Mini DV to Computer

[mattchew]

I bought a camercorder yesterday, I tested it and plugged it into the dvd recorder attached to the the tv and recorded it onto dvd, if i open up the dvd on my computer the recordings are in different segments they are not one recording. How do i make it into one segment which i can break up myself and edit the different bits? Is it possible with the magix video editing software? Want to be able to cut out bits and add titles etc. Cheers

[hech54]

1) Turn off auto chaptering on your DVD Recorder?
2) Use DVDDrcrypter to rip it to your computer...set it to "File Splitting - NONE". There should be a few guides floating around on that.

[mattchew]

what is dvddcrypter where would i get it from?

[hech54]

DVDDecrypter

Maybe I should have spelled it correctly in the first place huh?

[hech54]

You could also theoretically just take the VIDEO_TS folder from the DVD and explore it on the computer.
If there is only one .VOB file in there...you can start that way as well but you still need to do quite a bit of reading I'm afraid....or get yourself an authoring program like TDA.

[mattchew]

Is the software package any good? the Magix video editing software?

[thecoalman]

If you want to edit the footage I'd suggest skipping the DVD recorder altogether. Transfer directly to your computer as DV-AVI via firwire. Get a half decent editing program where you can make all the adjustments you want. Footage from mini-DV cams is in DV-AVI format and is best edited as DV-AVI, conversion to MPEG should be your last step. The keyword here is transfer, you are simply copying the file from the mini-dv cam to your computer, it's an identical bit for bit copy of what's on the cam. By sending it to the DVD recorder first you are converting to MPEG which should be your final step before authoring, you will avoid any generational loss. If you can avoid editing MPEG you should....

Try Ulead Video Studio, there are better applications but for an all-in-one for capture to burn for your basic consumer it's hard to beat.

As far as capturing different segments I find that useful myself when doing it to computer, one way is to split it by scene wherever you start and stopped a recording giving you the points where you'll most likely want to edit. You can load the clips individually into an editor one by one and make your edits as you are going along instead of having to search through a very long clip to find your edit points. DV-AVI capture programs vary but most allow you capture the footage however you want, one large file, split by scene, split by file size etc...