Re: Sony DCRHC-90E, harder than I thought

On 2 Jan 2006 08:03:26 -0800, "Gary Hendricks"
<gary.hendricks.user@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Hi Paul
>
>Here's a generic guide to capturing video from a camcorder to a PC.
>
>First of all you need to transfer the video from the camcorder's tape
>to your PC, so that you can further process it. This can be done
>losslessly via firewire, also known as IEEE1394 interface, or i.Link
>according to the Sony jargon. Please be aware of the fact that the USB
>connector provided by many DV camcorders is usually intended for photo
>transfer only, not for video.
>
>If you are looking for a firewire cable, it is more likely that you
>find it included in your firewire card bundle or that it came with your
>PC in case of onboard firewire, but not with your camcorder. If you
>need to buy one separately, make sure you don't pay too much - prices
>may vary from ?2, to above ?20,-, and they are all the same
>quality! For desktop PCs you typically need a 4-Pin to 6-Pin cable, for
>Notebooks 4-Pin to 4-Pin. Verify your plugs.
>
>Now let's have a look at the software. If you have a video editing
>suite, there should be a capture program included, either integrated or
>as a standalone application. I can't cover all the software available,
>so I'll concentrate on two neat and tiny freeware programs, DVIO and
>WinDV.

I, too, have a Sony video camera (DCR-HC21). It came with Sony's
"Picture Package" software. I have yet to figure out any possible
reason for using "Picture Package". All it does is pop up when I
connect the camera.

At first I captured and completed movies with the free, built-in
Windows XP MovieMaker program. I couldn't get my computer to
recognize the camera using the Firewire cable. MM will capture using
a USB connection. I then burned DVDs using Nero's NeroVision Express
2 which came bundled with my camera purchase. Adequate results.

MovieMaker isn't that bad a program, and there's a newsgroup
(microsoft.public.windowsxp.moviemaker) where good answers to
questions are available.

However, we always want to do things better so I purchased Pinnacle's
Studio Plus 10 which will *only* work using a Firewire. Turned out
that my Firewire card was defective so I replaced that.

I'm not sure if Pinnacle's program is worth the $79.00 (On sale from
$99 with more rebate to come) and the cost of the Firewire card
compared to the free MovieMaker, but my first attempt came out well
enough using MP3.

I don't consider the Pinnacle program to be all that user-friendly.
The Title program is - so far - quite beyond me. The manual (at least
they include a real manual) is not well done at all. On my first -
and so far, only - attempt I ended up creating my titles in Adobe's
Photoshop 7 and importing them. This works a treat and I think I get
better titles this way. This may be because I'm very used to PS7 and
can knock things out quickly.

As I keep adding movies, I'm sure I'll catch on to Pinnacle. I've
picked up Photoshop 7, CorelDraw, and a number of other "complex"
programs with trial and error and practicing on-line tutorials.

I do wish there was a Pinnacle newsgroup. Newsgroups can be an
invaluable source of information with almost instant feedback.

Right now I'm going through some 5,000 posts to this newsgroup, and a
few thousand in alt.video.dvd.authoring to see what tips I can pick
up.




--


Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL
.

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