E-mail this pageDigital Video: Digitizing Video from DV Sources
All of the computers in the Instructional Technology Resource Center (ITRC) are equipped with Windows XP and FireWire ports, making the capture of video from DV cameras (DV, mini-DV, 8mm-Digital) quite simple. Video capture is the term used to describe the process by which a video is copied to a computer; several software packages in the ITRC are capable of capturing video from a DV source, most notably Windows MovieMaker 2.0 (easy) and Adobe Priemere Pro (not quite as easy).
Plug it in
Before you can capture video from a DV source, you'll have to plug the DV cable (already attached, on on end, to an ITRC computer) into your video camera's FireWire jack (it may be labelled as DV , i-Link , IEEE 1394 , or FireWire ). Once you have connected the video camera, turn it on in its playback/VCR setting. The computer will whir for a couple of seconds while it figures out what's just been turned on, and then it will offer you a choice of programs you might use to work with the newly activated video camera.
Once this notice appears, you can select which program you'd like to use. Generally, you will not want to encode directly to the Windows Media Encoder, since the encoder, in producing compressed files, does not allow subsequent editing to occur with the same finesse as other options will. If you are hoping to capture just a few short video clips and perform minimal editing, you are probably best off using Windows Movie Maker 2.0, since the program is quite simple and adequate for the job. If you are hoping to capture a longer video clip, or perform extensive editing, you will be best served by Adobe Premiere Pro--it is more difficult to use, in many respects, than Windows Movie Maker, but it is better equipped to handle complex editing of longer files.