Good program to transfer Mini DV to PC?

Question

I have a camcorder that uses Mini DV tapes. Anyone know a free download that will allow me to transfer the tapes to my PC then burn them to a CD?

Answer 1

In Windows, you have Windows Movie Maker.   On a Mac, you have iMovie and iDVD in iLife.

Both programs will capture the video from your miniDV camcorder through the Firewire, IEEE 1394, i.Link, DV port.  Once the video is in your computer and edited, you can use iDVD in iLife on a Mac to burn a movie DVD.   Depending upon which company provided your Windows PC, it might have come with a free dvd burning program (usually a short term demo) for making a movie dvd.  You can also download or purchase DVD burning software for windows from providers like Nero, Roxio, and Pinnacle (Avid).

Since you want to save your video to CD instead of dvd, your Windows and Apple computer can already burn a data cd with any file - including a video file.   The problem is that if the movie must be very short (usually 10 minutes or less) or the video won't be able to fit on the cd.  Also, the movie will not be playable in dvd players unless you burn a Video cd, and video cds can only be burned in dvd burning software.

If you need more room to copy your movie to disc, you can burn the movie file to a Data dvd.  A data dvd can be read in any computer with a DVD drive, but the movie can't be read or played in any other dvd device.

Answer 2

if you have windows Xp you can use media movie maker .just go to start then all programs and you should find it .then connect your camcorder via usb to the computer and press capture movie ,put a name to your movie and after you done transfering the movie to the computer ,just click burn and put a dvd in your pc and burn the video.