Video from Camcorder onto my PC

[Fox 3]

Hello everyone,
I have searched the threads already and I couldn't find the answer I'm after. First of all I've got a SONY DCR-TRV250 camcorder which I've taken some video with and now I want to put it onto my laptop and PC. I've got the firewire cable and USB cable that came with the camcorder. My laptop only has the USB option. So I went to the SONY site and downloaded (and installed) the latest driver, then restarted my computer and plugged in the camcorder....and nothing. So this leads me to my first question, am I doing something wrong? there isn't a setting on my camcorder for "PC" or anything, I tried playing the video on the camcorder while plugged in to the laptop, but still nothing.

My second question, I was wondering what the best software is for transferring and editing video. I have used windows movie maker but it's kinda blah. I have the software that came with the camcorder but it's not that great (ULead).

Thanks for any help.

FOX

[sgtspector]

I feel your pain. I have a Sony DVC also. When I first got it I installed everything and hooked up the usb cable and got nothing. After some research the final answer I came to was tough luck. On some PC's USB will just not work. Luckily I have firewire and used that. Now I am glad usb didn't work, Fire wire is much better for video. You can control the camera from the software including moviemaker. And it's stable. Never crashes while recording. Maybe you should look into a firewire pc card for your laptop.

[Fox 3]

dang, i was hoping for a different answer! lol oh well thanks anyhow. I'll just wait until I get home before transfering the videos, although a firewire card is not a bad idea...any idea how much they are?

Thanks for the help.

FOX

[tomster2300]

USB is only meant to transfer still pictures through camcorders (when it includes a snapshot function) - firewire is for video. A cheap firewire card should run you about $15 - $30 for desktops, and a cable should be around $5 - $10 depending on length. A firewire card is a firewire card, they all work. The fun part is actually getting the video software to function right. Good luck, I used to do a bunch of video editing projects way back in high school which were all video / photography based. We used a mix of Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop to make some pretty cool stuff. Equipment can be fickle though.

Google something along the lines of "adobe lightsaber creation" and if you're lucky you'll find an old guide that explains how to do it. We did that once and got our own authentic lightsaber battle - it really works, though it's extremely time consuming and tedious.

[XenaWP]

Originally Posted by Fox 3 ... My second question, I was wondering what the best software is for transferring and editing video. I have used windows movie maker but it's kinda blah. I have the software that came with the camcorder but it's not that great (ULead). Thanks for any help. FOX

I've been using Sony's Vegas Movie Studio (and its predecessors) for several years now and it's among the best values in vid. editing software out there. Check PC Mag and PC World, they frequently do comparison reviews of the 3-4 major packages. Basically the packages in the $100 range have comparable capabilities, slightly different GUIs/workflow, and some are more or less buggy in a particular version. Check the reviews and see which look the most intuitive to you.

[Fox 3]

Tomster: awesome info, thank you...I had no idea USB was only for still pictures!

Xena: I will check those out, thank you for the info.

Much appreciated guys,

Cheers.

FOX