Got another stupid question...

[Little Nicky]

A friend of mine filmed me and my (ex) band playing a festival back in 2004 on a Sony HandyCam DCR-IP1E PAL.

The format of this camcorder (as I'm sure you know) is MicroMV tape.

I have borrowed my friends camcorder (the one he recorded the gig on) and all the leads / software / etc but it doesn't seem to be compatibe with Vista / XP, etc as the format is now so dated.!!

My question I guess is this:

Is there any way of playing the MicroMV tapes on the camcorder through something that can capture the video / audio signal so that I can save it digitally to my PC?

I'm not worried about what equipment I may need to get my required results as the gig I'm trying to capture digitally was my (ex) bands last gig and holds a lot of personal memories for me.

Any advice would be most welcome.

Thanks in advance

Nick

[hman]

has it got a firewire port on the camera? if so you should connect via a firewire port on your pc and use an editing software like moviemaker or adobe premiere.


Works ok on my mini dv sony cam thingy

[Little Nicky]

hman said:

has it got a firewire port on the camera? if so you should connect via a firewire port on your pc and use an editing software like moviemaker or adobe premiere.


Works ok on my mini dv sony cam thingy

It does although I think they call it i-link or something.

So how would this work if I manage to source a cable?

PS. Thanks for the VERY swift reply - much appreciated...

PPS. Do you know where I can get a cheap firewire cable? If that's what it is in fact called!!

[Little Nicky]

IL_JDM said:

I had to get my dad one a few years ago, he's since invested in a better camera

Firewire I bought cheap off ebay

You could also try this software: http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-win...

On another note, if you have the TV/AV cables, you could plug it straight into a DVD recorded (if you can borrow on, or own one) then whack that DVD into your PC. A little more long winded but then no need for firewire.

I do have one (DVD recorder + AV cables) so will try that over the weekend.

Long winded isn't an issue if I can capture the gig for posterity.

Thanks for your help - I'll let you know how I get on.

Regards

Nick

[hman]

if you transfer to dvd you will compress the image so lose clarity,

firewire is ultimately transferring digital to digital ie. no compression

However depending on what format you ultimately want to transfer it to will determine how much compression the finished article will suffer.

dv tape to pc = no compression

pc to dvd = compression

dv tape to dvd = compression

dvd to pc then back to dvd after editing etc. = more compression

you can pick up a fire wire lead and card for your pc for under a tenner on ebay.


I regularly just transfer to dvd from cam if its just raw footage for distribution to friends and family, I use an S-video lead though as its meant to be beter quality than just standard red white and yellow leads.

[bigandclever]

Hoopefully this will help, it's the bit of the user guide for "Connecting your camcorder to a computer"... it says you have a USB connection - use that (though it is USB1 so will be slooooooow compared to USB2)

http://www.retrevo.com/search/v2/jsp/pdfViewer.jsp...

[Little Nicky]

Nice one guys - I knew I' make progress asking for advice here.

UPDATE: Where I'm at now is...

...I've got a firewire cable which has allowed me to very easily capture the gig frm tape and onto my laptop.

Th associated files now on my laptop are .MMV files

I've got some software (Prism Video Converter Plus) that can convert .MMV to .MPEG

The issue I have is the .MPEG files are approx a third the file size of the original .MMV files

My (new) question is this: how can I convert .MMV files to a 'recognised' format that I can eventually burn to either DVD or Blu-ray (without losing quality)?

Agsin I look forward to your joint knowledge...

[bigandclever]

Little Nicky said:

The issue I have is the .MPEG files are approx a third the file size of the original .MMV files

Is that a bad thing?

Anyhoo, .MMV is an oooold format. Does any of this post make sense to you?

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/perfect-con...

And a wider discussion here...

http://www.videoforums.co.uk/general-software-prob...