Camcorders

[Bobo]

Hey guys, was looking for some help as my own searching is long.

 

Right, a customer is looking for a camcorder to make some simple videos with the kids. They want to use Windows movie maker and they want to buy a camcorder for around the £250 mark, they also want to be able to buy it from an actual shop (think Currys, argos etc).

 

Very awkward really as most camcorders only record in MPEG2, so in essence I need:

 

Camcorder for £250 from a shop that can record in mpeg4/avi or another format that is compatible with WMM.

 

Thanks

 

Bobo

[plexer]

No what you need is a camera with i1394 aka firewire and a suitable pc/laptop and suitable cables.

 

You plug the camera and capture the video in movie maker add your titles etc... and there you go.

 

Ben

[Bobo]

Surely USB2.0 would do the job, no?

 

But wouldnt the film be saved in an unsupported format?

[PeterW]

Surely USB2.0 would do the job, no?

 

No what you need is a camera with i1394 aka firewire and a suitable pc/laptop and suitable cables.

 

You plug the camera and capture the video in movie maker add your titles etc... and there you go.

 

What he said

[Bobo]

Have just looked more about what you mentioned, did not realize WMM could extract video like that, I assume it is the same with all models of cameras?

[plexer]

I've just captured video from a JVC Everio hdd camcorder that saves in mpeg2 on it's own storage but it's captured into movie maker as compatible video as you are working with the digital movie stream.

 

As I said you just need a camera with firewire plus a computer/laptop with a firewire card, I've also done this with various canon and sony mini-dv tape cameras too.

 

You can then save the final footage for burning to a dvd or jsut playing as a wmv in media player.

 

Ben

[Bobo]

I know firewire would be the best call, but the customer may use it on various machines, many of which will not have firewire

[Bobo]

So is it still possible with USB?

[torledo]

I've just captured video from a JVC Everio hdd camcorder that saves in mpeg2 on it's own storage but it's captured into movie maker as compatible video as you are working with the digital movie stream.

 

As I said you just need a camera with firewire plus a computer/laptop with a firewire card, I've also done this with various canon and sony mini-dv tape cameras too.

 

You can then save the final footage for burning to a dvd or jsut playing as a wmv in media player.

 

Ben

 

Yes, but you've brought your footage into WMM using usb 2.0 surely. The everio would be seen as an external hard drive, and the files can be brought into WMM by hook or by crook.

 

firewire is obviously much more straightforward but what are the methods for capturing/importing into wmv using the newer usb 2.0 cameras, either HDD or SDHC, using either a proprietoary format like JVC's everio or mpeg4/h.264 ?

[plexer]

No I used the firewire connection on the everio dock to do straight firewire capture into movie maker rather than use the painfully slow usb connector on the camera body.

 

Plus I also lost the disk with the software on it and our version of premiere wouldn't see the files from the hard drive.

 

I did manage to get around it by converting the files and re-encoding them but that took hours.

 

Then I saw the magical number ieee1394 on the camera body and after hunting all over it looking for that ellusive connector reaslied it was on the dock.

 

Ben

[dhicks]

Camcorder for £250 from a shop that can record in mpeg4/avi or another format that is compatible with WMM.

 

Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA65. £200-odd from Jessops. Waterproof. Records on to memory card that can be read with an in-built card reader or a cheap (£10) USB one. Footage needs converting with MP4CAM2AVI to be read in Windows Movie Maker.

 

You can probably get a Mini-DV camera off eBay or down your local cash converters for around the £100 mark these days. I've just ordered a USB-to-firewire cable off eBay that reckons should let me plug a Mini-DV camera straight in to my USB port - guess we'll find out!

 

--

David Hicks

[PeterW]

I've just ordered a USB-to-firewire cable off eBay that reckons should let me plug a Mini-DV camera straight in to my USB port - guess we'll find out!

 

You might be able to physically plug it in but you wont get any comunication, do you have the link for it out of interest?

[plexer]

Seems to be lots of companies selling these but I just can't for the life of me work out what you could hope to acheive with one plugging a firewire device into a usb socket just ain't going to work surely?

 

Ben

[plexer]

This USB to FireWire DV Adapter - PAL - US Version would work though.

 

Ben

[john]

Surely that cable is like the USB to SCSI cables that I had a while ago, and the USB - Serial ones so they are have mini electronics in them that make a USB Connected Firewire port?

[PeterW]

Sorry I think calling it a cable is somewhat deceptive (that Ben has linked to), I think it should be called a convertor or something. We were talking about the next to useless adaptors that allow you to plug a firewire device into a USB port but don't actually have any logic in them. USB to IEEE 1394 4 PIN FIREWIRE TRAVEL CABLE (5 feet) on eBay, also Printer Cables Extenders, Cables Connectors, Desktop Laptop Accessories, Computers Networking (end time 15-Dec-08 17:03:10 GMT) I guess it would work if the device supported the USB protocol over the firewire connection, although this would be in violation of the USB spec.

[dhicks]

You might be able to physically plug it in but you wont get any comunication, do you have the link for it out of interest?

 

Drat.

 

See 6 Mini USB Travel Kit Cable Firewire 1394 Adapters on eBay, also, Firewire, Cables Connectors, Computing (end time 11-Dec-08 10:06:31 GMT)

 

I particularly like the way it said "2,000 available" when I bought one and now says "1,999" available, like no-one else was daft enough... Meh, £2.50, ah, well. Have just found a spare firewire PCI card...

 

--

David Hicks