Don't mean to rain on your parade imjay, but I fear your post is full of misinformation.

I can't find a link to a manual though so I am happy to be shot down in flames as you've clearly read something about this in some documentation.

But ...my understanding and experience is...

You do NOT capture via USB.

Capture is used for transfering DV-avi from tape NOT mpeg2.

Furthermore 90% of posts from people with tape who have problems capturing their footage are due to them trying to use the USB port instead of the firewire port.

Quite apart from this, I cannot find such a thing as an s-video to USB lead and I'd be extremely surprised if such a beast existed. S-Video is analogue and USB is digital, quite apart from anything else. There are Analogue/Digital video converters available, but these aren't simple leads. This would be retrograde anyway - taking the digital MPEG2 (or similar) from the camcorder - converting it to analogue (in the camera on it's way to the S-video port) then back to digital again (in the converter)


The good news for vanessaki is that she should be able to simply load the mini-DVD into the PC's DVD drive and import her films directly into her video editing program. Im' sure all the programs you've listed allow this. (In Sony Vegas the option is File | Import | DVD Camcorder disc)

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Tim