.
I was surprised some kind of hardware wasn’t needed to convert usb and firewire. I thought they had different communication protocols. But it seems like that cable simply crosses the right wires and sends the digital data through. Simple enough.
Thanks. I had forgotten about the converter you mentioned. Is our best bet just to buy the cheapest DV tape camera we can find on Craigslist, and then sell it on again?
Some bigger cities have places that rent dv cameras. I’m not sure if they’ll only do a day or two or not. I knew some students in an AV class that rented cameras for the entire semester. The teacher had us doing a different video project almost every week.