How do I get video from digi vid cam on to my PC
 

I recently bought a Sony Digi Video cam and I want to transfer the video to my pc, the sony software it came with is toilet, whats an easy way to get the video on to my PC, via USB.

Cheers,

Leigh

Most digital cameras use the DV-out socket to transfer in full digital quality. Not sure about the Sony, but mine won't allow the transfer via USB.

Does it have DV-out (should have if it's new)? if so, I'd suggest using a firewire cable (you may need a firewire card for your PC) to capture the video footage in full DV quality. It'll create a 15GB AVI file for approx. 60mins worth of video.

I personally use Pinnacle Studio to capture and edit footage.

Stefan

I don't know if USB will be quick enough. You should try FireWire (IEEE 1394). The cards are pretty cheep.

Cheers guy's, yes it does DV-out, will get myself a firewire cable, already got the card in my PC.

Excellent

And you got it to work... I'm impressed...

I gave up using Studio 9 after experiencing so many problems with it that it became unusable. Bad audio / video synching, poor quality mpeg rendering, numerous crashes / hangs during both editing and rendering, wavy lines on analog video, completed dvds which would not play on the dvd player, dvd menus not linking to the correct places, and the list goes on..... (and you've only got to browse their support forums to see the hundreds of people who are having similar problems)

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.... :(

Using Adobe premiere / encore / after effects now, and it all works flawlessly :) I admit it did cost a little more than the Pinnacle stuff however.... ;)

Iain

Yeah, I've heard about problems but it's never gave me any grief in the past 1.5yrs.

Admittedly, I don't use it a lot (like every day or week) but I've had no complaints of it yet.

Stefan

That's putting in mildly :)

Seems that the Pinnacle works well for some people, and not at all for others. Their tech support is hopeless as well :(

I bought the Adobe stuff along with a Matrox RTX100 Extreme Pro video editing card. Came to about a grand altogether, but it's soooooooo much better than the Pinnacle stuff :D

Btw, some of the cheaper video cameras do use usb to transfer the video to the pc, but usb has not got the bandwidth for full dv picture quality and so you get a much reduced image quality. Firewire is the method of choice :)

I've already got Adobe premiere;) where the fcuk do you start!!

Iain,

I've used Studio 7 for a while, but while never actually have any problems with it, it didn't give me the flexability I wanted in the edditing/authoring process. I've heard a lot about problems with Pinnacle, although some people report nothing at all. I guess it's just very sensitive on what installation / setup you have.

It's a very good hoby though. :)

I started with version 8 (which wasn't too bad), and then upgraded to version 9, which was dreadful.

Yep, it's great fun :D

Actually, I think it was version 8.... Anyway, not going to bother with it again.

I've selected my tools of choice for all the steps and quite happy with the setup now. Just need to see if my PC can handle a HDD > 120GB as I've already filled my second drive.. ;)

Ian,:eek: you naughty, naughty boy :D

sinky

I know. But I was bored and hadn't bought myself anything for a while so I thought why not :D Only a grand altogether which got me the Matrox editing card, and the Adobe video editing suite (premiere pro, after effects, encore and audition).

Just ordered myself a 42" plasma telly now as well. Really must stop spending money whenever I get bored :D