Capturing MiniDV video from camcorder to PC?

[amheck]

hi gang,

I've had a Sony mini DV (DCR-TRV22) camcorder and am finally getting around to getting the video from the tapes onto my PC.

I hooked up the camcorder via USB to my PC and used the Sony software (ImageMixer) to capture the video in chunks and save at a mpeg file. Took me about a day, but I have all 5 of my tapes done.

Was watching a few of them with the wife and kids and while the video quality was fine when watching in a small window, it didn't look so great when I put it to full screen on my Asus EEE PC. I have HIGH QUALITY selected in the software.

Wondering if there's a better way to do this to make sure I'm getting the best quality out of the camera as possible? Looking thru my software stack, I also have a few CD's: Roxio VideoWave 7 Professional, Ulead VideoStudio DV, and Pinnacle StudioDV (although I'm not sure I can find the box or CD Key for this, if I had to).

Instead of stopping and starting capture at each scene, should I have just captured the whole disk and then broken it up afterwards? Any other tips or tricks you might have?

Thanks!
Aaron

 

[RKS]

Have tried downloading via firewire? Even Windows Movie Maker should give you a good start.

 

[sswingle]

Firewire will give the full quality from the tape. I would bring an entire tape up, and then use windows movie maker to break it up if desired.