Weinermr | Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 07:18 pm     I want to be able to transfer either video or still pictures from a digital camcorder to a PC. The camcorder manual says I will need the following: IEEE1394 Firewire cable IEEE1394 Firewire-compatible PC interface DV card editing software I'm not familiar with what I will really need. I can buy the cable, that's not a problem. But what software do I need? What kind of video card do I need to have? Can I use the video card(s) I already have? I don't need anything fancy, just the basics. Any and all advice will be appreciated. Thank you. |
Ryn | Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 09:08 pm     Depends on the age of your PC - a lot of the newest ones come with firewire ports installed, if not you can but one for under $50 (I think they are that cheap now). not sure what they mean by "dv card" - i would assume if you had the firewire card you would have the connection you needed, then you need software. BUT - if you have windows XP you may be set, at least the Proffesional version had movie editing software. Others might be able to add more. btw - MACs are already set up to do all of this (letting you know before the mac crowd runs in and proclaims it - lol) |
Weinermr | Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 09:17 pm     Thanks Ryn. I don't have a firewire port. And I didn't know what they meant by "DV card" either. Although I know it stands for digital video card, I really don't understand their point. I don't have Windows XP so I still need a software recommendation. Is there freeware? Shareware? Or do I need to purchase something? All help is greatly appreciated. Go Kathy!! (oops... wrong thread) |
Moondance | Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 09:23 pm     Oh YEAH! Macs Rock! |
Juju2bigdog | Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 10:03 pm     Weinermr, we have a thing that looks almost exactly like my external floppy drive I bought for my laptop. It plugs into the video camera and we can take stills off there and onto floppies. Ack, which I still have not done for our Australia trip a year ago! |
Ryn | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 06:00 am     that sounds like a "dazzle" card juju wein, I would guess a "DV" card stands for digital video, but I am still not sure why you would need one. I would get a firewire cable and hook the camera up to your PC and see what happens, when you hook it up Windows might tell you it has found new hardware and try to install drivers for it. You camera company might have included a CD or you might check their web site to see if there are drivers. I may also be completely wrong as I have neither a firewire port on my pc (yet) and my sony handicam is not "digital" so I have to use the standard video in options when I want to record stuff from it to my PC. |
Weinermr | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 07:45 am     I can try that Ryn, but I think I will need some kind of firewire to USB port adapter to do it. I'll check around at the local PC store and see if anyone has any ideas along these lines. Does anyone else have any ideas? |
Ryn | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 08:21 am     oh, my mistake - I thought you DID have a firewire port!! what kind of camera is it? what brand/model? I might be able to find you a link with some info. you need a firewire port, firewire is MUCH faster than USB and you need the speed to transfer high quality video. I don't think there is such a beast as a firewire to USB adapter, or at least if there was you would lose the advantages of firewire. |
Labmouse | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 08:54 am     Many times the DV card comes with a stripped down basic version of video editing software. Two of the best editors are Adobe Premiere or Ulead Video Studio. Here is a link to an excellent site on Digital Desktop Video: http://www.videoguys.com/dtvhome.html |
Willsfan | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 05:23 pm     Staples sell digital cameras and will for a fee of about eighty dollars install a UBS port if your present computer does not have one. I have a web cam and it came with its own set-up disk and I am pretty sure a digital camera would have to come with some sort of software package because of all the neat stuff you can do with the uploaded photo. |
Weinermr | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 05:24 pm     It's an RCA CC9360. I haven't found anything useful on the RCA website, nor in the manual. Again, I'm not clear on whether the video card I have is adequate, or whether I would need to purchase one with different capabilities. Thanks for the link Labmouse, I'll check that out too. |
Ryn | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 05:29 pm     Wills - weiner is refering to a Digitial Video camera, not just for still pictures USB is fine for images since speed is not as much of a concern, but to stream digital video from a camera to a pc takes a faster connection. Weiner, I will see what I can find and post a link here if there is something useful |
Weinermr | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 06:04 pm     Thanks Ryn, I DO appreciate it. |
Labmouse | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 06:32 pm     The camcorder manual tells the story just the way it is. You need a firewire to do high speed data transfer from the digital camcorder to the computer hard drive. The DV card is the computer interface for the firewire. The DV card will come with basic video editing software. The computer video card only effects picture quality on your monitor and has no effect on moving digital data from the camera to the computer hard drive. The software does the editing. |
Weinermr | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 08:00 pm     I understand all that Labmouse. But what I don't know is - 1. Can I use the video card in my PC, or do I need to get a new one. 2. What software program do I need? Is there freeware or shareware that will do the job? If so, what programs are they? If I need to buy software, what programs exist? What are my choices? These are the basic questions I have. So far, I don't have the answers, but I'm searching for them. |
Labmouse | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 08:30 pm     I obviously am a failure in the art of written communication. 1. Your video card is only used for viewing the input and output of your digital camera on your computer monitor. Unless your video card is totally ancient (which I doubt) it should work just fine. The computer video card has absolutely nothing to do with the process of transferring the digital output from the camcorder to the hard drive of a computer. 2. It is the firewire that transfers the data to the computer. It hooks into the DV card. The DV card regulates all the data compression. 3. The DV card kit comes with drivers and basic editing software. This software is sufficient enough for basic editing. 4. If the basic software that comes with the DV card kit does not suit your taste or purpose, then try something like Adobe Premiere (which I mentioned in my previous post). 5. Go to the following website (even though I mentioned them in a previous post, I am not advertising for them) and check out the links posted in the left frame. There is not one thing you can think of about digital video that is not answered on this site: http://www.videoguys.com/dtvhome.html Why do I have a strange feeling that you knew all of this beforehand? |
Ryn | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 08:34 pm     ok, I looked up the manual and saw what you saw - pretty un-informative. the sight lab suggested looks pretty informative, if you take them for their info and can get past the fact they are tryin to sell you stuff. good luck, I can't suggest anything better!! |
Ryn | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 08:36 pm     excuse my post - I started it 2 hours ago and just got back to it - lab pretty much summed it up |
Weinermr | Friday, April 19, 2002 - 08:49 pm     Thanks Ryn and Labmouse. I'm grateful for the time you've taken to help me. Labmouse, your descriptions have been very helpful. You've helped clarify the various issues involved, and led me to start looking at the right things. Thanks again to you both. I think I understand what I need to do now, and I'll give you a progress report as soon as I can. |
Kep421 | Monday, May 06, 2002 - 04:34 am     Weinermr, I am doing this very project at work oddly enough, and I have learned quite a bit in the past few weeks. I don't know if your problem has been solved, but I purchased a USB device that allows video editing on your PC from a digital or analog source. We needed to clip video from VHS tapes. The cost was about $60. Firewire was not needed. The PC I used had Win 98, a basic video card and 192MB ram. The device I used connected to the PC via USB and to the camera/VCR via RCA cables or S-Video. It came with a very cool video editing software called Visual Studio 5. Everyhing worked great, except for the sound. I believe the sound problem stems from the sound card in the PC. It is very old and I'm having trouble finding drivers to correct the problem. I used the device on an updated machine with an excellent sound system, and life is good. At home, I have a WinTV Go card in my PC, which also costs about $50. I hook a VCR up to the cable connection on the card using standard TV cables and edit video on my home PC that way. I found my home video editing system the easiest to use. I hope this helps you some.... |