My mini dv camcorder does not support USB. Is there some sort of device that I can plug into a computer via USB and put my mini dv tapes in thus allowing me to transfer to the computer. I was imagning something relatively cheap that would just be a simple plug and play type of device. Hope that makes sense, thanks for any advice
Why would you want that? A far better option is to use Firewire: plug'n'play and superior quality compared with USB. If your PC does not have a Firewire connection, you can buy a card plus cable for under $20, so it is probably also much cheaper compared to a device that you are looking for (if it exists at all).
firstly, let me say that i agree with TPFKAS. If you stick with firewire, you will see far better results. However, if you have your heart set on USB capture, Dazzle makes a USB capture device which has an USB interface and 3 RCA at the other. The 3 RCA connections give you L and R sound in black and red, plus a composite video jack in yellow. Be warned that due to the USB interface, the CPU of the PC can not dedicate resources to the video capture. Hence you are going to see some dropped frames. If you do decide to go down this path, I recommend a powerful PC with lots of RAM and if at all possible, a dedicated Hard drive for video capture. Is this what you are after?
Thanks guys, I mentioned USB becasue that seemed like the best option to me, but as you both reccomend firewire I think I need to do a little more research. It may also be that my computer is not able to deal with it and might be a consideration for when I get a new one. Thanks again for the help.
For your research this would be good article to start with: http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/basics/tapetodvd.php
