Mini Cd Camcorders
How can I convert my Mini-DV to DVD for cheap?
Hello,
I took a computer class in high school where we would walk around with camcorders and film things for projects. I have tons of footage of old friends on this Mini-DV cassette I purchased to use in their rental camcorders. The problem is, I do not have access to a Mini-DV camcorder anymore but would love to somehow salvage the data on the tape.
Are there any affordable mini-DV players or somewhere I can send my tape to have a DVD or CD made for an affordable price? Thank you.
To do it yourself, you need some kind of mini-DV deck, a Firewire connection on your PC, and a video editing and DVD creation program.
While there are mini-DV decks, they are rare enough that they’re quite a bit more expensive than a camcorder. You can find a basic miniDV camcorder for under $150 these days (there’s a Samsung model on Amazon.com right now under $130), probably less if you look for close-out models or a refurbished unit (the Consumer Electronics Show was last week, where all the new products were announced, so there are already models being moved to “discontinued” at retailers).
Many PCs and laptops have built-in Firewire. If yours doesn’t, you can get a Firewire adaptor for as little as $10-$15, depending on the interface you’re looking for (PCI or PCI express on the desktop, PC-Card or ExpressCard on the laptop).. check out a place like Newegg for a wide variety of choice here.
You can edit video with your computer, most likely, already. Both Windows and MacOS come with basic video editors these days, as long as you have fairly current versions of the OS. Early releases of Windows XP didn’t come with Windows Movie Maker, but it’s a free download.
There are a number of free tools that can create a DVD directly from an AVI or other computer video file. Check out the web site http://www.videohelp.com for links to these things, tutorials, etc. It gets more involved if you want to add menus and other features, but if your main goal is to get video (edited or not) onto a DVD, you can get there on the cheap.
You can also find fairly low cost (usually under $50) applications that will offer you a basic all-in-one function, going from DV input, capture, editing, and DVD creation. If you have Vista Home Premium or Ultimate… my sympathies. But these also include Windows DVD Maker, which will create and burn DVD-Video discs for you.
If your PC doesn’t have a DVD-R drive, obviously you’ll need one of these, too. Online retailers like Newegg, eCost, or Amazon have much better deals on these than a local store like Staples or Best Buy.
Of course, you can get videos converted for you using a service bureau. For around $10, you send them a tape, they dump the tape to a DVD-Video disc and send you back the tape and the disc. Check out a few below, or try Google. Or the local yellow pages… sometime local video or photo companies offer these services.
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