Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions How to create a video with my MiniDV JVC camcorder

Being pretty techy, I'm embarassed that I can't figure this out. Ok, we have a JVC Mini DV camcorder that we purchased in the last year or so. I uses the mini DV digital tapes, and also has a slot of SD memory cards, etc... It also has a USB cable. The CD that came with it says Digital Photo Navigator, and I think you can create Email .asf files or something like that...

Anyway, I was tossing around the idea of creating a movie which would show my Home Theater room. Instead of pictures, it would be cool to create a little video and post it on my website, or possibly youtube or some other website for you all to see.

How the heck do I do this, is it possible? I figured I could play back the tape or something while the USB was hooked up and record to my hard drive. Or, do I have to record the video to an SD card?

Any help would be appreciated. Also, I wonder what format I would use for the video?

Thanks, Randy

Hey man, have you tried just plugging the camera into your PC?

We have an older camcorder (Digital 8, not DV), but it uses a DV to Firewire cable. I plug it in, and Windows XP sees it as a device, and I can record with Windows Movie Maker (free) to capture video. It works pretty easily, and allows some quick editing.

Here is the link:
Windows Movie Maker

There are more advanced options out there, but this is a quick, easy, and free way to give it a go.

I did plug it in to the USB port. At first it did not recognize the device, however, once I powered off/on the camcorder it said new device found, but was unable to complete successfully. I have XP SP2 with all the latest patches as well. hmmm

Like you said, I figured I could just plug it in and play. I'll keep messing with it, and also check out the link above...thanks

Randy,
Im not sure this is your problem or not but, that usb cable may only be for tranfering still pics off the SD card. I have had a few people bring in digital camcorder for me to setup the video transfer and have found thtat to be the problem.You are probably going to have to buy a video capture card.
Jake

That is what I found on some forums, however, I have found some people that claim they were able to transfer video to a pc via USB. In the manual it says that you can either use USB or DV(firewire). It states that USB can be used to do the following:

1 transfer still images stored on a memory card, SD.
2 transfer still/moving images recorded on a atape to a PC.

I can't get XP to recognize the USB device, not matter what I try, this really sucks. Being an IT guy, these things really choke my gizzard......

Any other help would be appreciated...Randy

I can't help much, but I understand your dilema. I used to have a Sony MiniDV camcorder, and faced this same situation. In my case, the camcorder came with software + drivers that recognized the camcorder when plugged in via Firewire or USB. Then the software allowed you to control the camcorder and import the video. It was a SLOW process, capturing video at normal playback speed. But it did work. Every camcorder except the new hard-drive based ones require that you re-encode your video from the tape to a digital format (MPG, AVI, etc). Once imported, you could edit the video and make smaller ones for the internet, burn a DVD, etc.

Anyway, check to see if your JVC camcorder came with software. I bet it will have the appropriate control program for offloading the video to your PC.

Good luck!

Also randy i had a digital camera once that only was recognized while in play mode. maybe try that sounds stupid but cant hurt to try good luck.
Jake

Thanks guys, I've tried everything. Yes it came with software for transferring images from the SD card, but that is it...I've also tried going from "automatic" to "play" to "off" modes...

I get windows to say "hey, you have a new usb device, I'm going to try to find the drivers for it, yada yada yada". However, no matter what option I try, it still shows as an unrecognized device.

In Windows Movie Maker, that Nick mentioned above, when I select the option to import a video, it says there is "no device.....found".

I can't believe this is this hard. I do have firewire on my htpc, I may try that, however, I don't have the right cable...

Randy:
There's no way for me to say this without sounding snobby, but I really don't know jack about amateur video issues. Because of that, I've been staying out of the thread.

But I would strongly recommend going Firewire instead of USB. Firewire and DV video have a bit of a relationship... they at least wave to each other when they see each other. USB and DV think that the other "looks familiar", but only enough to nod when they walk by....

I agree with Mark. My bet is that the IEEE 1394 connection will work right off. I have a JVC MiniDV camera that I bought in 1999 that still works great with the PC today. Of course no USB on it as at that time USB 2.0 was not around.

With the last two. Of course, I usually prefer firewire to USB in any case.