Hi guys, Ive recently bought a Samsung mini DV camcorder, got no problems with it, the picture quality is great and im very pleased, BUT.........when i put transfer the videos to the computer, the quality is abysmal

Ive emailed Samsung asking if i need any specific software to get the quality to a watchable standard

i got a 1 word answer in reply

YES

Cheers Samsung !!!

any ideas what software i would need to allow the vids to be watched on my computer?

thanx in advance

Are you using firewire input to your PC? For miniDV quality you link to PC needs to be DV from camcorder to Firewire into the PC. If your PC doesn't have a firewire input you need one.

Most any software should work for DV quality capture with a firewire link.

Most of better known software makers - Pinnacle, Adobe and ULead are a few - offer free trial versions via download.

I started out using ULead Video Studio which did a great job of controlling capture and then used for editing and rendering.

My simple keys to capture quality (others may disagree or offer different advice)

1. Firewire PC input from camcorder
2. Software capture settings are for DV or .avi or however your program recognizes miniDV quality. Some programs will sense DV and default to avi.
3. Camcorder in play mode and activate capture - usually a button "capture".

One hour of miniDV should transfer and a BIG avi file - many Gig.
goodluck

Exactly as imjay said, just wanna add that you have dvsplit a free software to capture your footage from your dv camera using the firewire port .
Good luck .

imjay, many thanx for that info mate, although new, my pc doesnt have firewire, so I've just ordered through Ebay, a PCI firewire card complete with lead, 4 to 6 pin?

so hopefully this weekend I should be up and running

as I'm completely new to this, I'm looking for software that will just allow me to connect the camcorder, press a button and get my video onto the PC so that it actually looks ok

I'm also lead to believe that the Samsung VP-D303D (mine) records in MP4.....at the moment the videos I've transfered (which are terrible) are WMV video file. Am I right in thinking the firewire will now make the videos play as something else?

sorry for the stupid questions guys

It's difficult to find a lot of information about your camcorder on the Internet but it doesn't appear to record in mpeg4 format, so maybe your are recording in wmv although the quality should be better. For a Mini DV camcorder you need Firewire to connect everything together. You already have Windows Movie Maker on your computer and this will allow you to capture video from the camcorder to the computer, once you have installed your new Firewire card and connect everything together using your new 4 pin (camcorder end) to 6 pin (computer end) cable.

WMM will not let you burn your finished movie to DVD directly, you will need some other software to do that, I would recommend Adobe Premiere Elements 4, other forum members will suggest their favourites aswell. You can download a 30 day trial of all of the popular editing software listed here on the forum (just go onto their respective websites and find the download section), so you can try them out and see which one you like best.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick any day...

Too many posters much more technically smart than I.

All I know is regardless of camcorder capture compression miniDV is a format standard so I think that means your DV output will be recorded to you hard drive as .avi file format. One hour will require around 12 to 13Gig of HDD space.

The camcorder probably came bundled with a software disc with programs that should control video transfer to PC and probably simple editing and dvd creation.

If not and as already suggested do trial version downloads of good software from Adobe, Pinnacle and ULead.

Does it really take that amount of space???

WOW im gobsmacked !!!


Im so glad I have a portable hard drive now, and at least with having blank DVDs I can get them thrown over to that, Speaking of DVDs, would I be able to play these DVDs on a bog standard DVD player? or would it be better to copy from the camcorder direct to DVD?

As for the software that came with the camcorder, it just has the drivers to allow the camcorder to talk to the PC, but soon as my firewire turns up, I'll try a few free trials to see which I get on with.

many thanks for your help guys

Yes you will be able to play your dvd's on a 'bog standard' dvd player. I wouldn't copy the camcorder footage directly to dvd, you need to edit out all the wonky shots and give it a bit of pizzaz. Some titles at the start and end, some music, maybe a few transitions wouldn't go a miss.

One hour of video will take up around 13GB of storage on your hard disk, use the internal hard disk for capture and temporary storage and when you are done with a project transfer all the files then to your external hard drive, just in case you want to revisit that same project in six months time. It will also save you time having to locate and recapture the same tape(s) again.

Along with downloading the free 30 day trials of the big named software, I have a thread in the Forum Announcements section called 'Free Stuff', which has a list of freeware software, give it a look and see if there is anything in there that you could use aswell.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick any day...

Thanks for your help everyone.......my firewire card arrived today, took a few mins to fit and its amazing the differance from USB

The picture is spot on perfect, I used windows movie maker as its already installed, very easy to use.

Only downside is that the card doesnt come a fixing screw to hold it in place to the PC, but ill soon get one of those

Once again, many many thanx guys

Same story here with the missing fixing screw for the Firewire card, I just took one out of the back the computer, there's four on the back holding the two side panels on (desktop model) and used that. I'm constantly taking one of the sides off so having one less screw doesn't matter. But I will have to get a replacement before I go and sell this computer. And it's not only with Firewire cards, modems, sound cards, graphic cards, you will be very very lucky to get a small fixing screw with them either. So if anyone is planning on getting any of those cards I listed make an inquiry about that said screw, as you will need it when the card arrives or you buy it in a shop.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick any day...