Community Newsletter: Q&A: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it
- 9/18/08 9:21 AM
Mini-DV Footage to DVDs
by Dan Filice - 9/6/08 7:49 AM In reply to: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Your questions states: "First, transfer the footage to DVDs. The laptop has a DVD burner built-in, so that makes it the better choice, again. And second, once I have transferred the footage, I will want to edit it." Because you are starting with mini-DV tapes, I would reverse the sequence of your question, so the first thing you would want to do is import the footage into PC for editing THEN burn DVDs. Your question makes me believe you plan on burning your footage first to a DVD then import from that for editing. That's backwards. Once you burn footage to a DVD, the footage is compressed, and when you import from a DVD for editing, the footage needs to uncompress then compress again to re-burn a DVD. To import mini-DV footage into your computer, you should use a Firewire cable. Most PCs only come with USB which is useless to import mini-DV directly. Purchase and install a Firewire card into your PC, then install appropriate editing software into which you can import all your footage, edit it, and burn a DVD. Often there is a separate software program to burn a DVD after editing. That's it. Now, keep in mind that once you start the DVD burning process, it is not done in realtime. The DV footage takes a long time to encode into an MPEG2 movie. For a 1hr edited movie, pland on several hours of encoding time. Once encoding is finished, the actual DVD burn process takes only about 15 minutes.
Converting Analog Video to Digital
by dsapadin - 9/6/08 7:52 AM In reply to: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
One of the big issues I keep running into from newbies is how to get their video from either VHS tapes and/or Hi8 video tapes (both of which are analog) into their computers so they can be transferred to DVD or edited and then transferred to DVD.
Most MiniDV camcorders USED to come with a feature called Video Pass-Through. You hook your analog component's video and audio out (usually RCA jacks) to the inputs provided on the camcorder. Then you run a firewire cable from your camcorder to your computer. You take the tape OUT of your camcorder, press record on whatever software you are using (Movie Maker, Pinnacle Studio, Ulead, Premier, et.al.) and press play on your analogue device. The camcorder converts the analog signal to digital, and voila, your computer captures it and then off you go.
Unfortunalely, this feature has disappeared from most comsumer camcorders these days. You can find it only on SOME of the higher end HDV camcorders such as the Canon HV30.
The only alternative is to buy a capture card that you install into your computer that will convert analog to digital. But most of them are fairly expensive.
There are a few cheap solutions on the market that will convert analog to digital via USB connection to your computer, but the results I have seen are poor, and there are usually lots of dropped frames during the capture process.
Keep in mind also that since most of the newer consumer camcorders don't use MINIDV tape, and instead use a memory card or they write to a DVD, that the video you end up with had been COMPRESSED. Which means that when you transfer it to your computer, you will end up compressing it AGAIN to MPG2 when you write it to DVD...which lowers the quality of the video. You do save time during the capture process using one of these camcorders. With MiniDV tape, the capture process must be done in "real time" meaning if you have an hour of video on the tape, you press play, and it plays back for an hour while you capture it. Whereas with a memory card or DVD, you either just transfer the compressed files to your computer, or rip the MPG2 files off the DVD your camcorder used. This speeds up the transfer process, but at a cost of lower quality on your final DVD which will have been compressed twice in a "lossy" format. (Lossy means the video loses quality...as opposed to AVI). SO there are decisions to be made about which way you want to go.
Most discouraging though is the dearth of inexpensive analog to digital capture cards available that don't drop frames or lower the incoming video quality. It might even be worth it to check on eBay for an older camcorder that has Video Pass through. So long as that feature works, you don't really care if anything else on the camcorder works because you'd just be using it as an analogue to digital converter.
Dave
Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage and edit it
by fantasyva - 9/6/08 8:05 AM In reply to: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I've been doing this for years and I'd advise against burning your files to DVD and then bringing it back and forth to your computer to edit it.
USB your camcorder into your computer and use Windows Movie Maker to import your files. It's simple and intuitive and allows you to edit excess footage, stitch together scenes, and add titles and even an alternate soundtrack. Lots of solid and basic features, it's intuitive, and if I can do it anyone can.
It's probably no big deal to store your files to a DVD RW, I use an extra hard drive, and you can also export the finished video back to your mini dv if you like. Windows Movie Maker offers options to import video files from files, cameras and most devices. Use the best settings to save your copies in the best quality when editing, you can always reduce it when you burn your final DVD if it becomes an issue.
There are a number of other programs out there but I've found this one to be easy and solid. The less cluttered the hard drive the better, I've had some compression issues with near full hard drives. The biggest failing of the program is no option to burn the final file to DVD, dunno what's up with that, but if you save your file in the proper format most any DVD burning program can take it from there. Hope this helps.
