Newbie question: How can I go from my Sony camcorder to DVD?

[bupkus]

Newbie question: How can I go from my Sony camcorder to DVD?

I just got this camera and I want to store home movies. How can I transfer the video from the camera to my computer? Of course, from there I'll need to burn these to dvd.

Thanks.

 

[Zoinks]

Assuming your camcorder has firewire (or iLink) and is a miniDV camera:

1) connect it to the computer
2) Use a program to copy the DV tape to an AVI file
3) Use some other program to compress the AVI to MPEG
4) Use yet another program to burn the MPEG to DVD-R

That much is easy. Figuring out all the 'some program' parts is hard. I don't have a good answer for what to use as I'm only about a month ahead of you figuring this out. I started out here: http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=179038. In fact, www.dvdrhelp.com is pretty much the place to go for everything. There you will also find links to the programs you need (look under tools). They range from DVIO which does #2 above, and is 32K and free - to $1000 commercial products.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

i'm a total noob at this myself. just did it over this weekend.

1) hooked minidv cam to computer via firewire
2) used Ulead Video Studio 7 to "Capture" video (it automatically plays the camera and stops it when it's over)
3) captured it directly as Mpeg2 dvd video
4) kept settings on very high (8000k bitrate)
5) once it was captured (you'll need some good HDD space... LOTS more if you go the AVI to mpeg2 route), i edited it as needed, added titles, transitions and such
6) since i made changes to it, i needed to output the video once again to the HDD (more space!) and again chose the bitrates and all. took a little time to render (about an hour or so)
7) took my final mpg2 file into TMPGENC DVD Author and set up chapters and menus.
8) Output the video to TS Video folders on the HDD.
9) pulled up nero6 and burned DVD video

all in all, it went pretty well. since i kept the bitrate and quality so high (archiving kids home movies), i only fit 1-2 hrs on the DVDs.

just make sure you're using DVD media that works well with your writer AND player. i'd burn at 4x or less, and do a simulation first just to make sure you don't waste $$ on coasters. might wanna invest in a DVD-RW (or +RW depending on your writer/player compatibility) to test the movies and make sure you like what you see. wish i had.

 

[Keysplayr]

3 words: PINNACLE STUDIO DELUXE

Now for some more words:
Comes with everything you could need for capturing video from analog or digital camcorders/VCR's or any other video source with analog out.

Includes: Pinnacle PCI capture/decoder/encoder card and it does this in real time if desired.
The card has a firewire port built into it.

A nice big breakout box that has IN and OUT for each of Svideo/RCA vid/L/R.

And the Studio Deluxe software which in just 3 steps lets you capture video, edit it, and burn to CD/DVD with menus and scene selections.

Goes for about 179.00.

You will also need a DVD burner of course if you plan to make DVD's.

I have this setup and it is awesome for professional looking projects that nobody will believe you made.

Keys

EDIT: You will also need a good amount of free hard drive space for capturing and editing. 60GB plus for me. Depends on how much you do.