I am looking into buying the canon ZR850 Mini Dv camcorder but i would like to know if there is anyway to transfer your mini dv tapes to your pc for sharing. It has a 1394 firewire port on the camcorder and my comp. has a 1394 port also. In the specs they recommed a dvd recorder so that tells me that there should be a way to get the media to your pc. I have a dvd burner on my pc but would like to hold them on my hard drive preferbly. I really can't afford any other type of camcorder so that is out the question. Any help would be appreciated. thx.
You purchase a good firewire cable, with ends that match your camcorder and computer, and capture to your computer via that firewire. Windows Movie Maker can capture, but you are better off getting a video editing program for your captures. Edited for spelling.
Thank you for the advice........I ordered the camcorder for a good price off of crutchfield. Is there a better capturing software for free that you would recommend. Once the .avi is "captured" will nero transfer it into mpeg-4 (right?) format for burning onto dvd's.
I haven't used any free programs. I use Roxio Easy Media Creator 10, now. I tried using Nero for video work, but it was junk for video editing. It is good for some other things though. I don't know whether or not it will transfer to mpeg-4, but the Roxio software does.
Most cameras come with the necessary software. Here is some good freeware, though: avi2iso BTW... Mini DV is still considered by many to be the best format for captures due to no compression being used (as in mini DVD, etc.).
Everything works fine........Gonna have to get me an external hard drive though....These files are HUGE. I Don't have much room on my comp. and can't even fit a whole 60 min dv tape on my hard drive. Oh well i was looking for a reason to buy an external hard drive...........Thanks For the advice guys.
You're welcome. Your best bet is to capture your miniDV tapes to your internal hard drive, then transfer them to your external, if you can free up enough room on your internal drive. Also, even though I have never had an audio/sync problem, I capture in segments of between 10 and 15 minutes. It takes a little bit more effort this way, but I have not had any A/V sync problems. Some folks, who capture an hour at a time, have had that problem, but it may never happen to you. Keep the tapes, and use new tapes, once your other is filled up.
I have a JVC Digital Video Recorder and cannot load any video from it to my PC, they gave me a USB connection for it but nothing is taping from the mini-DV. Please help.
