Could my pc not be compatible with mini-dvd's or am I missing something else all together? I put my mini-dvd into the dvd slot and comes up saying "please insert disk". I would like to save these mini-dvds to my hard drive. All help appreciated. Thanks,T
your answer would have been that your dvd drive is not dvd-ram compatible. You just need to plug it into the usb slot and hit the transfer button. Within about 10 minutes your whole 60 minute video would have been on the PC. Nwo that you have Hi8 you are going to spend AT LEAST 1 hour or more to transfer the video to your PC, and then a whole lot more time authoring a DVD to burn it to. All in all you lack of patience for figuring out the newer format is going to cost you more than 1 hour of your life in getting your video to DVD vs how long it would have taken with the DVD ram format. And thats just for ONE 60 minute recording. Multiply that by the number of video's that you take in your life. I hope it was worth it!! I guess the good news is that most people never actually watch the videos they take until all the kids have moved on, or they are really old and want to re-live the old days. So I hope you still have a hi-8 camcorder handy to play them on. This could be compared to the old reel to reel video cameras back in the day. How many still have something to play those on????
Mmm, that is an opinion (and everybody is entiteld to one), but critizing someone's decision and accuse him/her for "lack of patience", based on just one single aspect? Let me bring some arguments to draw a more complete picture enabling people to make their own choices. First of all DVD-Video is MPEG-2 and that is quite tough to edit. You will find out that when you do edit MPEG, that you will spend considerable time waiting while the edits are rendered. Secondly, is it such a problem that it takes an hour to transfer an hour of DV video from tape to PC? For me it is not, because I don't have to sit and watch the process going on. I usually start a new tape before going to dinner and when I come back it's ready. Thi is so much different than having to wait for the rendering proces while you are editing your footage. Third, about never watching the video again. Probably a more important reason is that the movies are just not interesting enough to watch. If you have experience with that you will recognize that many times you film the kids while you think that something interesting is going on. When you watch it later on, you ask yourself "why did I take this 5 minutes scene while nothing is happening"... In order to make it worthwhile to watch in twenty years from now MUST edit your footage. If you don't have the time to spend an hour for transfer, will your kids have the time to watch 100 hours of footage that you collected over the years? Fourth, the question if you will have the right equipment in the future to play the medium that you use today. A sensible strategy is anyway to burn your final movies on a DVD after editing, so you will not need any DV camera in 20 years from now. And also, in 20 years form now DVD, will probably also be "ancient technology". You will have to be prepared to keep transferring your material to new media while technology progresses. I am talking from experience here: I recently pulled out the old (first material is from 1958) Super8 family films made by my father. I was happy that he went through the effort of cutting and glueing pieces of film to create viewable movies. The first 10 years of my life are covered in just over an hour, which are sufficient for my kids to get an idea of how I was as a kid. I transferred old footage to DVD recently toir preserve it for the future. The old film projector (manufactured in 1958) still worked OK. I could even find a new lightbulb for it Cheers. "The more I know, the more I realize that I know so little"
You can do editing on the camera before you finalize the video, so there is no waiting. In fact, you "could" buy mini dvd-r's and film eveyrthing then finalize and NEVER have to put it anywhere near the pc. I personally dont do that, but its an option. I pointed out the patience thing because the same day he asked the question he had taken the unit back and bought a different one. I would consider that impatient when you are dealing with a forum. You need AT LEAST 1 day to wait before you could have expected to see an answer. I didnt realize the model you were speaking of was the lowest end one. that is why it doesnt have the usb port. But mine (one year.model) older has a USB port and it is the lowest end you can get. I have never personally had to wait for long rendering times. Especially compared to dv-to mpeg2 convertion times. See, you can transfer your dv in whatever format you want, but if you eventually want it in dvd format you need to wait for it to transfer to mpeg2 anyway. I assume that since he was looking at a dvd camcorder in the first place the DVD final format was what drew him in. I also realize that DVD will be outdated in 20 years, but VHS has lasted this long, so I figured if DVD itself is not around, DVD of some sort will still be here (maybe, not for sure) so there is a chance it will still play your old stuff (dvd home video's) I also realize the importance of good video shooting skills. Which is why I only film for a few minutes, or what I figure is worth keeping. This makes for less editing afterwards. In the end, both formats (dv and DVD) have advantages and dissadvatages, but thats not what he bought. He bought Hi8, which has been on its way out for a number of years now. If you think DVD and DV will be unspported in 20 years, Hi8 wont even be mentioned by then. ANyway, I hope you are glad with the purchase. If it works for you then great. It wouldnt have worked for me. Which is why I didnt buy it I guess.
I now notice that he turned to Hi-8. I assumed Digital8. DV or Digital8 are OK but I would definitely not buy Hi-8 now (anyhow, are they still sold anywhere these days?)
Stiny_1, I read through all the entries, you wrote some very helpful tips. My wife and I just purchased this unit and we were told we could download it right to our Powerbooks through a USB cable. A cable was not provided nor can I find a place to connect one on the camera. The model is DZMZ730A. If you have any tips, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
I am not up to speed on the newest or greatest models od dvd camcorders. I only know mine and am still learniong. The USB port on mine is inside the camcorder where the screen flips out from. You have to open the screen, then its right there. Its a USB-A mini port to regular USB cord that you need. Mine came with one though. I wonder if they have ditched the USB ports for firewire? ( I think its also called IE1009.......something by NON Sony companies) If thats what it has then just buy a card for your PC and it will plug into that. The trasnfer times are supposed to be much faster with that too.
