Turning my disney home videos into cds...need help

[indy4192]

I have purchased a small video camera that you use a memory card with to shoot my vacation video when I go to Disney in a month or so. I have tested the camera out and it works and I can reply the video from it to both my TV and computer, but is there a way via the computer to put the video on a disk? I plan on taking a decent amount of video of the parks and my trip, but would like to be able to put it all on a disk for keeping it safe once I return home.

 

[Terk-1]

If your home computer has a dvd burner, you should be able to burn the videos onto a dvd from your computer.

 

[OKWMom]

Assuming I’m only marginally computer literate, how would you do that?

 

[Terk-1]

Your camcorder should come with software for your computer. Once that is installed, you should be able to connect your camcorder to your computer via a special USB cable. You may have to download the video on to your computer first, then burn it onto a dvd after. If your computer came with a dvd burner, it may also have been loaded with a dvd burning software. If not, you can find this at Circuit City, Best Buy, etc.

 

[Darian]

I use Cyberlink's Power Director Pro to take the raw video, break it up into scenes, adjust the color, make the video darker or lighter or even add background music. The program allows you to insert "pickup" shots that can show transitions from one location to another. You can even video your own commercials, add commentary, you name it. And the list of special effects are astounding. You will need a newer computer for the software to work effectively. It will work on older machines but may take a lot longer to process a scene. I run a 64 bit cpu and it grinds out the video very nicely, as will those spiffy new double core processors. Having a decent amount of memory is nice too, about 1 gig of dram on the motherboard is ok.

When it comes to burning a disk, you can burn it to a dvd as another poster mentioned or a video CD if you have a cd burner. The video cd is a format supported by virtually all dvd players. And blank cd's are A LOT cheaper than blank DVD media.

 

[OKWMom]

Thank you so much for the information.

 

[mtrak17]

Just my opinion - I think it's totally worth investing in getting your computer set for creating your own DVD's. We have Adobe Premiere editing software (but you can start with something simpler) and I am completely addicted to making my "movies" whenever we return from a trip. It's very time consuming to go through all the video footage, edit the scenes, etc., but I love every minute of it. Luckily, my husband doesn't mind taking video, so we ended up with 9 hours of Disney video on our last trip - a lot of great footage to choose from. After editing, we ended up with a really enjoyable 45 minute "movie" that I used Disney parade music, etc. as a background. The best part about editing your video and creating a "movie" is that you'll probably find your family actually WATCHES your video now and then, instead of a video tape sitting unwatched on a shelf for years.

Good luck! Don't be frustrated at first. It takes a lot of practice and trial and error, but it's enjoyable and soon you'll be a pro!

 

[indy4192]

If you don't have the ability to burn them at home, are there places you can take you small disk and have someone burn the video onto a CD?

 

[Plantlady]

Even if you don't have a dvd burner, and you only have a cd burner, you can still do it.

Windows xp (maybe others too) comes preinstalled with "windows movie maker"

You can make movies complete with titles, transitions, ect, very easily.

Macs come with imovie (I think).

Walgreens use to offer transfering vhs to dvd, they might do the memory card to dvd/cd, if you didn't want to do it yourself.