Extremely Newbie Question

[urbanokt]

Hello all. I have a simple request. I have a digital film camera and tons of tapes full of our memories. How do i get them onto my pc. I simply want all of the video, in it's entirety, on my pc for viewing and future editing. I have read much but I think I am missing something obvious. I own Premiere 6.5 but do I have to even use that in the beginning?

If someone could help me out or just possibly point me to relevant help topic, it would be much appreciated. Thank you kindly!

[guns1inger]

If by digital film camera you mean mini-DV, then the first step is to get a firewire card and cable for your PC. The next step is to get lots of hard drive space, as DV requires approximately 13GB per hour for storage.

The process of transfering is pretty simple, and covered in great detail in guides and posts. Start by looking at WinDV in the tools section and working from there.

[urbanokt]

thanks a lot gunslinger for your quick reply. the camera is a five year old digital8. i have already purchased a cable dv > firewire. my pc has two 250 gb hard drives and an os drive. i will definitely check out windv. thanks again.

[guns1inger]

Sounds like you are set to go. WinDv will transfer the footage to your PC as a DV avi file (or series of). You can also transfer via Premiere, but WinDV is small, reliable, and less complicated just for this part.