Re: Video Camera?

Question

I have a Sony DCR-DVD 403 NTSC...basically it's just a video camera which records on a cd. If I want to get information from this camera to my MacBook, can I just put in the cd that I recorded on into my optical drive or will this damage the cd? Will I have to order another USB cord instead? Thanks in advance!!! :)

Answer 1

It does not record to CD - it records to DVD. If it is a mini-DVD, NEVER EVER NEVER put a mini-optical disc in a slot loading optical drive.

The USB cable will not help because iMovie (or FinalCut) will not recognize video coming in over USB.

You have two choices:

1) Get a drawer loading DVD drive. I like the ones from LaCie.

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.h...

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.h...

Then you can rip the video with HandBrake:

http://handbrake.fr/

2) Use the AV cable that came in the box with the camcorder and use an "analog/digital bridge":

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

Camera connects to A/D Bridge with AV cable, A/D bridge connects to Mac's firewire port.

In either case, video quality will not be so good - DVD camcorder video was never meant to be edited on a computer, is VERY high compressed and any transfer for editing results in not so good quality.

Just in case you want to know - hard drive and flash memory camcorders are next up in the video quality scale. WAY better than DVD based - but not as good as miniDV tape.

MiniDV tape conmtinues to provide the best availabel video quality and transfers over firewire (your Mac has a built-in Firewire400 port).