A/V Digital Video Cameras?

Hello Peeps,

I've been doing some filming today on my digital video camera but it's on MiniDV format tape and i have no idea how to get this onto my pc. The only ports it has are S-Video out and an audio/video out jack. Also it has a "DV Out" port.

So i was wondering.. can anyone recommend a decent Digital Video camera that can link to a computer? Or can i do it with this one somehow?

Thanks .

 

The DV out is the key! It is a firewire port (IEEE 1394) which is used to connect to the computer. If you don't have a firewire card or port in your system you can add one very cheaply. It is by far the best way to transfer video to your pc as it is easy, cheap, requires very little processor power, and creates an exact copy of the video on the tape. If you use the s-video cable you'll need more cpu power, the picture will be degraded, and you'll have to convert it for efficient editing.

Go with a firewire port/card and you can't miss!

 

Thanks for the help! I've jsut gone and ordered myself a 4pin to 6pin firewire cable .

 

Yup, I agree with MaximumShow.

My video camera also uses MiniDV tapes, I just connect it using a firewire cable, works really well.

 

So when i get the cable.. do i just connect it up and turn the camcorder on? Will XP recognise it?

 

Yes.

 

yeah plug it in... turn the camera on to VCR mode, and xp will make a "beeboo" sound. Super easy... XP even has a built in video capturing program that will transfer the clips you want. Windows movie maker isn't a very powerful video editing program though. Are you going to edit the video? And if so what program did you want to use?

 

Got the firewire cable this morning and ripped them with Windows Movie makler for the mo.. i'll find a better program like you say because the sound is all out of sync.