I am going to transfer a bunch of tapes to DVD and would appreciate some input on my needs. Currently - I have a 3 yr. old computer with 160GB hard drive with no firewire connection. Software - I have Windows Movie Maker and Nero 7. Would you advise a separate hard drive so frames are not dropped? If so, what size to take care of a tape? Do I need firewire connections on both the portable hard drive and the tower as I'm not sure how the connections go? ie. Camera to Firewire to Hard drive to Firewire to Tower?? Thanks
If your video camera has a firewire output, then get a firewire card for you computer. You will also need to get a good firewire cable, and the ends should match the size on your video camera and the firewire card that you get for your computer. Usually, the connection on the video camera is a 4 pin, and the card you get for your computer is a 6 pin, but you have to check to make sure. You will want to capture as a DV-AVI file, not mpeg, so you will also need to have a large capacity hard drive.
The camera does have a 4-pin firewire connection, so I'll put that on my list. So your advise is to get: - one firewire card for the tower,and one firewire cable and - a large capacity external Hard Drive. 160GB ok or larger?? - USB cable for the external Hard Drive to tower connection? Sooo the Video camera is connected to the tower via the firewire cable, and the external hard drive is hooked to the tower via USB cable??
If you are going to do a lot of video work, I would get a minimum of a 320GB hard drive. I would use it as an internal hard drive, if possible. If not, then capture to your internal hard drive, and then transfer it to the external. The reason I say that, is there is the chance that you will have sync problems when capturing to the external drive. You have that signal going through the firewire cable, from your video camera, then through a USB cable, going to the external. I don't do it that way. I capture to the internal, then transfer to the external. With .avi files, 1 hour of video is 12-15GB, BTW.
I currently have 160GB of hard drive. Then that be enough hard drive for a 1 hour tape if I delete the avi after putting it on a DVD?? That would save me some $$
I wouldn't ever delete the .avi file. I would archive it to another hard drive, just in case it is needed at a future date.
Hi...im new here and i was just wondering if you have the file after the transfer and since it takes up too much space... what converting software do you recommend to convert to ?? any advise is much appreciated vinaka(thanx) from FIJI
