I have a SHARP camcorder that records onto HI-8 tapes. And i noticed that my
new Gateway computer has holes for audio and video input... like my TV does.
I was hoping to be able to import my home videos onto my computer this way
and possibly burn the videos into DVD. Does anyone have the solution?
I have used Movie maker to create movies and what not... so i'm really
familliar with that program... as for the rest of my computer... i'm still
learning this Vista world and it's capabilities.
Help
Those "holes" in your computer are inputs. Likey composite, if you're
lucky component or some digital inputs. Do they have colors like red,
white and yellow or labels like left, right video in?
Windows at least as far back as Windows 98 has had the ability to see
devices in the outside world like video cameras. Your camera sounds
petty old so your options may be limited. There are many low end video
cards that support inporting, exporting video. You generally want both
IF you need a way to get edited footage back out to your camera. The
BEST way to get footage from your camera to your computer is through
a firewire connector. If both your camera and computer support that.
Again, depends. For example I and many professionals use A&D
converters. A excellent brand is Canopus.
http://www.canopus.com/products/videoconversion.php
A A&D converter as the name suggests converts between analog and
digital signals, something you may need IF your video camera is
digital. Lower end solution include all kinds of cable boxes.
The down side is if you wish to make DVD's and have acceptable quality
you need to start with a fairly decent signal. Digital cameras at the
low end of the consumer marker for $300 or so often have a firewire
input/output. This generally allows the camera to output a NTSC AVI
compressed stream which Windows and many third party software video
applications can handle. Not to throw rain on your parade but if you
want something beyond the ability to just do some crude editing and
put a single movie or two on the DVD you also need DVD Authoring
software if you want features like chapters, like commerical DVD's. Of
course you also need a DVD burner, not just a DVD player in order to
"burn" the DVD's from your computer.
