Hey everyone, I recently joined here today, but I have a question to ask. I tried looking through the forums for the answer but really had no luck so I would appreciate it if someone answered. I'm pretty much a beginner so take it easy on me please. Sorry if its too long..

I recently bought a Sony Handycam that burns media onto mini-DVD's, and through reading and experimentation have found out that you need a software (that comes with it) to even view the media in the first place. And in order to view the media on the DVD you had to connect the DV Cam to the PC via USB 2.0.(Not to mention the fact that the DVD has to be in the Camcorder) And to make it worse I edit with a G5 Mac but the software is for PC.

The reason I bought the DV Cam in the first place was because I wanted to be able to record and bypass the process of connecting the camcorder to the computer and just be able to pop it in, and edit the footage. Sadly I dont think this way will work.

The reason I need it this way is because im going to be having footage from many different cameras come to me, and instead of having the camera I could just put the thing the media is on in and do it that way from the same type of camera. Am I doing something wrong? Or is there an alternate way?
Would Appreciate any answers.

Justin

I would suggest that you just forget about the DV cam device for the moment. I have no experience with these cameras, though - so I can't tell you what you are doing wrong. I am a little surprised that you can't watch the video material you shoot with that camera on a standard DVD player.

[QUOTE=The reason I need it this way is because im going to be having footage from many different cameras come to me, and instead of having the camera I could just put the thing the media is on in and do it that way from the same type of camera. Am I doing something wrong? Or is there an alternate way?[/QUOTE]

You are going to have to be a little more specific about what kinds of materials you are going to be receiving (are they going to be all DV, or Digital8, or are some going to be analog formats as well like Hi 8 or VHS), in order for anyone to offer you any alternatives.

You are going to have to be a little more specific about what kinds of materials you are going to be receiving (are they going to be all DV, or Digital8, or are some going to be analog formats as well like Hi 8 or VHS), in order for anyone to offer you any alternatives.

Sorry about that..well, the footage is going to be all DV, I'm trying buy a couple cams of the same kind, and instead of taking the cameras one by one and plugging them in and importing it that way, I could just take the media out of the camera, pop it in, and that would be that, but which camera to use to do that I dont know. Do I have to buy a device that can read DV and things like that, a DV Deck right? I mean really I'm just looking for the easiest and/or fastest way to import media to the computer.

By the way the DVD Camera was a Sony HandyCam DCR-DVD203.
Would Appreciate an answer.

Justin

Hi Justin,

If money is no object (which it seems since you are planning to buy a few if not a lot of cams), I would suggest that you buy a DV recorder/player (deck). You will just need one of them to get all of the media (which is stored on the DV tapes) imported onto your computer. Any make, of DV camera or DV recorder/player will do this, so you don't have to be too picky, you just have to make sure that it has a Firewire (i-Link, IEEE 1394) out.

Once you have a DV camera or DV recorder/player, you have to connect it to your computer using a Firewire cable.

Putting tapes into the DV camera or DV recorder/player, capturing them using a capture software on your computer in real time, and then switching to the next tape, is about as close as you are going to get, to takeing the media out of the camera, and popping it in.

I hope that that is of some help to you,

I looked your camera up at Amazon.com

(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0007LZGCY/qid=1123013682/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-1737794-6174509?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846)

In the review it states:

"Now memories are as easy to make as they are to share, thanks to Sony's DCR-DVD203 digital DVD Handycam camcorder. Capture both stunning videos and more than 2000 still images on a single 3 inch DVD disc which can be played back on almost any DVD player, whether you use -R/RW or +RW format. With DVD +RW media there's no finalization needed"

Were you using a DVD R or DVD RW? Could that have been what's preventing you from viewing it immediately?

Firstly, Daniel, thank you for the information, it was very helpful, but I have one more question-What DV Recorder/Player Decks do you recommend? And the way Decks work is the tapes are put in, and from there you can import Media from the Deck? Do you think it will work for Adobe Premiere Pro?

Another small question is what decently priced camera's do you know of that use DV Tapes?
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Also, Gilbert, thanks, and it was actually a DVD-R, but notice as it says *almost* any DVD player (its actually a CD that came with the Camcorder, Sony 1.4 GIG Accucore DVD-R),I guess mine wasnt one of them, it said 'CD not Compatible' if my memory is right. But the real problem is the fact that you cant put the CD inside of a computer and be able to read it. I have 2 DVD players, I'll see if the DVD works on the other one in a sec....Nope..the other one is a Magnavox DVD VCR and it says simply 'No Disk', atleast the other one was slightly more informative. I guess the camera just isnt for me.
I appreciate you guy's help by the way.

Justin

The reason I bought the DV Cam in the first place was because I wanted to be able to record and bypass the process of connecting the camcorder to the computer and just be able to pop it in, and edit the footage. Sadly I dont think this way will work.

actually, it will work just fine, if you know what you are doing, and the mac platform has the tools to handle it.

dvd cameras record in the mpeg2 format, which means that the dvd can be viewed and edited by the computer without using the camera.... just copy the mpeg2 file off of the dvd that you place in the dvd drive of your computer.

i think that the reason that your mac can't recognize the dvd is because quicktime still does not come with mpeg2 capability, you have to pay extra for it, and there are still issues with it's functionality.

the other big advantage to what you have is that you don't have to encode dv-source video into mpeg2, in order to burn it to a dvd... it's already mpeg2, just do some simple edits with the right software, and use a dvd authoring app to create the dvd.

i don't have the slightest idea how to do that on a mac, but i can do it easily with my pc, because of the software i have for it.