HELP!!!Brand new at DVD capturing & editing; Movie Facto

[dcoaster454@bellsouth.net]

Any tips are appreciated. I have a DVD camcorder that doesn't connect to the computer by USB so I have to put it in the DVD drive. Neep help taking and saving to the hard drive and editing it. Hints, tips, and comments are appreciated

[sjj1805]

Throw away the supplied USB lead. A search of this forum will show that all the veterans are puzzled as to why the camcorder manufacturers even bother to supply one.

Now obtain an IEEE1394 firewire card and cable (also named i-link)
They are fairly cheap and can be bought here in the UK at PC World for about £15 (GBP) as a "Video Editing Kit." This box contains the card that fits into the motherboard and the cable. You also get a CD but you dont need it and can just put it away somewhere.

Now you will find that your computer will also control the camcorder and will play, rewind, fast forward etc.
The USB cable is not suitable for moving video from the camcorder into the computer, you need the IEEE1394 to do so.

Next look further down the Web forum Index and you will find a tutorials section.

Steve J

[GeorgeW]

With a DVD Camcorder, the best bet would be to go with something like VideoStudio 9.0 -- it will import your DVD Videos, and allow you to make adjustments and edits, and then Author a DVD.

Regards,
George

[dcoaster454@bellsouth.net]

First of all, I'm from the US. Second, the camcorder itself has no port to export the video through USB or FireWire.

[dcoaster454@bellsouth.net]

I have Movie Factory 4. What other benefits come from that that Movie Factory 4 doesn't have???

[GeorgeW]

MovieFactory 4.0DC will also Import your DVD, and let you Author a nice DVD with better looking menus than your camcorder. It will not have as many EDITING Options as you would have with VideoStudio. But for now, it should be fine.

Have you tried to Import From DVD using MF4? You might have to "Finalize" the dvd in the camcorder before the computer will read its contents.

Regards,
George

[dcoaster454@bellsouth.net]

George,

I can import the DVD but I dont know how to easily put it onto hard drive. Here's the thing, the camcorder uses miniDVD's. I want to put three of them on my hard drive and create one regular DVD with all three on it. Suggestions???

[dcoaster454@bellsouth.net]

George,

I dont think I have to finalize it first because I'm using DVD+RW. They dont need to be finalized.

[GeorgeW]

Agreed, depending on the type of disc you are using, you don't always have to finalize (as you found out withe the +RW).

When you import the mpegs, the mpeg videos will go into a folder. Browse to those folders and just use the mpeg videos in a new project.

Are you using the DVD Import feature? Or just copy/pasting the dvd to your hard drive?

George

[dcoaster454@bellsouth.net]

George,

I am first opening up Movie Factory4, select edit DVD, then Edit Video DVD. Then select the burner comes up, i select ok. It brings me to the editing screen where it shows my video. Does that mean it is on my hard drive?