How do I transfer images from my GR-D350U camcorder to my PC?

Question

I have a GR-D350U Digital Camcorder, and I'm trying to figure out how to transfer still images, or pictures, (which I took by using the snapshot function while filming a video) from it to my computer. The instructions say I can do so by using the DV connector and the software equipped with the computer, or commercially available software, but I can't figure out how it's done. Can someone give me some step by step instructions please? This is what I have:

* DV connector

* Windows Vista

* Recently purchased HP Pavillion computer (this year)

Answer 1

The GR-D350U captures stills by recording a few seconds to the tape.  You need to capture the video and then extract the stills from it - WIndows Movie Maker's scene detection should be good enough to do this.  The stills aren't going to be great though!

Answer 2

For transferring video from the miniDV tape, just like with any other miniDV tape based camcorder, the DV port on the camcorder is connected to the firewire port on your computer using a firewire cable. If you don't have a firewire port on your computer, they are easy to add if you have an available PCI slot (or PCMCIA or Express slot if a laptop).

DV, Firewire, IEEE1394a, i.Link - all the same thing.

USB will not work. A Firewire to USB adapter will not work.

Because stills are stored on the miniDV tape, you need to use firewire to connect to get the stills. (Typically, stills are stored to a memory card and transferred using USB - this is not the case with the camcorder. This camcorder does not have a USB port.)

Here is a link to your camcorder's manual:

http://support.jvc.com/consumer/product....

Refer to page 34. "Connection to a Personal Computer"

See the picture describing using a DV cable? That is a firewire cable. DV, Firewire, IEEE1394a and i.Link are all the same thing. The DV cable is marked "optional" that means it did not come in the box with the camcorder.

You will treat those stills on the miniDV tape as if they we video on the tape.