Success - capturing from a Sony DVD201E camcorder

[Noelle]

Thank you for the replies PapaJohn and Graham.

I have finally succeeded in my endeavour to burn a normal DVD, from the
footage shot with the Sony DCR-DVD 201E. which uses a DVD mini disk. And am
extremely happy with the results.

They compare more than favourably with the DVDs from my
last camera a Sony TRV740E Hi8.

Pixela Imagemaker itself which comes bundled with the camera, offers only
basic editing, and I needed to import the files into WMM2 to edit them, and
here I ran into problems.

Tried several methods ie saving the mpg files to DVD-AVI in Imagemaker
itself (previous email), but eventually decided the resulting files in some
cases where there was lots of movement, were not up to the quality I was
expecting.

Finally, in WMM2 I went to Tools/Options/Compatability and through a process
of elimination, I disabled the filters, eventually leaving only the XL
Decompress, AVI_PASS, only two of the Neros: Nero DVD Decoder and Nero Video
Encoder but disabled the Nero Digital Audio Encoder (as this appeared to
mute the sound), and left in the Pixela AC-3 Encoder and Pixela MPEG2 Video
Decoder.

Bingo, success at last!

Using Imagemaker, I imported the footage from the
finalised disk in the Sony into the Imagemaker Capture folder.
I then opened (successfully) imported these scenes into WMM2, edited them,
added transitions etc., and saved them to my Hard Drive as DVD-AVI files.
Using Nero Express S2 burned them to DVD.

To make sure things go smoothly prior to a session with
WMM2 I always defrag the Hard Drive beforehand.

Oh, and another thing worth mentioning, the Take Picture from Preview
option in WMM2 Tools and import into Collections. This works like a charm.
If you select the best shots they come out crisp and clear. Used some to
overlay titles on within the movie.

Regards
Noelle

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the info Noelle,

I think I'll add your notes one of the pages of my website... just have to
figure out which one.

--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org
Photo Story 3 - use the menu branch at www.papajohn.org

..

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the replies PapaJohn and Graham.

I have finally succeeded in my endeavour to burn a normal DVD, from the
footage shot with the Sony DCR-DVD 201E. which uses a DVD mini disk. And am
extremely happy with the results.

They compare more than favourably with the DVDs from my
last camera a Sony TRV740E Hi8.

Pixela Imagemaker itself which comes bundled with the camera, offers only
basic editing, and I needed to import the files into WMM2 to edit them, and
here I ran into problems.

Tried several methods ie saving the mpg files to DVD-AVI in Imagemaker
itself (previous email), but eventually decided the resulting files in some
cases where there was lots of movement, were not up to the quality I was
expecting.

Finally, in WMM2 I went to Tools/Options/Compatability and through a process
of elimination, I disabled the filters, eventually leaving only the XL
Decompress, AVI_PASS, only two of the Neros: Nero DVD Decoder and Nero Video
Encoder but disabled the Nero Digital Audio Encoder (as this appeared to
mute the sound), and left in the Pixela AC-3 Encoder and Pixela MPEG2 Video
Decoder.

Bingo, success at last!

Using Imagemaker, I imported the footage from the
finalised disk in the Sony into the Imagemaker Capture folder.
I then opened (successfully) imported these scenes into WMM2, edited them,
added transitions etc., and saved them to my Hard Drive as DVD-AVI files.
Using Nero Express S2 burned them to DVD.

To make sure things go smoothly prior to a session with
WMM2 I always defrag the Hard Drive beforehand.

Oh, and another thing worth mentioning, the Take Picture from Preview
option in WMM2 Tools and import into Collections. This works like a charm.
If you select the best shots they come out crisp and clear. Used some to
overlay titles on within the movie.

Regards
Noelle




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Dear Noelle,

I wonder if you can help me as I am completely new to capturing video and
making home movies? I have a Sony DCR-TRV340E and wish to transfer some
footage onto my PC. Unfortunately I do not have the CD which was supposed to
come with the camera so do not have Pixela ImageMixerr Ver. 1 Im am sure the
CD was never supplied but cannot go back to the retailer since the Handycam
was purchased in Gibraltar. I downloaded the USB driver from the Sony
website but can find no mention of Pixela ImageMixer. Do you know either
where I can download the Pixela software or will Movie Maker do the same job?

Reading your notes it sounds very complicated and any help you can offer
would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Lee

 

[Guest]

Noelle,

Thanks for the posting. I am having difficulty viewing the video on MPEG
files that I have transferred from the Sony DVD 201 camera to my PC in WMM2.
The file gets imported fine, but it will only let me drag the file to the
audio portion of the storyboard. I am about to try and use the suggestions
you have here, but I wanted to ask the question if you ever ran into this
problem.

Thanks

David

 

[Noelle]

Yes I did David, with my Laptop, and havent quite figured that one out yet,
but I solved
the problem in a round about way ....

You mentioned this happened when dragging the files to the Storyboard (did
you mean Timeline -
because if so, that's how I solved the problem - by going to the Storyboard
and dragging
the files down.

Lets know if this works.

Noelle

 

[Guest]

Noelle, That worked! You are right, round about way... Thanks again. David

 

[Guest]

Noelle,

I went to the filters list and it is blank. I clicked the [restore default]
and nothing happened. Any idea?