Camera question

[Guest]

A friend bought the Sony DVD203 and while I am very pleased with the camera
he can't say the same for the software that came with it.

"As the salesman said, just pop the mini DVD in the computer and read it.
Haven't been able to make that work yet." My virtually new HP doesn't
recognise the mini DVD in the DVD drive (any help here would be appreciated).

Just plug in the USB cable and download the DVD from the camera. Did that
but the software is so stripped down that you can't do anything with it.

Just create DVD's. If you do put together any kind of video, the stripped
down software won't write to a DVD on the computer, only back to the mini DVD
in the camera.

So get an expensive software package to do it. All expensive software
packages (including SONY's own) support reading from the camera via an IEEE
1394 (Firewire) cable. Not the USB which is the only port on the Sony DVD
203. SONY's answer "Oh yea, none of the software supports USB, only Firewire.
Just use the package that came with the camera to download to the hard drive,
then use a better package to create DVD's".

So, while the camera is easy to use and I can't begin to know all the
features, I would have to say at this point that I am very dissapointed in
SONY.
Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

 

[Graham Hughes]

I'm sorry what exactly is the question that you need help with?

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
Laird of Glencairn
www.dvds2treasure.com
www.simplydv.com

 

[Treeman]

Hi Walt,
Sounds like a real pain in the ass. Can you capture to the hard drive
from the Sony, or are your USB ports useless? I have a Panasonic camera
with an ilink port. (firewire) SP1 works great, go to SP2 and the new
drivers kill firewire.
I copy to an external firewire hard drive. The reason being, trying to
copy to the hard drive that has the OS installed is futile. Too many
processes running on the OS hard drive interrupts the capture.
Does your USB ports work with other devices like a thumb drive? If it
doesn't the general consensus on a "fix," is to disable the USB ports
in Device Manager, re-boot, XPSP2 is then supposed to renew the drivers
for USB and all is good. Your mileage may vary!
As far as the software end, well I'm partial to Nero 6 Ultra Edition.
I've used other software like Pinnacle, etc., but the support was
terrible and the software buggy. You may want to look at 'Ulead.com'
(http://www.ulead.com/runme.htm)
I know they have been getting good reviews on their software
applications. There may be one there that fit's your needs. Free trials
also.
Best,
Treeman

 

[Guest]

I guess what I am asking is what are his best options as to the software to
use to work best with his camera.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the help

Hi Walt,
Sounds like a real pain in the ass. Can you capture to the hard drive
from the Sony, or are your USB ports useless? I have a Panasonic camera
with an ilink port. (firewire) SP1 works great, go to SP2 and the new
drivers kill firewire.
I copy to an external firewire hard drive. The reason being, trying to
copy to the hard drive that has the OS installed is futile. Too many
processes running on the OS hard drive interrupts the capture.
Does your USB ports work with other devices like a thumb drive? If it
doesn't the general consensus on a "fix," is to disable the USB ports
in Device Manager, re-boot, XPSP2 is then supposed to renew the drivers
for USB and all is good. Your mileage may vary!
As far as the software end, well I'm partial to Nero 6 Ultra Edition.
I've used other software like Pinnacle, etc., but the support was
terrible and the software buggy. You may want to look at 'Ulead.com'
(http://www.ulead.com/runme.htm)
I know they have been getting good reviews on their software
applications. There may be one there that fit's your needs. Free trials
also.
Best,
Treeman

 

[Graham Hughes]

I'd suggest Ulead videostudio, now just releasing V9, as Treeman has given
link to. It can import and edit Mpeg files. Bear in mind, that mpegs cannot
be edited like an avi, as an avi can be editied at every single frame,
whereas an mpeg is made up of several tyrpes of frames, i frames are actual
footage, then you have b and p frames which are made up from the change in
footage between i frmaes.Depending on how the encoder works you'll have an i
frame followed by b and/or p frames then another i frame. Generally i frames
are around every 15 frames and you can only edit at these points. Then if
you are making your own dvd from the editied footage, you want to make sure
you do not have to encode back to mpeg2, as this will seriously affect the
quality, encoding an already encoded movie.

--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
Laird of Glencairn
www.dvds2treasure.com
www.simplydv.com

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the help here and in the photo's section.