Question: Hi. I have a desktop, which is more than six years old, running Windows XP Professional with the latest service packs. I also have a six-month-old laptop running Vista Home Premium, with 2GB RAM and a 200GB HD. I know the laptop is the better choice for this, but I am still fumbling on how to get this done. Having taken a lot of hours of movies with my MiniDV Sony camera, I need to do two things. First, transfer the footage to DVDs.
The laptop has a DVD burner built-in, so that makes it the better choice, again. And second, once I have transferred the footage, I will want to edit it. How can I make the transfer as easy as possible first, to the laptop's hard drive, then burning the movies to DVDs? I am guessing that DVD-RW is the best medium, so that I can move things back and forth while I edit and refine the movies I have taken. Can you suggest the best ways to do these tasks? Move the movies from the MiniDV to the Laptop's HD, and then edit the movies.
Thank you all, very much.Submitted by Alex H. Here are some featured member answers to get you started, but please read up on all the advice and suggestions that our members have contributed to this member's question. Converting your MiniDV to DVDs -Submitted by Watzman Mini Digital Video (DV) to DVD-Submitted by surfingtheweb First the basics-Submitted by slappie If you have any additional advice or recommendations for Alex, please click on the reply link and submit it. Please be as detailed as possible in your answers.
The bottom line is RE-BURN (copy) your copies every 3 to 5 years or less. Use good quality, which does mean more expensive, and store them properly. Think technology, 10 or 15 years goes by and the Technology will not be able to read your old discs. (quite possible) A few years ago, they said maybe with luck 100 years. But now after much testing 3-5 years. And I have known this for a couple years.
Take a look at wikipedia that says. Read the entire section on Expected Lifespan, many variables will make it far less than 3-5 years. USING Good Quality and perfect storage conditions.
(cdrfaq.org is over 3 yars old on this subject) (cd.info is over 10 years old.) 'At present, stated CD-R lifetimes are estimates based on accelerated aging tests, as the technology has not been in existence long enough to verify the upper range. With proper care it is thought that CD-Rs should be readable one thousand times or more and have a shelf life of three to five years. Unfortunately, some common practices can reduce shelf life to only one or two years.
Therefore, it is important to handle and store CD-Rs properly if it is necessary to read them more than a year or so later'. None of us are 250 years old so none of us can truly speak of the validity of 'accelerated aging tests'. I can say that I have music cds that I've burned that have lived in my car since 2000 that still play. I wouldn't call a vehicle that is parked outside in northern california as a 'optimal environment' As to using CD-R as a viable archive media for video; Either mikesey97 stores video in a very low quality format or he meant DVD-R. The 700Mb capacity of a compact disk just won't store much video in full quality. Essentially those are the steps but there are many different ways to accomplish the task. He is also asking whether the laptop is better than the desktop.
Much depends on the speed of the laptop HD vs the desktop HD. Most current mid to high level laptops have 7200rpm HDs but many still have 5400rpm. The faster the better for preventing dropped frames.
As said in other posts, firewire is the preferred transfer method. My 2 yr old laptop processor is faster than my 7 yr old desktop but I get much fewer dropped frames with my desktop running a 500gb 7200 rpm master HD.
Editing is trial and error. You have to find the program that fits you best.
I prefer Premiere as I use Photoshop and the entire suite so it works for me, but not for many others. I used to use Pinnacle prior to Premiere and it is good too. Hi Alex, What you need is to be able to first connect your camera to your PC. I presume that the only video processing software you have running on your PC is Windows Moviemaker. The connection could be either thru a Mini DV port (through Firewire) or a USB port. Run the software.
You will then have movie maker capture your footage. This is easily done. The next step is editing the footage. You can do it again in Moviemaker. Generate the final video file and burn it on the DVD using a package like Nero. This is the basic sequence.
In case you have a better video editing package (eg Vegas, Velocity, Video Studio etc), you get better editing capabilities. First you have to understand that the people who make video camcorders, video capture formats, video editing software, and computers all hate each other. I am editing video from mini disks from a Sony Camcorder for my folk dance group. I am using an older single core 2ghz chip portable computer and I am using Sony's Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Edition editing software and Sony's DVD Architect Studio for making full size DVD's from the edited video.
All this does work. That is the good news.
