Help required regarding handicam.

S

i bought a sony dcrhc17e 39e handicam . I am not able to copy the taped movies to my system . plz note that i am a noob. also , is there any soft that can live capture and encode directly so that i can save space , the soft that was bundled captures live but for 9 secs , it made 60mb file. alternative ??
and how can i copy the taped movies to hdd without burning ?

thanks in advance

J

sagargv said:
i bought a sony dcrhc17e 39e handicam . I am not able to copy the taped movies to my system . plz note that i am a noob. also , is there any soft that can live capture and encode directly so that i can save space , the soft that was bundled captures live but for 9 secs , it made 60mb file. alternative ??
and how can i copy the taped movies to hdd without burning ?

thanks in advance

You should have received sony "Picture Package" software with your handycam. Though it is not a very good one, you should be able to record the video to your PC using it along with the USB cable supplied with the camera or a Firewire cable bought separately. Better still, use softwares from Adobe, Ulead, Pinnacle etc.
I myself use DCR HC-15E

Install a firewire card(costs Rs. 200/- to 2000/-considering local and branded ones) in your comp's PCI slot. Connect the cable to the hadycam's firewire/IEEE1394/i-Link port. Install Ulead video studio/Pinnacle. Now you can easily capture your taped movie to your harddisc.
Please note that in both the recommended softwares there are three formats for capturing---DV, MPEG 1 and MPEG 2. In DV quality approx. 4 minute movie will take 1GB space. MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 will take less space at the cost of greater capturing time. My advice is to capture in DV format and after necessary editing convert it to any format of your choice using the above-named softwares.

S

thanks a lot guys . i'll try it out. the picture package soft is no good. and can i copy the entire tape in just 2mins ? I wud appreciate it if u cud explain a bit more abt the firewire card ( today , i shall contact the sony dealer and i'll ask him for it ) , any specific company that i shud buy & what's the difference btw local and branded ones ? and is firewire better than USB ?

Where can i download pinacle or ulead vedio studio ( i'm googling now... )

thanks a lot.

S

and can adobe photoshop do the task ( i hav it )

Firewire (I-Link as Sony calls it) can transfer data at 400 mbps which means the movie you transferred to your hard disk will be of really good quality. I also use Firewire (USB sucks for this purpose) n the quality is really good. I suggest u to go for the branded ones cos the local ones can spoil your i-link port, and unless you have a warranty, the repairing costs as much as an entry level handycam.

J

sagargv said:
and can adobe photoshop do the task ( i hav it )

Is it not some other SW from Adobe other than Photoshop? As far as I know, Photoshop is not meant for video.

M

Video Edit Magic which was bundled with Digit CD/DVD (few months back) is a good program for capturing.

sagargv said:
.... and can i copy the entire tape in just 2mins ? I wud appreciate it if u cud explain a bit more abt the firewire card ( today , i shall contact the sony dealer and i'll ask him for it ) , any specific company that i shud buy & what's the difference btw local and branded ones ? and is firewire better than USB ?
Where can i download pinacle or ulead vedio studio ( i'm googling now... )

You cannot copy entire tape in two minutes. The actual process is not COPY but CAPTURE and it will take at least as much time as your video playing time from tape, if not more(depending on whether you are capturing in DV/MPEG 1/MPEG2 format.
I think the price difference between local and branded firewire cards arises basically due to accompanying software. Local ones come with pirated software whereas branded ones come with original(and sometimes useful/user-friendly) software. Also there is a difference in chip quality. Pinnacle, Pixelview are to name a few branded ones.
Firewire is better than USB and even USB2 in terms of video capturing. Never capture video with USB2 you will end up with stuttering video.
Download trial versions of the recommended softwares from their respective sites.
Adobe Photoshop is for photo editing and not for video editing. Adobe family software for video editing is Adobe Premiere which is a bit complicated for the newbies. You should better try with Ulead Video Studio. Video Edit Magic is also good.

S

thanks a lot guys . I'll buy firewire .

P

sagargv said:
thanks a lot guys . I'll buy firewire .

