Another Newbie Capturing Question

[jtfann614]

I have a Sony DCR-IP55 MicroMV camera and am trying to capture DV and record to DVD for the first time. I am trying to use this tutorial: http://www.dvd-guides.com/content/view/33/59/ , but can't get past (to) the first step. I downloaded WinDV, but it doesn't recognize my camera. "Error: Device not found." I am connected via a firewire cable, and my camera is on. When I plug it into my computer, my computer makes a noise like it does when I plug something into the USB port. But WinDV doesn't find the camera. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Edit:

After doing more research, I think I've figured out that WinDV can't be used with MicroMV. Does anyone know of free software (besides MovieShaker) that can be used to capture MicroMV? I have MovieShaker, but it distorts the sound and makes the video choppy after I capture it. Thanks again.

[SoupStain]

jtfann614,

I'm pretty sure that there is no free software to handle the video capture from the IP55. Movieshaker is the only option unless you want to pay for another piece of software. It's probably worth trying to solve the problems with Movieshaker (may be something simple to solve).

Sometimes if you are playing the video in Movishaker it looks choppy, but when you export it as (say) an mpeg file or a quicktime .mov file it plays fine.

SoupStain.

[jtfann614]

SoupStain,

Thank you for your reply. (Your reply RE MicroMV cameras in another thread was very helpful also.) When I export from MovieShaker and then open in other programs, the sound ends up choppy. I've been exporting in the higher quality mpeg format. Maybe exporting in quicktime or other formats could help? The sound is fine on the camera, and fine when I play it back though MovieShaker, but somehow the sound gets messed up in the exportation process. Thanks again.

[edDV]

MicroMV is a proprietary Sony format based on MPeg2 and has nothing to do with DV format.

Movieshaker is the Sony solution.

The only other programs that support MicroMV that I have found are

ULead Video Studio 8 - Recommended
http://www.ulead.com/vs/compare2.htm
(see line 3)

Pinnacle Studio 9 - buggy

[jtfann614]

Thanks for the advice. If I could just figure out the sound thing with MovieShaker, I'd be OK with it. Otherwise, maybe I'll try out the ULead software.