Need help making good DVD

[KLavoie]

Hello,
I have a Sony Mini DV DCR HC40 camcorder and a Dell Laptop D600 with Windows movie maker. My computer is only a DVD ROM, not a burner. My computer does not have the fire wire port, so I am using the USB driver. I made a short 23 minute video grabbing the footage from my camcorder using the USB port and Windows movie maker. I then placed the completed movie on my zip drive and took it into work. At work, I used a computer that has the DVD burner and Roxio Basic to make the DVD.

When I got home and played the DVD on the 58" TV, the movie looked very blurry and very digital looking…not like a clear movie at all. Why? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Kevin

[aedipuss]

can't be done without firewire to capture the tape. buy an add on card if your computer has a port for one and cable.

[KLavoie]

Sorry, but I don't know anything about computers. What is an add on card? Also, this is the first time I am ever doing this and I am surprised I even made a dvd that played....even though it was not that good!

[usually_quiet]

He means if your laptop has a PCMCIA slot, get a firewire card for it. Check the user manual. It should tell you the exact type of add-on card that will work with the slot in your laptop. There is more than one interface for laptop add on cards. Unfortunately, the slot design on Dell laptops of that era is rather poor, and they often don't work for very long.

This is one example of a PCMCIA firewire card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124014

[guns1inger]

Your quality issues are because you have captured at a low resolution over USB. On most DV cameras, USB only allows quarter resolution or lower capture. Fine for emailing, or for creating VCDs. When you created your DVD, the software you used resized the footage back up to full DVD resolution, but because the quality was low to begin with, the results were not pretty. By using a firewire device for capture, you can transfer your footage at the original resolution, preserving most of the quality. You are always going to struggle to get the best possible quality working with the tools you have though. You need better software and the patience to accept that quality takes time, especially on old, slow equipment.

[yoda313]

Another option is a usb video capture device. It won't be the same quality as a firewire transfer but it should be decent using the rca video/audio cables out of the camcorder to the usb capture device.

But your first choice should be to get the firewire adapter the other members have discussed.

[dragonkeeper]

USB only allows quarter resolution or lower capture

I believe guns1inger is correct i have the Sony DCR-HC28 and hand to add a fireware card to my PC to improve my captures.

Wow, did u actually buy that from Dell? Only asking because the 600 series is an a-typical cooperate laptop, low price and low power. The company I work for used them prior to replacing them with the 630. The D600 has a 4200 RPM hard drive as I remember, I have never tried to capture anything on a hard drive with that low of a spindle speed but i believe it should suffice.

The Dell D600 will accept both type I and type II PC cards. If you order online i.e newegg.com, you will find the price for the card can be about a third of what you will find in a brick-n-mortar store.

I would recommend uses the free tool FAVC to create your DVD.

[KLavoie]

Thank you all! I really appreciated all the help......thanks!

[KLavoie]

USB only allows quarter resolution or lower capture

I believe guns1inger is correct i have the Sony DCR-HC28 and hand to add a fireware card to my PC to improve my captures.

Wow, did u actually buy that from Dell? Only asking because the 600 series is an a-typical cooperate laptop, low price and low power. The company I work for used them prior to replacing them with the 630. The D600 has a 4200 RPM hard drive as I remember, I have never tried to capture anything on a hard drive with that low of a spindle speed but i believe it should suffice.

The Dell D600 will accept both type I and type II PC cards. If you order online i.e newegg.com, you will find the price for the card can be about a third of what you will find in a brick-n-mortar store.

I would recommend uses the free tool FAVC to create your DVD.

I bought the Dell D600 a few years ago on a auction for about $ 220.00. I upgraded the RAM, but that's all I did mostly because I don't know anything about computers anyway except word Doc and Facebook...hahah