What all do I need to take videos from my Sony HandyCam Mini-DV and put them on my computer to burn to DVD?

Question

I got my fiancee a Sony HandyCam for Christmas and I want the ability to burn the videos to a DVD. Problem is, the camcorder uses a Mini-DV tape. What all do I need? What is the best program after I get all of the proper tools?

Answer 1

MiniDV tape is not a problem. It is the BEST storage method because it has a long shelf life (if you do not re-use the tapes) and it provides the BEST quality video as compare to hard drive or flash memory or DVD based camcorder... MiniDV stores using DV (or HDV) format video which is far less compression than the other storage media.

More compression = lost data = reduced video quality.

The first thing you need is a firewire cable that connects your camcorder to your computer. You may also need to add a firewire port.

Then, pretty much any editor will recognize the camcorder for importing the video. USB will not work.

Once the video is in the computer, it can be edited (freebies are MovieMaker in Windows; iMovie in Macintosh), then burned to DVD (WinDVD for Windows, iDVD for Macintosh).

Answer 2

i use sonic and windows movie maker.

Answer 3

work great and easy to use, burn dvd for total video2dvd author,

a. Easy convert avi or other popular video formats(such as*.flv  *,mpg *.xvid *.divx  *.mp4 *.3gp *.mkv *.rm *.rmvb *.mov *.wmv *.ogm *.ts etc.) to video DVD or ISO image;

b. Support *.srt,  *.sub, *.ssa,  *.tex,  *.idx subtitles;

c. Support dvd menu with background music, many wonderful menu;

d. Support photo slideshow to dvd, more than 300 kinds of effects;

e. Support download youtube and other video share website video, then burn it to dvd;

f.   Easy to use, only a few clicks.

you can download this software FREE:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Tot...

Answer 4

It says in tiny print in your manual that you need a firewire connection (ieee 1394) to download video, unfortunately your computer probably doesn't have a firewire port (ieee 1394) so you will have to buy one and install it, also your camera did not come with a firewire cord (because PC's don't come with a port) so you will have to buy that too. The USB cord that came with your camera is strictly for downloading the stills from your video camera.

Answer 5

You will find a read of this article very useful and informative :-  

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.p...    

The software being used is Ulead VideoStudio - you can download a free trial to see if it works for you from :-  

http://www.ulead.co.uk/vs/runme.htm  

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