The bad news is that an older single core chip computer is SLOW at heavy tasks like this, Sony Vegas Movie Studio is NOT easy to master, and for some reason Sony forces us to use a second software package (DVD Architect Studio) to make the final full size DVDs and again this software package is also NOT easy to master. The reasons for the difficulties are: 1. There are many video formats and it is difficult for any editing software package to be able to translate them and move them around. Like most video editing software packages the developers build in a great many features which they can brag about but which make our lives difficult because we have to wade through a lot of junk to make a simple instructional DVD. If we actually used the fades, shadows, fancy backgrounds, awful music, etc.
That come with video editing software anyone viewing our final product would run screaming from the room. I also tried some editing with an older Mac and iMovie and I never could figure out how to make that combination work. But probably the days of frustration of working with the Mac and iMovie taught me enough to be able to figure out Sony's software. 'They all hate each other' is the exact phrase I have been using to describe to my family and friends the miseries of coping with the incompatibilities of editing software. I've been using Roxio and ended up having to buy a multiple core computer which I can't afford because of all the crashing. In the end I've ended up just making DVD copies of very primitive footage and apologizing for my ineptitude. I just copy the little DVD which has been finalized in the camcorder and convert the format (one of the MPEGs) to one acceptable to Roxio.
Then use their burner software. I agree that all their canned enhancements are disgusting.
When editing old videotapes of my parents I use firewire with an ancient file-transfer thing (forgot the name because I stashed it somewhere in the process of fleeing hurricane Gustav. Somthing like Director's Cut made by Miglia. It works fine with Moviemaker but not with Roxio so I have to do a 2-part process to capture the video and then import it and convert it in Roxio. My camcorder is a Canon and I guess I shouldn't complain because everyone seems content with anything that produces movies of our beautiful grandchildren but I went thru a period of thinking I was going to have a heart attack from sheer frustration with the process.
I will read these answers carefully to see it there is anything to make this process easier if it is not too expensive. There are many issues you need to address in order to do what you want, so it may be better to explain how this is typically done, so you can weight the limitations of your systems. First, you transfer the MiniDV material to a Hard drive; You do this via a Firewire cable connected from the camera to the computer. Unless you have a special capture card, your footage will be transfered to DV AVI format. Ideally, you use a separate HD (internal or external), since you need this drive to deliver a sustain rate of at least 4.5 MB. Per second to store the AVI file. HD also most likely need to be a 7200 RPM disk, so it doesn't drop any frames.
A separate 200 GB. HD can store up to 15 hours of DV AVI material (Note: Typically, laptop HDs are slower than Desktop HDs). Renderman for mac windows 10. Once stored, you edit the video using an editing software. All the editing is made using the AVI files. Once you have your edited video, you might make a DVD for people to see it on a Stand alone DVD player.
Video DVDs do not use AVI files, so the software you use in order to make the Viedo DVD, will transcode (convert) the AVI files into MPEG2 files. MPEG2 is a compressed format, and a typical 4.7 GB DVD can hold up to 2 hours of video (you can store only about 20 minutes of AVI video in a DVD).
Some programs allow you to make Menus and Backgrounds, so your DVD looks professional. If you want to make changes, you need to make them within the editing software and the original AVI files, NOT from the Edited DVD, since it's more complicated, you'll lost a lot of time and a LOT of video quality if you re-edit from the DVD. You can make a backup of your Project (you must include the editing software's project file, AVIs, photos, and any material you used) into Data DVDs, in case you want to change the video later, but need to delete it from the computer.
Also consider that a laptop DVD is WAY slower than a Desktop DVD when burning any info. Bottom line: 1) Get an external 7200 RPM HD.
2) I can't really tell which computer is the best choice, since you don't mention their specs. 3) Burning DVDs from the laptop is going to take a lot of time, you can get a new desktop DVD burner for $25. 4) I'm not sure why you want to transfer all the MiniDV tapes into DVDs.
DV has a much better quality, and in order to transfer them to DVD, you need to a)convert the DV files into MPEG2, in order to make video DVDs (this will take you forever, unless you get a MPEG2 encode card); or b) store the AVI files in data DVDs, at a rate of one DVD for every 20 minutes of footage. In both cases, you need to capture the video in the HD first, and then burn the DVD (as mentioned, this will take forever! Or worst, if you use the laptop). I have MiniDVs that I used in 1997, and image looks perfect, so longevity is not still a problem.
