How can I transfer footage from a Mini DV Camcorder (Panasonic PV-GS85) to a Dell Pc or a Dell laptop?

Question

It only came with a USB cable and I can only transfer still images through it. What can I do?

Answer 1

Add a firewire (IEEE1394a, i.Link, DV - all the same thing) port to the computer - then, using a firewire cable and the camcorder in play/VCR/edit mode, connect the camcorder's DV port to the computer's firewire port with that firewire cable. Launch MovieMaker, specify the port, and "Capture" the video from the camcorder.

USB will not work. USB-firewire converter/adapter will not work. As you have discovered, USB is used only for transferring stills from the memory card.

Answer 2

Some miniDV camcorders allow you to transfer images through the master/slave interface of a USB connection.  This one does not.  The only thing you can do with USB on this model is transfer still pictures or use as a webcam.

For this, you will need an OHCI compliant IEEE1394 card on your computer (for a peer-to-peer interface) and a 4-pin to n-pin (n being the number of pins on the connector on your computer - desktops usually have six, laptops usually 4 - but there are exceptions) firewire/i-link/DV cable of appropriate length to connect them together.

The camcorder must be connected to AC power using the AC cable, the battery charger (which acts as the AC/DC converter) and the DC cable, then it must be in playback mode.

Using your capturing software (some of them come with motionDV studio, but moviemaker works fine) select the option to capture from a device and choose the camera.  You will then receive camcorder controls on your computer that you can use to rewind, ff, play, stop - and record.

Good luck.