Digital Camcorder questions (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Ashforth]

I am interested in getting one of these, but I have some questions.

1. Is it possible to copy the video from the digital tapes onto your computer and then burn it onto VCD or DVD???

2. If the answer to the above is yes, how does the conversion affect the picture quality and sound quality?

3. How long does it take to convert the Mini DV tape material to VCD format?

I can get a Digital Camcorder for a really great deal and I just want to know my options. I don't like the idea of only being able to watch the tapes I make by connecting the camcorder itself to my reciever. It just seems like a pain it the butt and it also chews up battery strength (or I'll have to jackass around with the AC power cord).

I'd apreciate any opinions...

Cheers.

 

[JeffMuller]

1. Yes
2. Sound is great. For VCD, video quality is a little worse than VHS to much better than VHS, depending on how much motion there is. SVCD will get you better than that. DVD will be... well, like a DVD.
3. The time required will be: The time it takes to stream the video to you computer (which will be real time, so an hour of video will take an hour) + several to many hours to convert the DV video to MPEG-1 or -2 -- VCD/SVCD/DVD format -- and this all depends on the software used, and the quality of video you want + the time to burn the final media, which depends on your burner speed, and the length of the final video. This doesn't include any of the time that you may want to spend on video editing, which easily eclipses the rest of the time.
p.s. you want a camera, and PC with FireWire (1394, i.Link)!
visit http://www.vcdhelp.com for more info.

 

[Jeff Ashforth]

Thanks for the reply, and thanks for the link. Suddenly, hooking the camera up to the reciever isn't looking so bad....

 

[Jeff D]

If you get the iLink make sure you have a firewire port. Mac yes, PC it will take a card.

It's pretty fun to play with the DV stuff. I was having fun learning aboot it.

Then my camera died because of bad tapes I picked up last year at Costco.