Adrian F

I have just got round to connecting my 4 year old Panasonic DV video camera to my old Athlon Windows XP PC i have managed to transfer video across despite the drivers not being XP approved but the image is extremely pixelated if the viewing screen on the PC is anything bigger than 50mm by 50 mm.

If i play the camera back directly to my TV it is great so it is a software problem i suspect.

I was using the Windows packaged software so this could be the problem?

Anybody got any suggestions and if i need to buy software what would be good as all i want to do is to be able to transfer to pc and then burn to DVD and send clips by email.

Iain Young

How have you got the camera connected to the PC. Firewire or USB? If the latter, and it is using USB 1.0, then that doesn;t have the data transfer speeds to do this properly, and so will likely end up with a pixelated image.

I use Premiere Pro CS3 for my editing needs, but it does cost a bit. For basic stuff I can recommend Premiere elements (although it is still around £70 I think). I wouldn't touch Pinnacle software with a very long barge pole (nasty bug ridden software).

Having said that, I have captured using the windows xp movie maker software before now and it work absolutely fine. So, I'm doubtful that software is the problem.

Adrian F

Iain I connected it over USB the hub is USB 2.0 but not sure what the camera and PC are.

Do you think that Firewire would be better? or upgrade the USB card on the PC?

Iain Young

If you have firewire in the pc, and the camera supports it, then yes, it is definitely preferable to use it. USB (especially 1.0) is not really up to the job.

Adrian F

Iain I have just looked on the camcorder and it has another connection point which the manual calls "DV terminal" for "connection to digital video equipment" but there is no lead in the box.

I think the PC came with Firewire but i have never used it in the years that i have had the PC so off to PC world next week to have a look at a Firewire lead and see if the connector matches that on the camcorder.

Iain Young

Sounds like the one. As far as the lead is concerned, at the camcorder end it should be a mini plug, and the other end bigger, (and should look different to the usb lead )