Okay FOFC tech junkies... Handycam to video files?

[QuikSand]

I have never ceased to be amazed at the collection of tech-related knowledge here - but I fear this might be a stumper.


We own a Sony Handycam (I'd have to look up the model number) that records onto miniature DVD discs. We are becoming increasingly computerized around the house, and now have both a PC and a MAC with DVD drives, and video capabilities.

We can easily "view" the video files, but what we'd really like to do is somehow get them into a format that we can save, send, edit, and so forth on the computer. So far, this seems essentially impossible.

I have done web searches, yielding a few very convoluted and inefficient means of doing this. Nothing at all promising. Anyone have any knowledge about this little corner of the tech world?

[cartman]

This might be what you are looking for:

hxxp://www.jakeludington.com/ask_jake/20051202_editing_sony_dvd_handycam_video.html

[MacroGuru]

Hey Quik, this one might help...

http://www.jakeludington.com/ask_jake/20051202_editing_sony_dvd_handycam_video.html

I know that Adobe Premier Elements is easy to use, I have been teaching this to the Middle School kids as they create their own music videos on our TechTank days while we are at their school.

If you need any help, let me know, I might be able to type up some editing documentation for you.

[wade moore]

Hahaha, nice guys ;)...

I haven't used the HandyCam, but as you know I did some video stuff with the IHOF.

If you don't want to pay for Premier Elements, that Blaze media works pretty well for converting. So if you use that to convert the .mpeg to .avi, then Windows Movie Maker should be on your PC already and is REALLY easy to use.

[QuikSand]

I'm having a bit of trouble digesting that - I may have even looked at it before -- but it might be as good as there is.

ANyone know anything about this tool Nero 6? If that will convert my discs into a series of small files, one for each scene on teh disc, that woudl be just fine. I guess I'll start there.

[gstelmack]

For my DV Sony Handycam, I plug in the firewire cable from my Soundblaster Audigy to my Handycam and fire up Roxio Easy Media Creator. If your camera does not have a digital output you can plug in, you'll need one of the many analog-digital hardware converters out there (Pinnacle makes some solid ones) to get the video to your hard drive, then something like Easy Media Creator for editing / burning.

PS> Easy Media Creator is the best software I've found for ripping, editing, and burning a wide variety of content from making music CDs off my main CD collection (completely ripped to hard drive in WMA format) to making DVDs of the kids for the grandparents. There are things I don't like about it, but Nero is famous for making you buy plugins for key features you need, and Pinnacle is unstable, and nothing else comes close anymore.

[MacroGuru]

Basically, take your Sony DVD disc, drop it into your drive. Open your video editing software, add the media from the video_ts folder to it.

This will allow you to do your editing, add music to the movies, titles, credits, whatever. Then you export from the program, and using Nero, this allows you to burn the movie to disc in DVD or Video CD format.

[FrogMan]

I use Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 and it can don tons of stuff with teh VOB files that your camera, or any dvd recorder/burner, writes on a DVD. Basically, a VOB file is an MPEG2 type file that you can then edit and reencode to burn again, or distribute. I gotta run, but if nobody else has given more specific help, I'll get back in here tonight at some point...

FM

[FrogMan]

For my DV Sony Handycam, I plug in the firewire cable from my Soundblaster Audigy to my Handycam and fire up Roxio Easy Media Creator. If your camera does not have a digital output you can plug in, you'll need one of the many analog-digital hardware converters out there (Pinnacle makes some solid ones) to get the video to your hard drive, then something like Easy Media Creator for editing / burning.

PS> Easy Media Creator is the best software I've found for ripping, editing, and burning a wide variety of content from making music CDs off my main CD collection (completely ripped to hard drive in WMA format) to making DVDs of the kids for the grandparents. There are things I don't like about it, but Nero is famous for making you buy plugins for key features you need, and Pinnacle is unstable, and nothing else comes close anymore.

I do the same with my JVC MiniDV camera, plug the firewire cable and capture to pc, then edit, then reauthor to DVD and burn, or use parts of it on the web... Easy Media Creator is indeed very easy to use...

FM

[wade moore]

I don't know Nero, but I know that Adobe Elements is just a commercial Video Editing software.

The other portion that I was mentioning it seems like you do this:

A) Leave the video in an unfinalized state
B) Insert the disk in the computer's DVD drive and copy the VOB file located in the Video_TS folder on the disk to the hard drive
C) Download Blaze Media Pro (I know I got a trial version when doing IHOF Stuff - hxxp://www.blazemp.com/
D) Convert the VOB file to AVI

Then you could just open that up in Windows Movie Maker to edit.

Again - I haven't done this, I'm just interpreting those directions the best I can.

[Godzilla Blitz]

If you haven't had much experience working with video, the iMovie program that comes with your Mac is quite easy to learn. And iDVD (also included with OSX) will do a great job of taking your edited work to DVD to watch on any DVD player.

iMovie will also save to various other web-friendly formats, like QuickTime, etc.

[gstelmack]

iMovie will also save to various other web-friendly formats, like QuickTime, etc.

QuickTime is NOT a web-friendly format. Well, okay, maybe the format is, but the Apple QuickTime player is an abomination upon my Windows machine that I end up deleting within a few days of needing to install it for something else.

[stevew]

Move to one of the sony or JVC HDD camcorders as soon as you can. Much better than messing around with dvds that only store 30 mins at a time.

[Daimyo]

For my Sony MiniDV Handycam I just connect it to my computer via firewire and use Windows Movie Maker to transfer the video over in AVI format. For the DVD version I guess you'd need some software that can rip the DVD to AVI.

Once you get it into an AVI file you can use any video editing software (the Mac pre-packaged stuff is supposed to be good... I'd ask shaw) to edit it and burn it to DVD.

[cartman]

For my Sony MiniDV Handycam I just connect it to my computer via firewire and use Windows Movie Maker to transfer the video over in AVI format. For the DVD version I guess you'd need some software that can rip the DVD to AVI.

Once you get it into an AVI file you can use any video editing software (the Mac pre-packaged stuff is supposed to be good... I'd ask shaw) to edit it and burn it to DVD.

No need to convert to AVI, since the DVD format (VOB) is MPEG2. Just rename the .VOB files to .MPEG, and you're in business.

[cuervo72]

Are you planning another trip to the buffet?