There are a some additional considerations (video and DVD software, compressing methods, video cards, memory, etc) that would take too long to explain here, but I hope this helps; excuse my english, since It's not my native language. Hi I've been doing digital media for a LONG time now.while in school, they had macs, which have iMovie, which is easier, but I wasn't fond of the macs overall and worked off my laptop (running windows XP). The first thing I would suggest is you go out and purchase a separate external hard drive. The prices have come down considerably and digital film takes up a LOT of space.
As far as software for editing, there is a lot out there and I've been using adobe premiere for over 5 years now. I don't think it's the easiest thing to use, but it does everything I need it to do as far as editing so I like that. I've also tried Roxio and Sonic, but have always drifted back to premiere. There are pros and cons to all the software out there, premiere is VERY expensive (I got it through the college I was at) and is indeed aimed at professionals, but Roxio and Sonic are relatively inexpensive and sometimes there are free trials that do almost everything except let you burn.
Editing is tedious at best. I do full length movies (90 minutes) and what I do to make it easier is to keep a sheet (in excel) on exactly what I have on the tape.
You can do this as you go along, or if it's just your kids/family stuff and not a full fledged movie, you can just note it after you've shot from memory. You can also preview your film through your camera and make notes for when you do 'log the film' such as minutes used, subject, time stamp, etc. That makes it much easier for editing later. Next is transferring, this takes as long as your film is (for the most part) and usually uses a Firewire/IEEE port. You can choose to log the entire tape, or you can sit there and kind of rough edit as you go, or you can have (some of) the program set markers either when it thinks a scene has changed or by time. I usually sit with it and do a rough edit of the scene and then name it something meaningful.
Doing the advance prep saves you time later on. Then you just edit each part you've logged in, drop it into a timeline in the program and decide if you are going to use effects (such as credits at the end/beginning, transitions between scenes, set up the DVD menus and chapters). Then you burn it onto a DVD (I don't use an RW, just regular ones), which takes forever, I usually set it up overnight because it takes hours to render the images (once again, my stuff is well over an hour long) then burn it. Then you can create the DVD covers, etc. There is certainly a LOT more to say on the subject, like music and copyrighting, etc.
But this is the basic stuff. Good luck, it's fun once you get the hang of it, and it's all in the details as to how easy it is once you get to this point. I keep thinking everyone is overcomplicating this. Your Sony camera has a firewire port. Sony has its own name for this, but it's really the same thing, and your camera probably came with the right cable. Now all you need is a computer with a firewire port, and I'm guessing your laptop is the most likely.
Get a big-. external drive for transferring the video. If you want all the raw footage on DVDs for some reason you can do it later, but DVD is NOT what you want to use to edit to/from.
Transferr all your footage to the hard drive and once there, you can edit away. Your editing program will NOT remove original footage.
It just uses what you specify in the new final movie. Nothing is really 'cut' forever. This is the magic of digital editing. If you're relatively new to video editing, Premiere is not for you. I think the best all around editing program is Pinnacle Studio. It's simple, very versatile, and you can get very professional looking results.
The learning curve is going to be quicker than with Premiere, too. Windows Movie Maker is okey-dokey, but only that. If you want to just put scenes together and drop in a title, it's fine, but beyond that, you will be kind of limited. Pinnacle will take you a little learning time, but you can be up and running pretty quickly. Plus, the capture process is pretty simple - You can be doing that first while you're reading the manual! I have a WD 500 G external drive with firewire ports and I have no idea how fast it is because I can't find the original specs.
It is called MyBook. Do you know if this is adequate for direct video capture from a Canon mini DVD?
I have been using it for storage and backup only but would love it if I could dedicate it to all video work. Seems to me there were some kind of complaints about this model several months ago. I don't keep it connected all the time because the firewire connection is noisy.
If this is not a good choice, please recommend an external firewire connector hardrive for me. U can clealy notice that ur pc is slow in shutting down precces this is becouse of a differnt matirials. The most important one is that either ur pc is having aloot of programes to be saved n ten shut down or ur computer pressecor is low. Try this command to help ur pc in fast start up in opening go to the runtype.msconfig. I regularly transfer video to DVD and have a similar set up. An older desktop on XP and a newer laptop using Vista. On the older machine with commercial software this is easy but the winner is the laptop with it?s built in Windows movie maker and DVD maker.
Transfer is simple from camera to Movie maker and this will split the footage automatically into scenes. Once you have inserted the scenes into the time line effects and transitions can be added and then select make DVD which saves the project and after selecting the menu you like the looks of burns a DVD with the scenes as menu points.
