As the heading says - what is the best and cheapest way to transfer an (analogue) video 8 camcorder to VCD or DVD (I have both burners)

I am tired of paying 300 baht per VCD disc in my local store

Bear in mind I am a novice in all this!

I believe I need a 'firewire card' ??? and some software??

Any recommendations?

I saw one package by Pinacle, in the complex - however they wanted 10,000 baht for it - and that was only a PCI card too ! (Not an external USB box which saves ripping open the pc case)

For that price I will continue paying 300 baht per VCD !!!!!

Thanks

Paul

Paul,
The conversion cable you speak of is expensive and hard to track down... see link: http://www.pixela-1.com/captycable/

I would rate Firewire superior to USB with respect to video data transfer, (just my opinion ), a generic PCI Firewire card (up to 4 ports) is cheap... about 3 or 5 hundred Baht.
Pinnacle is good software (just my opinion again ), I use Studio Plus V9, but I use a good few others too, I can send you some links to "trial" some of them before purchase..
No need to spend 10,000 Baht Paul.

Steve

keep it simple - remember
So I should buy a PCI 'firewire card' first?, plug in my camcorder to that and then just run some software and it will magically transfer to VCD or DVD ?

What is the conversion cable you speak of (that you said I spoke of ????)

I am a complete novice in this field (video transfer)

And yes 3 to 500 baht will be a lot less painful than 10,000 baht

Thanks Stevo - and by the way - any update on the PC stuff on its way over here for the appeal ?

Paul

Just winding back Paul... pun intended

Your camcorder has got a firewire port? I know its a silly question..but you did say its an older (or is it) Video 8 camcorder...

If it has,the answer to your question is yes a cheap firewire PCI board is the way to go

After that, as Stevo said, you have a huge choice of Software...what you want is Video Editing software, it will recognise the video stream coming in from your camera, and do an analogue to digital conversion for you. You can then do whatever you like with the file. Some of these programs will also handle the VCD or DVD format creation for you as well, which you just burn onto the medium.

Another example of software that will do this end to end is Ulead Videostudio, you've got a huge choice. Adobe Premiere would do almost anything you could conceivably want to do, but a legal copy of that is eye poppingly expensive!

John

yorkman wrote:Just winding back Paul... pun intended

Your camcorder has got a firewire port? I know its a silly question..but you did say its an older (or is it) Video 8 camcorder...

not a silly question!

As far as I can tell - I have 3 phono pugs which I use for connecting the camcorder to the TV. heres my silly question then - what does a firewire port look like ?

stay with me on this one - I really dont have a clue !

Paul

Paul wrote:
- and that was only a PCI card too ! (Not an external USB box which saves ripping open the pc case)

Paul

My apologies Paul, you mention an "external box"... not a cable.
There are USB devices, which carry SCART(Euro), Composite, and S-VIDEO inputs... fairly cheap (2000 Baht or less), comes with software too!!
but, you mentioned "Firewire".. so I assume you only have this type of output from your cam(it is the norm,if no USB).
The software you need is basically "video capture" type, of which there are many to choose from.. some better ones have decent editing facilities built in, and some include a burner too. Most "named brands" of camcorder will be detected automatically(although you may need driver files for some cams). When you want to "capture" a clip, the software will ask you to select a device to capture from... (scanner, digicam, webcam, usb or firewire device, etc). Save the clip, edit, and burn...

Paul,I assume you didn't receive my PM last week regarding sent parts? I'll resend.

Steve

Ahhhhh!!!

Ok a firewire port on a camcorder will be the "miniature" version I imagine. I'll try to find a picture unless anybody can post one first

The phono plugs are for the analogue connection (not digital like firewire)

Incidentally a brain failure in the above post... if you connect by firewire it's already digital data so no analog/digital conversion needed by the software.

If the firewire port IS on your camera, its doing the conversion in the camera; thats the reason for me asking, its unusual.

If you hav'nt got the firewire port, ask again as the answer to your problem is a bit different. A question to you in the meantime, has your comp got IN (Sometimes labelled Aux IN) Ports for Left and Right Sound, Composite Video in or S-Video in? Look around the back if a Desktop Comp.

John

This is a picture of a large Firewire Port




labelled 2

and this is the miniature type





the small port to the right of the 2 USB ports

John

ok - well I dont have a firewire port - definitely not

My computer graphics card (FX5200) has a female s-video din type socket

my (sony) camcorder has 2 phono plugs - 1 for audio out and one for video picture out

I have an 'RFU DC out' jack plug socket ????
And a 'LANC' jack type plug socket ???

getting more confused by the minute now!

the 300 baht per disc in the shop is looking better by the hour

Paul wrote:
As far as I can tell - I have 3 phono pugs which I use for connecting the camcorder to the TV.

stay with me on this one - I really dont have a clue !

Paul

Aha!.. even easier Paul, you didn't mention the 3 phono's... you need one of these :

http://www.kworld.com.tw/uk/product/edi ... usb2.0.htm


should cost around 2000 Baht (ish).

Steve

looked at the link - it seems just right - except that I lied (unknowingly- sorry) I only have two phono pugs - so I imagine my sound will either come out in mono or worse still only on one channel - either left or right.
Not that big a problem and last question - where did you get the price from - is this on sale in UK or did you source it from a Thai site?

Many thanks for your time and trouble Yorkman and Stevo

Paul

Paul wrote:
- where did you get the price from - is this on sale in UK or did you source it from a Thai site?

Paul

Here's the kit I use for converting VHS video to VCD/DVD, bought it in the UK about a year ago for ฃ30 as I recall... software is very basic but does the job.
You won't need the SCART conversion cable obviously, but male to male phono's to cam.




I should imagine they are available in Thailand, or mail order from HK.

yeah - noticed the phono plugs were female - but can use the cable I usually use for connecting to the tv so no problem there .
Do these things have a name or do they just go under the brand name ? are they 'video editing kits' or something ?

Thanks - a question fully answered in about 1 hour - great forum

Ok Stevo, thats doing the A/D conversion externally....

Yes it will be called something like that Paul, and usually comes with a basic video editing program that will do all you need I should think

Or just look for a standard usb device to do the same thing, then add your choice of software

John

yorkman wrote:
Or just look for a standard usb device to do the same thing, then add your choice of software
John

Plenty of that in the complex here