Mitch
What equipment do you have?
by gkamer - 9/6/08 8:16 AM In reply to: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Alex,
To answer the first part of your question. Copying video from a mini dvd tape to your hard drive will in all likelihood require you to connect your camcorder to your computer via a fire wire cable. This means your computer must have a fire wire port.
In the event your computer does not have a fire wire port, you maybe able to accomplish the same thing by using a video card with video in capability. You could then play the mini dvd tape in your camcorder and send it directly to your computer. This method could prove problematic with dropped frames and would not be the optimum method in my opinion.
To answer the 2nd part of the question. How to edit the video. There are any number of software programs available for this purpose, from free Windows Movie Maker to more expensive stuff like Sony Vegas.
There is something to keep in mind however. Disk space! Editing video can be a major project and requires massive amounts of disk space. A rule of thumb that I follow is 200 meg of disk space per 1 minute of uncompressed avi footage.
I would think of editing video with less than 2 gig of RAM, 4 would be a lot better.
Remember, after you edit the video it has to be "compiled" back into a movie. Depending on the size of the video this can be a very time consuming process, taking in some cases several hours to complete. Don't feel too bad though. Some motion picture special effect sequences can take a month or more to compile. So you see, it could be worse....
You don't need to burn the movies to a dvd while refining them. The video editing software all have a preview option to let you see how things are looking and make changes before you compile them, so you are good there.
Personally, I enjoy editing video and find it to be a lot of fun. However it can also be a royal pain in the neck sometimes, but the sense of satisfaction that comes with watching your hours of hard work on the big screen TV makes it worthwhile.
A few real-world pointers on Video>DVD transfer
by henryat1140 - 9/6/08 8:21 AM In reply to: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Having spent MANY hours wrestling with this process, here are a few items to consider:
First, regardless of how easy it appears when reading the software box, this is a complex, time consuming (but fun) task. I have years of experience working with audio files; processing video files is at least five times more complex and demanding - of hardware, software, and time. I cannot emphasize this enough, video processing is the toughest job your computer ever saw, it has to deal with an entire screenful of information 30 times each second.
Hardware: simply put, you need a fast processor, gobs of memory, and a capable video card. The DVD burner is almost an afterthought. If your laptop is dual core, so much the better. I would advise maxing out the memory in the laptop. Since video files are large - think gigabytes, you also need generous amounts of hard drive space.
Hygeine: A clean mean working environment is a must. If you can ditch any anti virus, real-time spyware monitors and the like, I'd do it. Make sure you are not running a bunch of stuff at startup (use MSCONFIG to check this). Defrag your drives. Do not expect to use an external USB drive for video capturing - they are not fast enough. When working on your video project, avoid other tasks, and save frequently.
Software: Video>DVD is a relatively new interest. Though there are programs that advertise 'one click' transfer, it's not that easy. As soon as you see how amateurish your raw footage is, you WILL want to edit it. This is not a knock on you, it's true for all filmmakers. Think of the captured scenes as raw material for your finished DVD. You'll want to trim scenes to make them more viewable, possibly rearrange them and add transitions between scenes, add titles, and maybe use some correcting filters to compensate for poor conditions when the video was shot. This is the fun part, and how well you do it will determine how polished the final DVD is.
For specific recommendations, to get your feet wet try the free Movie Maker application that comes with Vista. For more advanced and capable programs try Adobe Premiere Elements or Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate; each are available for about $100.00. Either will do the job, but in my experience Pinnacle Studio 12 is more stable and easier to use. Pinnacle also has a support discussion forum that is better than the Adobe one IMO. Either program will crash occasionally SAVE OFTEN!!
In summary, going into this with your eyes open is the best strategy, it takes some practice and lots of learning, but you really can produce video DVD's that are satisfying and polished given good hardware, software and lots of time. Good Luck and keep the aspirin bottle handy.
Data transfer . . .
by 11660 - 9/6/08 8:47 AM In reply to: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi, I wouldn't be firing on all cylinders with this subject, but your camera should have shipped with the appropriate software enabling you to carry out your task of transferring to and editing on any PC.
I carry out this very procedure on my iMac, but then again it shipped with iMovie pre-installed.
Good luck.
Mini DV to DVD
by Paul Pilkington - 9/6/08 8:50 AM In reply to: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Alex,
Best way is to edit your clips first, then burn a DVD from the saved project. If your PC has a firewire socket, use Windows MovieMaker on your PC.If you want something better I recommend Adobe Premiere Elements 3 or 4. Both will allow you to go DVD if you have a burner in your machine. Have fun!
