# Help me identify video camera capture software

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-video-camera-capture-software/433850>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 17, 2008, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-video-camera-capture-software/433850 "2008-01-17T09:43:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2008, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-video-camera-capture-software/433850/1 "2008-01-17T09:43:33Z")

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I have a digital 8 camera with a firewire interface. I recall a while back that because the software that came with it was kind of bloated, I looked for freeware alternatives.

I found some freeware minimalist capture software which may have been open source, I forget. Anyway, it had just the bare necesities - a small window with camera controls (play, rewind, etc) and an ability to capture the raw data from the video feed - no editing, no processing, it just turned as much of the tape as I wanted into DV files. IIRC, it created a new file for every time the camera was stopped and started again in playback.

Does anyone have any idea what this software was?

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**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-video-camera-capture-software/433850/2 "2008-01-17T14:19:08Z")

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I think Windows Movie Maker is free with Windows.  
I am sure there are others…

[http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx)

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**Author:** ![Resu\_Eman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@Resu\_Eman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Resu_Eman)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2008, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-video-camera-capture-software/433850/3 "2008-01-17T16:05:06Z")

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One tool I like using is [WinDV](http://www.videohelp.com/tools/WinDV). It’s great for capturing from my DV camera. I don’t think it’s the tool you’re describing since it doesn’t have buttons for play, ff, rw, etc., but it’s still good.

The site videohelp.com has a tools section which describes hundreds of various tools used for video editing. If your tool exists, I’m sure they will mention it.