You don't mention a home network, but that is really the best way to go about moving the files. Get yourself an inexpensive 5-port switch that can handle at least 100 MB connections, a couple of lengths of CAT 5e LAN cable, plug it all in, run the home network wizard on both PCs, make a share on the XP that you can read from the laptop and copy like crazy. A slighty less complicated alternative is a big USB external drive. However, your old desktop probably has only USB 1.1 ports, so the file copying will go a bit slower. It is also likely to be more expensive than the switch/cables but you can also use it for backups. Alex - your desktop or laptop will need to have a FireWire port in order to transfer the footage.
Sony refers to the firewire port as i-Link in most cases - but it's the same thing. A majority of the camcorders have a 4-Pin FireWire port, but the PC has a 6-Pin, so you'll need that cable. This was probably included in the box as well if you still have it.
If not, Markertek Video Supply (markertek.com) is a great source for stuff like this. I've dealt with them for a long time. It's not just another box house or online retailer. The camcorder may have come with some basic software to recognize and maybe even edit the footage. You might also need to consider hard drive space. Video footage will eat up hard drive space rapidly. It is unlikely that you'll be able to go from camera straight to DVD.
How Does A Pc User Save .dv For Mac Free
Mini DV is not the MPEG format needed for DVD. That's where your computer will have to transfer the file format from one to the next. An easy, low cost down and dirty solution for this would be buy Quick Time Pro for $29.99. 4ironman: I read your post regarding the transfer of analog tape footage to DVD, and was hoping you could provide me a little more detail.
My objective is a little different than Digital Video to DVD as was the original question in that thread. I have a number of VHS video tapes that I would like to convert to an appropriate format for transferring to DVD media. I have a lot of hardware/software at present, but will likely have to purchase a little of both to do the job.
I have a fast desktop with a dual core processor running at 4.2 Mhz and 1 Gb Ram, with two quality hard drives (Western Digitals: 160 Gb ATA @ 5,400 RPM and a 500 Gb SATA2 @ 7,200 RPM) and an ATi Wonder Pro TV & Capture card running Windows XP Home Edition SP3. While I have no movie editing experience, I have a high computer IQ having built PCs for 15 years and made a living writing complex financial application software. I run literally hundreds of different software programs and have plenty of experience with graphics editing & utilities as well as CAD etc., and doubt I will have any problems learning it. I presently own a complete suite of video editing programs, but haven't run any of them as yet due to a lack of time. Unfortunately, I do not know a fast and efficient way to transfer the video data from the VHS player directly to the PC's hard drive, and may be stuck with RCA, Composite or Coaxial cables. I also own a reasonably fast laptop with a dual core processor @ 2.9 Mhz and 1 Gb RAM, but it only has an 80 Gb hard drive which is not enough space for anything of a video nature. It has a Firewire port, but I doubt iyt will be of much help in this task.
I would sure appreciate any thoughts or comments you might have about how I should proceed. It's the VHS to PC connection that concerns me and if I have to invest in some dedicated hardware to make it happen, so be it. I'll just have to insist on an increase in my weekly allowance from 'She who must be obeyed!' Thanks in advance for your reply. JT mvtofino@hotmail.com. Any miniDV camcorder should have a firewire (firewire = IEEE 1394 cable) port, as should a pc or mac.
You can then hook it up and record with windows movie maker or something like that. Firewire is better quality (as good as you're going to get) than recording the video out. Then edit to your heart's content.
Then you can burn to dvd (note that no dvd was needed to transfer the video to pc) with dvd burning software, which you can find online. If you want a basic free open-source one, avi2dvd is the one (not to be confused with shareware 'dvd2avi'); export in avi format from movie maker or whatever and use avi2dvd to burn it. I actually did this last week. I think the easiest way is to use a program called Windows Movie maker (should come with most PCs having XP Pro). You can connect your camcorder to your laptop via USB or Firewire, run Windows Movie maker and click capture from video device. It has settings to edit and save video clips before burning to DVD. I have also used another program called InterVideo WinDVD Creator.
I'm not sure if it also comes standard with many PCs. This program gives you various options for video capturing and editing (DVD direct to disc, DVD to hard drive). I believe one difference between the two programs is that with Windows Movie Maker you can create video clips to post on websites, run on Pocket PC handhelds, or create video CDs on CD-R or RWs (for shorter clips).
Check your laptop if you have these programs and play around with the features, they should help you out.