video to PC transfer with camcorder
 

okay, i'm starting to get serious with this now, i got some projects to do for a class... i have a sony handycam that records on mini-dvds... before i hooked it up using a usb interface to download clips... my teacher says he prefers firewire connection, and capturing in premiere.... i think this has a firewire port, i just dont have a firewire cord!



should i just drag the videos onto my hard-drive, burn them onto CD's to use on the workstations, or should i get a firewire and capture????




whats the best way to do this type of stuff???


i'm making a short video clip, will be making a 20 minute movie later in the semister.... i plan on doing some more with this in the future, as well as with work soon

Well I'm not sure why your teacher would particularly care how you ingest the video as long as it gets into premiere somehow. Unless your teacher is going to dock your grade for not capturing over firewire, then do it however you want.

Especially since firewire cables are not cheap when you're in school.

If I had your setup I'd just copy off the miniDVD's. It'd be faster than capturing via firewire and wouldn't wear out your camera as much.

For around $20 you can get BOTH a firewire PCI card and cable, I would say they are expensive. My camcorder records to hi-8 tape and I use firewire to transfer footage to my PC.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...6135&CatId=510
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...825&CatId=1214

I think it's just a preference issue.

True, they're not expensive. . . But when I was in college $20 was a week's worth of meals. It's all relative. Plus if there's already a perfectly good method for ingest, why waste money on another method that isn't gonna give any video advantage.

Copy the video straight from the dvd to the hard drive.
Same deal as firewire, just faster.

i used the camera's software to transfer mpg movies from the camcorder, to my hard drive

Who is your teacher Steve Jobs?