Can someone xfer mini dv digital tape to dvd?

[Racer47]

I have a mini dv digital tape from a camcorder that I would like to copy to dvd. But I don't have a dvd recorded yet. Is anyone interested in doing this for me? Of course, I'd be willing to pay some money or return the favor somehow.

The video is of a guy barefoot water skiiing behind a Cessna airplane that has floats. The video is not the best but it is still darn impressive and I'd like to make a few copies for those involved. I didn't ski, nor fly the plane, nor take the video but I was there and I'm the most AV savvy person in the group (tho thats not saying much) so I was elected to get dvd's made.

If anyone is interested please let me know. Or if you know a place that does this professionally, maybe I could go there.

Thanks

[Racer47]

Here's a pic of the action.

[waterhead]

If you have a DVD burner in your computer, you should be able to do it yourself. A program such as NERO should be able to do it. I don't know about the file format the original is recorded in, but I've made perfectly good DVD's with .AVI and .MPG files.

You can get a DVD recorder, for a computer, for around $50.00, and NERO is available for around the same price, if you look for it on sale.

[waterhead]

In case your interested in doing this yourself, I looked up the instruction in Nero. You will have to hook up the camera to the computer and "capture" the video to the hard drive. You will also need the full version of NERO, with NERO Vision Express. You can also do this with Roxio Easy CD Creator.

This means that you will also need a capture card. Here's a cheap one that I ran across ($26.90), although I didn't buy one.
Sabrent TV Tuner/Video Capture Card

Yes, the costs keep mounting, but wouldn't it be great if you could do this yourself?

[kevbeck122]

Most if not all MiniDV camcorders should have an ieee1394 port (firewire), so there is no need for a capture card... only a firewire card if you don't have a port on your computer.

[Racer47]

The camcorder has firewire out. But my computer at home is old and not worth upgrading. I'll eventually replace it but I'm an engr and sit in front of 2 computers all day. When I get home I've had enough.

I was thinking more along the lines of using dvd recorder with hard drive. Put the video on the hard drive, do a little editing and burn some discs.

[waterhead]

I'm curious as to how the FireWire setup works. As far as I know, in order to edit the file it has to be in a format that the editing program will recognize.

I've used Pinnacle Studio 9 to edit commercials out of TV shows that I recorded ("captured") on my hard drive. It will only work with .mpg files. Newer versions work on .avi files also.

When you convert the recording to a .mpg (or .avi) file, you are compressing it. It will take up a lot less space on the hard drive, and still give you a good looking video.

[kevbeck122]

Pinnacle can work with DV and output it to whatever you want (back to DV, mpeg, mpeg2, etc.).  DV uses about 12GB of hard drive space for every hour of video.

[jimbop99]

Try this site. It has "how to's" and all types of freeware and forums. If want to know anything about capturing, editing and burning, it's here.

http://www.videohelp.com/guides