I'm using samsung sc d-353 which has 4 video capturing option.
1. S-video
2. IEEE 1394
3. USB 2.0 and through
4. audio video jack
I've got USB cable and bundled software like Ulead Photo Express 4.0 SE and Ulead VideoStudio 7 SE DVD once i tried to capture the video, it plays too slow, just like webcams do after connecting to net. I went to a studio lab where they connect their system through my audio video cable into their pinnacle card and the result was too good.
now i'd like to know the way i can get the best result. is IEEE 1394 controller and firewire are same? is it better than A/V and S-video? does P3 (800Mhz, Krypton's M6VLQ Grand motherboard with 512+256MB of RAM) supports IEEE 1394? which brand will be the best for optimum result? and which software will be the best as my DV driver supports only windows98 & Millenium and not server O/S. if possible please mention the price too (including cables).

priyadarshi said:
...is IEEE 1394 controller and firewire are same? is it better than A/V and S-video? does P3 (800Mhz, Krypton's M6VLQ Grand motherboard with 512+256MB of RAM) supports IEEE 1394? which brand will be the best for optimum result? and which software will be the best as my DV driver supports only windows98 & Millenium and not server O/S. if possible please mention the price too (including cables).

IEEE 1394 and firewire are the same.
The Quality of video captured through firewire is far far better(actually, the best) than that captured through USB,A/V and S-video.
Any brand you can choose depending on your budget. Do some market research. Actually, costly cards come with good softwares(and a cable too) and that is why they are costly.It costs Rs. 200/- to 2000/-considering local and branded ones.
PIII mobos support firewire. Just purchase the firewire card and install it in one of your mobo's empty PCI slot.
Download latest DV drivers from Samsung site which will support WinXP.
Refer my previous posts in this thread.

P

Thank You nil_3. You helped me a lot. As per your suggestion I'll search nehru place for it but one more thing I'd like to know, which is the best firewire card availkable in the market and which one you'll suggest me to go for and also how much it'll cost me.

J

I am also planning to get a good Firewire card since it is heard that cheap cards may damage the handycam. In ebay several ones are advertised, prices ranging from 200 to 1000 but none seem to be branded. I would like to get suggestions from those who are using it (ihave not used FW before) preferably without bundled SW since I already have got Pinnacle.

priyadarshi said:
...which is the best firewire card available in the market .

You can safely go for Pinnacle. I don't know it's price, you have to ask for it. But it would be a bit costly considering the excellent quality accompanying software. Pinnacle has different types of cards, some for DV capture, others for AV/DV capture; the later one has the option of capturing from an wide range of camcorders.
I use the card of Pixelview. Purchased six years ago and stil working smoothlessly. Accompanying software was VideoWave 5, a decent software.
Even some motherboards also come with in-built firewire ports.

J

@Nil_3
Pinnacle should be good but also costly I think, due to the bundled SW. Actually I need only a good FW card since I have the SW but not the FW port because my Mobo is A8N-E.

P

janitha said:
In ebay several ones are advertised, prices ranging from 200 to 1000 but none seem to be branded....

I agree. I tried Enter for Rs.650, it was bundled with Video Studio 8. It looked like original CD but I knew the reality when I tried to register. Now I doubt about the hardware quality too. Planning to get another one. Any of you aware of pinnacle's which is priced around rs.1800/-?

S

Simple use Windows movie maker.

P

slagad said:
Simple use Windows movie maker.

I'm already using legal and registered version of Video Studio SE 7, which came bundled with my samsung camcorder. all I need is a good firewire card with cable.

priyadarshi said:
I tried Enter for Rs.650, ..... I doubt about the hardware quality too. Planning to get another one. Any of you aware of pinnacle's which is priced around rs.1800/-?.

priyadarshi said:
...all I need is a good firewire card with cable.

Will you please tell what is the problem in your Rs. 650/- Enter card? My friend is using a Rs. 200/- card (no company name---came with pirated Ulead videoStudio 9) and it is working fine for the last 7-8 months.

All the Pinnacle cards are costly. I personally use Pixelview card purchased 3-4 years ago and still working fine. If available, you can go for that.

P

Thanks for replying.

nil_3 said:
Will you please tell what is the problem......

same slow video capturing.. Don't want to take any risk with my camcorder and computer.

priyadarshi said:
same slow video capturing..

Slow video capturing may be due to a lot of factors. As I said before(see my previous posts at this thread) the minimum time taken for capturing should take at least as much time as your video playing time from tape(capturing in DV format) and it will go up if you are capturing directly in MPEG 1/MPEG 2 format. You should also have at least 512MB RAM.