Can you please help me tranfer home movies from my camcorder to a disk. Ive never done it before...?

Question

so if you could really walk me through it i would really appriciate it. I have the camcorder that uses the tiny little casset thingies and i have Sonic on my coputer. What kind of disk do i need?I have some that say DVD+R, is this the right one? thank you for your help. ive been trying to do this for two days now.

Answer 1

You need to transfer (capture) your video via firewire.  Firewire drivers are included as part of your operating system so you don't need a driver from the camera manufacturer and you probably won't find one.   Your PC needs a firewire port, though it could be called DV, iLink or IEEE1394  - they're all the same thing. If your PC hasn't already got one you'll need to install a firewire card.  They're cheap, easy to install and readily available.  You'll also need a firewire cable.  It'll probably be 4 pin (camcorder end) to 6 pin (PC end) though some laptops use a 4 pin port.  They look completely different, but camcorders are always 4 pin so there shouldn't be any confusion.

One you've got the hardware sorted out you'll need to connect the camcorder to the PC and switch the camcorder to play - your editing app should now be able to see it and capture the video.  I don't know which Sonic app you've got, but I'll assume it can capture and edit your video before authoring and burning the DVD.  

DVD+R should be OK, though DVD-R is slightly more compatible with DVD players.  I'd get a few rewritable DVDs as well - they're slightly less compatible but well worth having to practice with.

Answer 2

You need to connect your camcorder to your PC with a firewire cable. Your PC needs a firewire port. You need to go to your camcorder manufacturers support site and download the latest driver and instructions on using firewire. You also need to pay a visit to your PC manufacturers support site to see if your PC is equipped with a firewire port. Good luck!!