How to combine 3 or more videos into one big video?

Question

okay. so i have to do this project for spanish and we have to make a few different commercials. well my group couldnt get together outside of school, so we each did our own and now we have three separate videos on three different digital cameras and i cant figure out how to make them into one big video. can anybody help me?

Answer 1

You need to get the video from the different camcorders into ONE computer so the video editor on that ONE computer can combine them. You did not tell us what camcorders were used - and you did not tell us what computers are available... so here are the different methods for the different camera types:

If it is a miniDV or Digital8 tape based camcorder, USB won't work to transfer video. Firewire (IEEE1394a, i.Link - all the same thing) is required. You may need to install a firewire port. The camcorder needs to be in Play/edit mode. Capture using Windows MovieMaker; Import using Apple iMovie on a Macintosh.

If it is hard drive or flash memory based, USB should work - but the computer won't beep. In Windows, check "My Computer" and see if a USB mass storage device has mounted. Copy the files. In Macintosh, the hard drive will mount like any other mass storage USB device. Copy the files. You will need to download and install StreamClip from Apple.com

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/vi...

It is free. You need this to translate the highly compressed MPEG2 files into DV or .mov so iMovieHD can understand the video file and work with it. Drag the translated file into the clips pan or timeline of iMovie.

If it is a DVD based camcorder, hopefully your computer has a drawer loading DVD drive. Take the disc out of the camcorder and put it in your computer's drawer loading DVD. NEVER put a miniDVD in a slot loading optical drive. You will need to rip the DVD using something like HandBrake:

http://handbrake.fr/

This is the same for Windows or Macintosh.

If your computer's optical drive is a slot loader OR is CD only (does not read DVDs) or if it is some other media storage (VHS, VHS-C, Hi8, etc...), you need to tell us more information... or you can get an analog/digital converter:

If your computer has only USB:

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us...

If your computer has firewire:

http://canopus.com/products/videoconvers...

Using the AV cable that came with your camcorder, connect one end to the camcorder AV port and the other end to the A/D Bridge. The A/D bridge connects with USB or Firewire as appropriate.

Good luck!