jdkno Posted June 2, 2009 Report Share Posted June 2, 2009 I have a Panasonic Mini DV Camcorder. To run it to the TV there is a simple stereo jack that has RCA's for audio and video on the other end. I am trying to figure out how to get the things I have recorded on the mini dv tapes onto my computer. My son has started walking and we have been videoing the crap out of him. I would like to get the videos onto my computer so we can send them to my mother in law. I know the camcorder has a mini usb plug on it that resembles the plug on my blackberry and most motorola phones. I have not tried to hook it up to the computer yet but I may use my blackberry's USB cable to try it tonight. Anyone have any idea how this works? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzipy Posted June 3, 2009 Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 In all probability that is a Firewire connection. Go to this site http://www.videohelp.com/ you will find out all you need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teebs Posted June 3, 2009 Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 Which model of Panasonic mini DV camcorder do you have? The older models would probably have only a Firewire connector for you to connect the DV camcorder to your computer. The newer ones would be using a USB 2.0 mini connector instead. In this case, you would need a mini USB - USB connector to connect your DV camorder to your computer. By the way, you would also need a software to download your DV videos from your DV tapes to your computer and then process them into either DVD quality movies or VCD quality movies. This will take a pretty long time depending on how powerful your computer is, how much RAM your computer has and how much HDD space your computer has. Also depending on the output quality you select, you could end up with an extremely huge movie file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwatch Posted June 3, 2009 Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 The other question is, do you own a mac or a pc computer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdkno Posted June 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 redwatch - I own a PC not a Mac....why do I feel as if I am starting out at a disadvantage?? teebs - any suggestions on the software. Thats mainly what I need, getting the camcorder hooked up to the computer is the easy part, the hard part is making it all work. zzipy - Thanks for the link lots of helpful info there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzipy Posted June 3, 2009 Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloa...oviemaker2.mspx This is pretty good. It will get you a movie that is 8.5/10. To go higher you really need to spend time to learn and experiment. I use windv to get movies off the camcorder. There are many just google or look for in the previous link. Another great link http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video/capture-dv.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAHLER Posted June 3, 2009 Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 Adobe Premiere is the best !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redwatch Posted June 3, 2009 Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 Its not as though you are at a disadvantage being on a PC, but life is definitely easier on the mac. The software is already built in and they play really well with DV cameras right out of the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniNova Posted June 3, 2009 Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 Check to see if your camera has a firewire port, if it does then you need to buy a firewire cable and make sure your PC has firewire port or card, as far as software I think the easiest way to do it would be with something like Nero 8 or 9, you can import video from MiniDV and make DVDs out of them. If you want to venture into editing in my opinion Sony Vegas is much easier and cheaper to work with than adobe premier or any of the other high end software, there are lots of tutorials that help you do things from just transferring your tapes to your computer to adding affects, cutting out scenes etc. Let me know what is the model of your camcorder and I'll look it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teebs Posted June 3, 2009 Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 redwatch - I own a PC not a Mac....why do I feel as if I am starting out at a disadvantage?? teebs - any suggestions on the software. Thats mainly what I need, getting the camcorder hooked up to the computer is the easy part, the hard part is making it all work. zzipy - Thanks for the link lots of helpful info there I think most computers would come bundled with DVD burning software and the latest versions from Roxio and Easy CD Creater allow you to import movies from DV camcorders and convert them into DVD/VCDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniNova Posted June 4, 2009 Report Share Posted June 4, 2009 I think most computers would come bundled with DVD burning software and the latest versions from Roxio and Easy CD Creater allow you to import movies from DV camcorders and convert them into DVD/VCDs. They don't, most camcorders come with software to view the pictures (if they have that feature and most do) but not to edit and transfer video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teebs Posted June 5, 2009 Report Share Posted June 5, 2009 They don't, most camcorders come with software to view the pictures (if they have that feature and most do) but not to edit and transfer video. I was talking about computers where if you have a computer with a DVD re-writable drive, you should have a lite version of the Roxio or Easy CD creater software which will also allow you to download and edit videos from the mini DV camcorder. On a side note, when I checked the panasonic downloads website, I see some DVD editing software which they provide free with some of their models of camcorders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teebs Posted June 5, 2009 Report Share Posted June 5, 2009 I was talking about computers where if you have a computer with a DVD re-writable drive, you should have a lite version of the Roxio or Easy CD creater software which will also allow you to download and edit videos from the mini DV camcorder. On a side note, when I checked the panasonic downloads website, I see some DVD editing software which they provide free with some of their models of camcorders. U can also try out the 30 day free trial for the Ulead DVD movie factory. http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pag...d=1204918456098 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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