Paul
What about DVD camcorders?
by haf canadian - 9/6/08 9:03 AM In reply to: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The answers to Alex's question I'm sure will be myriad, as there are plenty of ways to do what he aspires to. What CNET should have dealt with is the far more difficult question of how to get videos off a DVD camcorder, esp. Sony's, into a computer, edit them, and burn them to 12 cm DVD's. I've had a Sony DVD505 for 2 years and am piling up RW mini-disks because I can't get them into any program on my computer.
I've tried Nero, as well as Sony's software that came with the camcorder (useless), but whether direct off the mini-disk or with camcorder plugged into computer, the software just doesn't jive with the data apparently, and won't accept it to the editing programs. I've moved only one 30 min. video, and that was by using my home theater's Panasonic DVD recorder; but I can't edit with that.
RE: DVD Camcorders
by davedufour - 9/6/08 3:44 PM In reply to: What about DVD camcorders? by haf canadianA pro I know told me the DVD Camcorders aren't so great if you intend to do editing, because you get a compressed video as your raw footage. With Mini-DV, you don't. While DVD is good quality video, it's not really as good as AVI. You may not want to keep a lot of fat AVI files around forever after you're done editing, but it's better to start from there. Capture the raw footage to a big hard-drive, as has been suggested, and work from that.
Re miniDVD camcorders - Sony's
by superchip007 - 9/13/08 4:28 AM In reply to: What about DVD camcorders? by haf canadianI have a couple Canon HV20s (miniDV tape cameras) which I use mostly, but also a Sony DCR-DVD-108 which uses miniDVDs. Sucking the video off the miniDVDs is easy using Sony's Vegas software. It's far easier than the process involved with miniDV tape. (I bought the software off ebay for $75.)
The video quality of the miniDV tape is FAR superior to that of the miniDVD, by the way.
I keep and use the Sony camera because it does a good job with infra-red. (Great fun.)
A quick comparison/look at the file-sizes of video from miniDVD vs miniDV will show why the quality difference is so great.
I use a Dell laptop with only 30G built-in hard drive so an external 450G Seagate HD is necessary to hold my video files during editing etc.
I've spent the last 6-8 months learning to use this stuff as I want to shoot local bands/concerts professionally. (wish me luck)
What about DVD camcorders?
by davemclv - 9/17/08 10:14 AM In reply to: What about DVD camcorders? by haf canadianI have an Hitachi DVD camcorder and have no problems getting the files onto my PC. The mini DVD fits right into the DVD drawer.
You simply import the files. I am on Windows XP Professional OS.
Then, I bought the Sony Vegas Movie Studio with DVD Architect and have produced some very nice output.
Use caution
by cdcguard - 9/17/08 11:43 AM In reply to: What about DVD camcorders? by davemclvI have tried to use two different DVD format cameras that belong to friends of mine (one panasonic and one sony). In either case, it was an absolute nightmare to import the files in any sort of "standard standard". Both of them want you to use their software as opposed to importing in a generic MPEG or AVI format for editing in third party software. I would say to anyone looking at going that route: DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
Editing from mini-DV
by Malainie - 9/6/08 9:14 AM In reply to: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The best way to save your video is to first transfer from your camera to your computer via firewire or USB 2, depending on the output connection from your video camera, into a video editing program. I like Pinnacle Studio and have used this editing suite for many years, upgrading when necessary. Video saved directly to DVD with an mpeg II format does not easily edit. I would only save to DVD after editing. I have a 250GB HD, separate from my computer, which I actually transfer the mini DV video too. The Studio program is on my computer HD. After completely editing my 'movie', besides making a DVD of it, I save the edited footage to a mini-DV tape as a master copy of my work, which can be copied via your computer if necessary again and again. Then I recycle the 'raw' tape video by using it for new stuff. (I worked in TV news, and learned these things when working as a reporter/videographer.
depends on you software
by dan herrman - 9/6/08 9:27 AM In reply to: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
More editors have Batch capture which allows your to control your camera througha firewire,
one you rewind your tape log in your capture location (SHOULD BE ASECOND DRIVE)
And then record. After each scence change a new file will start.
Adobe
AVid
Sony
final cut
imovie
adobe elements all have this freature.
What soft ware to do have?
If you are not editing there is cheap and even free software that will take your minidv and convert to DVD.
Please provide more info and I will show you how
Please provire your current software
by dan herrman - 9/6/08 9:28 AM In reply to: Easiest way to transfer MiniDV footage to PC and edit it by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If we know hat software you are using we can give step by step instructions
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