HOw do I convert my mini DV recorded tapes to computer files?
 

I'd like to do some movie editing with the track videos I have on mini DV but dont know how to get the video onto the computer--I know this is a basic question so hopefully its an easy answer. Do I need some special hardware or video software? Thanks

How many minutes/hours of video footage do you want to store? Are you going to edit it immediately and store to DVD or save for the web?

Until you compress the video, it takes a ton of disk space. Even if you're processing a relatively small amount of video, I'd suggest getting at least a 200 GB external hard drive. You'll need some video editing software; a very easy one to use is Windows Movie Maker, which may already be on your computer. There's many others as well; the mac daddy is Avid. You can get a very useable version with small limitations for free at http://www.avid.com/freedv/ - the learning curve is tougher, but the power of it pays off later if you're going to doing this a lot.

Did your camera come with a USB wire?

My JVC DV cam included software for screen capture as well as video capture

From there I compress to WMV format using Windows Media Encoder.


KT

Re: HOw do I convert my mini DV recorded tapes to computer files?
 

Does your PC have firewire? The best way to do it would be to d/l via firewire, although like Steve said, you will need some serious disk space. From there, you can compress them into manageable sizes. I suggest burning to CD-R once they're processed. I use adobe Premier to do the video editing and stuff.

Agree with above....If present Firewire is the way to go. For the PC many videocards (and soundcards) come with a Firewire port and the software to edit and save.

Large Hard drives are getting real cheap. The 750 GBs are now out so the 500 and 300/320 gig drives are getting very reasonable.

Also, high quality DVD burners are as inexpensive as $45. That coupled with media sales at places like Staples makes burning DVDs very inexpensive.

Check www.slickdeals.net and www.fatwallet.com for excellent deals.

I think USB has a much lower transfer rate than a seperate Firewire(mac term)/IEEE 1394(pc term) card which is plugged into a motherboard slot. Check the manufacturer for the cable/software needed to transmit from the camera to the computer.

There may be better software available than the OEM, like the Adobe/etc... for capturing the video.

Years ago, I saved some video with Win MovieMaker, and ended up with CRAP footage of some events because they only allowed 320X(?) capture max.
I thought the video camera was junk, until I used a different capture process(firewire card and adobe). The camera was fine, but the high-def footage was lost.

I agree with the HD space. More always better(in this situation).

Get a DVD burner for short video storage. A CD(650MB) is not enough for anything more than 30sec. clips.
An extra HD or two is even better, and may be cheaper in the long run. Remember the Iomega 100MB disks which sold for $25/pop?

IMPORTANT-----Save the source video in the highest format possible.
You can compact and share copies later.

DV does not get compressed. It is a fixed 12.6 GB/hour. There is zero loss. The bytes on the tape are exactly the same as the bytes on the hard drive. So you can do a million rounds trips and suffer zero loss.

John, So you're saying DV doesn't use any type of compression? What is the name of the file format and how do you save raw footage?

Edit: Found this...

"DV (Digital Video)
DV is the format used by most digital camcorders for capturing crisp, colorful movies and CD-quality sound, usually on Mini DV cassettes. Though the DV format employs a form of video compression (applied in real-time as you record with your camera), it's still memory intensive. When transferred to a computer, a DV clip requires roughly 1 GB of storage per 5 minutes of video. (Clips are usually stored on the computer as QuickTime or .AVI files.)

Despite its use of compression, DV boasts an incredible picture with up to 520 lines of resolution. DV uses a type of compression known as "intraframe" — that is, it encodes video at the full standard frame rate of 30 frames per second. This not only makes for high-quality video, but also allows frame-by-frame editing. In contrast, video codecs like MPEG1 or MPEG2, which can "squeeze" clips into smaller sizes, tend to handle a video sequence by reducing the number of full frames per second and encoding the differences between frames. These are known as "interframe" forms of compression."

I've done a bit of video transferring from DV to PC but always used the default AVI setting. I confess I never looked under the hood.

Here is a great explanation of the format: http://www.puremotion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2707

<b>Summary:</b> When the DV file is streaming into your PC it is displayed unchanged. When the capture card captures the stream it converts it to AVI in order to make it "understandable" to other applications. It does this by adding an AVI header to the DV file (made up of vieo and audio track). This is AVI Type l.
It appears that Type l is not the most compatible format so a common (default?) option is for the capture to convert over to AVI Type ll. This adds an AVI header and an AVI interpretation of the DV audio track. So you have 1) AVI header, 2) DV video track, 3) DV audio track and 4) AVI audio track. Type ll is apparently more universally recognized. The price is that it's file size is 5% larger than Type l.

AVI has the closest-to-original capture format, for now.....I think.

The problem is different companies will try to put proprietary compression formats on captured media, so you have to keep "buying" their software.
For instance, my latest Quicktime won't play .AVI files (a traditionally Mac format), and keeps trying to acess the internet for "updates".

The different DVD read/write manufacturers may add their own in the future, who knows.

Yup, AVI = MS and Quicktime (Mov) = Apple

They no like each other :D

Upps, thought .avi was Mac. Thx. for the correction. MediaPlayer has a hard time with it too. I just use whatever will work at the time :(

Sorry, let me try to be more clear.

The DV codec does include built-in compression, but that compression is in the data whether it is on the camera or on the computer. As long as you keep the data in it's DV format, it is completely "lossless" when you transfer it to the PC. You can take the DV off the camera, add titles and effects, and put it right back on the camera tape for playback or viewing and your original footage will be the exact same quality no matter how many times you manipulate the file - as long as you manipulate the data in native DV format.

This is different than things like MPEG, where you usually compress the frames of data as you pull it off the camera. DV is superior in this regard.

DV is not a file format per se. You can have an .avi file that is in DV native format. It's a codec or somethink like that. I have always seen DV embedded in .avi files.

a lot of .avi files out there these days use the divx codec. If you don't have the coded installed you'll have a tough time playing the video.

Are you using mac or pc for this project? Mac is dead simple and where it blows windoze stuff out of the water imho. iMovie is about the best/simplest video editing solution out there, easy all the way from capture to final delivery.

I'd run screaming from Avid stuff. Last time I looked at FreeDV it was really ugly and complicated compared to iMovie. Avid has also lost ground to FinalCut over the years, but they are still the "gold standard." However that is due to their hardware solutions...their native product (xPressDV) is still inferior to FCP, at least in my eyes and in the hands of a number of my editor friends.

I like We use it a lot at work.

It will capture an entire tape and seperate each power cycle of the camera into an individual avi file.

It works through a Firewire connection to your DV recorder.