Need some help for those with knowledge of cameras

[Serenity]

Alright, well, my teacher, being the presumptious rich arse he is, assumes everyone owns one of those fancy new dvd-camcorders. And because of this assumption, he is making us turn in a project in DVD form, having been recorded. Well, no one does have one of those. I do however have a miniDV camcorder, and I know you CAN transfer miniDV to your computer to put on a DVD, but does anyone know how? I've tried plugging it in to the USB port and using Windows Capture in the Movie Maker folder, but it says it doesnt detect a camera hooked up. Ive checked to see if I need specific drivers, but Canon says windows Vista doesnt need drivers for this camera. Is a Canon Optura 10 by the way. So, does anyone know what to do here?

[Rich46yo]

Alright, well, my teacher, being the presumptious rich arse he is, assumes everyone owns one of those fancy new dvd-camcorders. And because of this assumption, he is making us turn in a project in DVD form, having been recorded. Well, no one does have one of those. I do however have a miniDV camcorder, and I know you CAN transfer miniDV to your computer to put on a DVD, but does anyone know how? I've tried plugging it in to the USB port and using Windows Capture in the Movie Maker folder, but it says it doesnt detect a camera hooked up. Ive checked to see if I need specific drivers, but Canon says windows Vista doesnt need drivers for this camera. Is a Canon Optura 10 by the way. So, does anyone know what to do here?

Yes. That mini-DV cam has a little 1394a, or firewire, input/output. All you have to do is get a firewire cable, hook the cam to a firewire input of your computer, and transfer the DV and audio onto your hard drive. You do this thru software. I assume movie maker can control this but dont know. There are numerous cheap DV capture and editing programs out there. Im surprised your using USB because firewire was made specifically for digital video. None of my DV cams have USB ports but I shoot Canon XL-2s which are fairly high end.

All your really doing is transferring files from your cam to your puters hard drive. The capture program should recognize the DV cam when you connect thru firewire and should have device control of the cam itself. The software starts the camera playing and records the output onto a harddrive. Windows has standard DV device controls. Its just like connecting a digital still camera.

One thing your going to want to do is make a separate folder on your hard drive for the video. Just name the folder "capture". Its best to have a separate hard drive just for the video but not mandatory. Any newish computer should have 1394a built onboard the motherboard. Its now as standard as USB ports. If you have no other choice, and your gear is rigged for it, then you can use USB as well. Both USB and firewire are simply data bus's. Or think of them simply as data transfer tools.

I think your problem is you need a firewire cable for windows to detect the camcorder. I dont know much about consumer cams. Does the Optura even have a USB port?

[Serenity]

Yes. That mini-DV cam has a little 1394a, or firewire, input/output. All you have to do is get a firewire cable, hook the cam to a firewire input of your computer, and transfer the DV and audio onto your hard drive. You do this thru software. I assume movie maker can control this but dont know. There are numerous cheap DV capture and editing programs out there. Im surprised your using USB because firewire was made specifically for digital video. None of my DV cams have USB ports but I shoot Canon XL-2s which are fairly high end.

All your really doing is transferring files from your cam to your puters hard drive. The capture program should recognize the DV cam when you connect thru firewire and should have device control of the cam itself. The software starts the camera playing and records the output onto a harddrive. Windows has standard DV device controls. Its just like connecting a digital still camera.

One thing your going to want to do is make a separate folder on your hard drive for the video. Just name the folder "capture". Its best to have a separate hard drive just for the video but not mandatory. Any newish computer should have 1394a built onboard the motherboard. Its now as standard as USB ports. If you have no other choice, and your gear is rigged for it, then you can use USB as well. Both USB and firewire are simply data bus's. Or think of them simply as data transfer tools.

I think your problem is you need a firewire cable for windows to detect the camcorder. I dont know much about consumer cams. Does the Optura even have a USB port?

Yes it does. I wasnt using a firewire because I dont own one. I've never had any use for it as I dont do this much. In fact, I probably never would were it not for this assignment. So, just use a firewire? Got it! Ill give that a try!