Down loading from a mini-dv ?

[crzy4dsny]

I am now looking into purchasing a mini-dv camera. I was at a store yesterday and the guy told me you can down load video from the camera, using a usb cable, to your computer. Then you could transfer it over to dvd.
I haven't heard of this before. Is this something that could be done? If so is it a simple prosess?

The camera that I was looking at was a Sony DCR-HC36. Does anyone have any info on this camera good or bad ?

Thanks, Dave

 

[Kelly Grannell]

It's simple and not simple at the same time. Yes it's simple but you'l need to have the right gears, programs and PC tweaked to do so (if not the mossot common thing that'll happen is that it's voice and pictures going out of sync after a about 10 minutes).

The simplest and cheapest solution is to buy a Pioneer DVR 533 or 633 (depending on your budget) and record the miniDV data to its hard disk, do to the editing on the machine, create shapter stop, thumbnail menu, titles, then burn it to its built in DVD burner.

In the end you'll spend approx the same amount of money but you'll get 100% success rate.

 

[bicker]

That's the latest version of the camcorder I have.

I was convinced (I thought by you, Kelly) that I really needed Firewire, not USB, for the PC solution to work decently.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

yes, the connection is firewire, and you'll need a firewire card for your PC, but you'll also need a very powerful PC and do 3-pass encoding video (meaning it will take at least 3 times the length of the movie) on a powerful PC (if not, you won't be able to do it in real time three times over, on my PC I can only do it at 80% of real time, not doing anything else, do 3 passes, total about 5 hours for a 1 hour movie) to do what I can do using a Pioneer DVR-633 in 1 hour.

PS: with regards to the USB, there are some camcorder now that allow you to pass the data through USB. The funny thing is they still use Firewire protocol, but uses USB interface. Confused yet? I know I'm still confused with the logic behind this. (I understand the concept, but not the logic).

 

[bicker]

Hmmm... help me understand the 3-pass encoding and 80% versus 100%. I've got a Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz, with 2GB RAM. How is that affecting the quality of the video I've been burning onto DVD?

 

[Kelly Grannell]

the percentage reflects whether it's doing it in real time (100%) or less (in my case 80% of real time) or if you have a superfast PC the grab will be real time, of course, but 2nd and 3rd pass can be 400% real time.

Your PC is fast enough to at least do real time grab and maybe 110% 2nd and 3rd pass.

Multiple pass encoding is when a machine converts one format (miniDV MotionJPEG) to MPEG2. The more passes it does, the more accurate and better quality the end result will be.

If you're using something like Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas, when you're done with editing etc and you click Author DVD, there will be an option to do single pass or multi pass. I can't remember exactly which program, but one of them even allow you to choose 2 passes, 3 passes, 4 passes and so forth (I can't remember the maximum passes).

The thing is for the price of Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas, you can get a Pioner DVR-633 standalone encoder, HDD, DVD-recorder unit and because it has a dedicated chip to do motionJPEG to MPEG2 encoding, you'll only need to do it once while you transfer the video to the HDD. No multi pass necessary it does the transfer and encoding simultaneously (although there is a trick so you can also force the machine to do one more pass after the transfer+encoding combo, which yield FAR better quality than any consumer-level PC can do with 4 multipasses (1 transfer + 3 passes of encoding).

 

[crzy4dsny]

That's the latest version of the camcorder I have.

How do you like the camera? Would you recommend that I get it? What is a firewire?

 

[bicker]

I loved the camera. (Surf our trip report website, linked below, and you can see some VCDs of some of the video we've taken with it.) I needed to learn very quickly that I'm better off leaving the camera in "Easy" mode, and once I did that everything came out perfect. It may not be the best camera for a videographer or videophile, but it sure seems like the best camera for regular joes like me.

Firewire is a different kind of connection between devices. It is like USB, but much faster.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Actually, not really. USB 1.1 vs Firewire yes, but USB 2.0 vs Firewire (iLink) are the same speed (480Mb/sec)

 

[bicker]

Hmmm... not according to this: http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm

 

[Kelly Grannell]

It is true when you're comparing small regular file transfer. For video, however, it's one big 4 Gb file with only one header and for iLink (the oldest version of firewire) vs USB 2.0, the difference is negligible.

To put it simply, I can transfer 4.5 Gb file (one full DVD) in about 5 minutes whether I use firewire or USB 2.0 from one HDD to another HDD.

Now when I'm transferring picture file, that same size require 20 minutes using USB 2.0 but only 8 minutes using firewire.

Don't ask me why, I'm not technical about firewire vs USB, but from my everyday (well, weekly backup) uses, that's the common result.

Supposedly the new firewire is even faster than that (somewhere around 900 Mbps or more, but don't quote me on that).

 

[DeeInMS]

Is it really that hard to transfer from mini dv to dvd. I have a new Media Center PC with a pentium D processor with . I'm also looking to purchase a new camcorder in a few weeks. Any advise?

 

[Kelly Grannell]

YMMV, but for the best quality, nothing at consumer level (and price plus simplicity) beats standalone DVD recorder with built-in HDD.

 

[ThurlFan]

For straight-up transfer of Mini-DV to DVD, I'm using the Nero burning software that came with my Sony DVD burner. My PC is a Pentium III 550 (six years old) so it takes forEVER to encode - but the discs turn out fine (I do have to select a slower record speed than my burner will allow - a new PC is on the horizon ). I just have to start the burn when I go to bed and then get up in the morning to see if it's finished

Total cost: $80.

For videos that need adjustments, I'm using Pinnacle Studio 9. It came free with the camcorder. It's pretty much a lightweight compared to KG's suggestions, but it was powerful enough to let me splice together two videos of the same event - choosing the angle I preferred for particular segments - and then adjust the sound level between the parts so it came out even (the originals had a large difference in audio recording volume).

Would I rather have Adobe Premeire? You bet.
Would I have better DVDs using KG's recommendations? You bet.
But can you get nice results with amateur equipment? You bet.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

That's true, listen to ThurlFan, don't listen to me. I'm too used to DH's full-fledged video production equipment I see flaws in everything

 

[Razor Roman]

Kelly,

I'm hijacking the thread how do you like the pioneer unit? I just got a JVC DVM70 and it has been working great for me so far. I just haven't been able to do a "high speed" dub from the Hard Drive to DVD. It's an 8x drive, my discs are 16x..i'm not sure why it doesn't like them or if there is a setting I haven't found yet, but I am loving the results so far that not withstanding

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Absolutely love it. It tend to use the analog in (instead of DV input) because then I can play with the noise reduction, colour balance, tint, sharpness etc. I use the 633 model.

 

[ThurlFan]

That's true, listen to ThurlFan, don't listen to me. I'm too used to DH's full-fledged video production equipment I see flaws in everything

I hope you don't think I was contradicting you...I haven't had the luxury of the DVR, although I have had a turn or two on Premeire - verrrry nice

I wish I had the $$$ to do it your way, but as an amateur I think I'm doing OK

Looking over my previous post I think I came off a little harsh. I've really enjoyed your input on this board!

 

[Kelly Grannell]

No, don't take it the wrong way. When it comes to pickiness, I'm very picky, but I also have the luxury (convenience) of writing off some of my gears due to the nature of my business, so a lot of times I take my luxury and convenience for granted.

Seriously, I wan't being sarcastic when I wrote "don't listen to me".

Peace!
Kelly