How come I cant connect my video camera to the computer???

Question

I have a Canon DC220 and I have downloaded all the programs that came wth it, including Pincale Studios. I want to get the videos onto Pinacle, but whenever I connect the camera to the computer with the USB cord it doesnt register in the program at all. It used to show up in My Computer and say that it was connected to the computer on the camera screen but now it just shows a flashing logo of the USB sign thingy. I went to all the troubleshooting things but it only told me things Ive already tried and when I called the help number a machine told me they were closed until tomorrow, so can you guys help me?

Answer 1

The DC220 is a DVD based camcorder. I hate to break this to you, but DVD based camcorders recorder the worst quality video.

There is nowhere for you to plug in a DV (firewire, IEEE1394, i.Link) cable so getting one is not going to help you very much.

The USB cable is used ONLY for transferring stills from the memory card.

You have two methods to get the video into your computer for editing:

1) If your computer has a drawer loading DVD (optical) drive, you can put the disc in there and rip the DVD with something like HandBrake. http://handbrake.fr/

Because the discs can be problematic - you may want to download ISOBuster while you are at it. You will need it at some point.

DO NOT PUT THE DVD IN A SLOT LOADING OPTICAL DRIVE. You will break the drive and scratch the disk.

If you do not have a drawer loading optical drive, you can get an external one... or...

2) Using the AV cables that came in the box with the camcorder, plug them into an Analog/Digital bridge. Pinnacle make the Dazzle which connect to your computer using USB. Canopus makes several different models that connect to your computer's firewire port - if it has one.

Warning: The video from any DVD based camcorder will not be very good.

Answer 2

You will have to 'finalise' the mini DVD first - your camera manual will tell you how to do that - but you should note that once a DVD is finalised you cannot record any more video on it.

then try it this way

Use a programme called Ulead VideoStudio - you take the mini-disc out of your camcorder and put it into the DVD tray of your PC making sure it sits centrally in the little depression made for it.

Inside VideoStudio you select "Insert DVD" and point the programme at the DVD and follow the prompts and the video is copied from the disc into the timeline of VideoStudio so that you can edit it - add lots of different videos together - add titles/music/narration - make a file that you can e-mail or upload to 'Youtube' etc. and finally burn to a full size DVD to play in a standard player.

Full details and a one month free trial of VideoStudio from :-

www.Ulead.com

or

www.Ulead.co.uk

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