Making Videos For The Internet

[corydoras]

This is doing my head in

 

I can get videos from the little memory stick and I can playback the proper movies on the tape using USB Streaming, but I'll be damned if I can find out how to get the tape videos over to my PC! It's driving me nuts.

You need some video capture software. Avid Express, Premier something like that. search for avicap if you want a REALLY BASIC capture tool.

[Elton]

Is that for Linux, though?

[Ian FG]

Elton,

 

Obviusly my camcorder is newer than yours and I don't have this problem.

 

Have a look at this:

 

How to Capture

 

Cannot Capture

 

Alternatively just buy a new camcorder, easy!

[Elton]

Ian,

 

This is a pretty state-of-the-art camcorder

 

I may have found a way around it.

 

As well as mini tapes, it takes Sony Memory Stick Duo memory cards. It only comes with an 8mb one, but my 64mb one from my old Sony phone fits it! Just off out to walk the dog, but will see if it works when I get back. I was able to get mpegs off the old 8mb one okay

 

If this works, I'll just buy a bigger card

[Elton]

Success! Right, dog-walk time and then a bigger memory stick

[Ian FG]

Elton,

 

Well done mate.

 

I see newer cams come with built-in 30Gb hard drives. I got a 2Gb stick from ebay for £10 and this is all the memory I need. I believe they now make 4Gb cards but you may want to check compatibility.

 

As I mentioned before, once you have the mpegs on your computer they are very easily edited with Kate's Video Cutter.

 

Good luck.

 

Ian

[corydoras]

Is that for Linux, though?

No for Windows.

[Ian FG]

I just found more of this stuff:

 

Kate's Video Joiner

 

Kate's Video Convertor

 

knock youreslf out, it's free.

[Steve Walker]

To capture directly from the tape on my Sony DCR-HC24E, I:

 

Turned on the camera and enabled streaming.

Plugged it into the PC with the supplied USB cable.

Went through the Found New Hardware wizard to install drivers from the Sony CD

Opened Windows Movie Maker and did File / Capture Video

Followed the instructions to start the PC recording the streamed output from the camera

Used the camera to play back the bit of video I wanted to capture

Stopped recording.

 

Having captured the video, you can use the video editing software of your choice. I find Windows Movie Maker is fine if all you want to do is put some clips together, fade between them and add titles. Anything more ambitious and you'll probably need to find something else.

 

Hiccups were:

 

I unnecessarily installed (then removed) the rubbish video editing tools off the Sony CD.

Turning on streaming mode involved digging round the Sony's menu system. Not very friendly. Until that was done, the PC would not recognise the camera at all.

[Elton]

Steve,

 

That explanation was spot on.....I think I just needed it in 'idiot-proof' wording

 

Thanks for that and thanks to everyone so far for your help. I think that a whole new world is about to open up for me and Anglers' Net

 

AN can be great at times - thanks for making it so, chaps