Can anyone tell me how to copy DVD from a PC or DVD player back to a DV tape via a Panasonic NVGS 400 Camera. Why would anyone want to do that? I have a sports program that requires a DV Camera input to operate & want to utilize existing DVDs for training. Can copy from camera to camera via firewire which doesn't help here, but have tried the camera with the start & record buttons pressed together in both VCR & camera mode playing DVD via my PC's 1394 port but it does not appear to send an output. Is 1394 firewire supposed to be bi directional. Any hints would be appreciated.
The formats of DVD and DV tape are not the same, so you cannot make a direct digital copy. Firewire is bidirectional, but a camcorder does not record input over Firewire by pressing the record button... You have two options: Option 1: Copy the DVD contents to your PC, convert it to DV-AVI and then transfer it to your DV camcorder using the Firewire connection. Check this manual how to convert to DV-AVI: http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/tutorials/dvdedit.php To transfer the video to the camcorder over Firewire, use a program like WinDV or alike. Option 2: Connect the analog output of the DVD player to the analog input of the miniDV camcorder, hit play on the DVD camcorder and record on the minDV camcorder. BTW: Both methods only work if your miniDV camcorder is not nEutered.
Thanks for the prompt reply. I found a fix which worked just as your reply came in. I use Intervideo Win DVD Creator to Capture DVD via the NVGS400 to laptop HDD and then create DVD later. I found the following whilst searching through Win DVD Creator ( which comes with no instructions). Connect the DV Camera via Firewire to the PC and place camera in Playback mode, insert a blank tape,Import the desired DVD Movie to Win DVD Creator, edit the DV movie ie drag to storyboard, in Tools click "output to DV Camera", the program will convert the DVD "creating movie please wait" and when completed DV camera starts and movie records to the DV tape.
Interesting. I didn't knonw that WinDVD Creator could to that. In order to do this the program must be doing the same as I explained as option 1. It exports the video on the timeline as DV-AVI and sends that out over Firewire. When it says "creating movie please wait", it is creating a DV-AVI file somehwer on your hard drive. I am now interested: does WinDVD delete this file after the transfer to the camcorder or is it still there. If so, this is a nice alternative for using VirtualDUB for the conversion. Probably somehwere in the options menu there is a place where file locations are set and you could have a look there.
Could not find the file, so in options changed the file to a new folder winDVD Temp. When "Please wait while your movie is created" is showing in WIN DVD Creator, a file named "ividvdtemp " appears in the folder. As soon as the movie is recorded to DV Camera Tape and transfer is finished, the temp file disappears, tried to save it but it would not save. Looked further in WIN DVD Creator. In WIN DVD Creator, Tools, instead of output to DV Camera, selected Output to File, Format Settings window opens, Can then select DVD, DV AVI or Windows Media.In DV AVI the selections include NTSC1, Pal DV1, NTSC DV11 & Pal DV 11. (DV1 Has 48,000 samples per second & DV11 has 44,100 samples per second). Selected Pal DV 1, Clicked OK & a Create Video Window appears, Save in My Videos??, Save as type AVI files & the "Please wait while your movie is created" message appears. AVI files are then saved to HDD.
OK, thanks. Nice feature which can be helpfull for peple that need to convert to DV-AVI for editing. VirtualDUB does exactly the same but it is bit more elaborate. But advantage of that is that it is freeware
