Capturing footage from Mini DV.

[andreys]

Hi guys, I have 5 mini dv tapes that were recorded on a pro grade hdv camcorder. Now i am trying to capture that footage and put it on my mac. A studio quoted me $1,257 to convert that footage to .avi or .mov format. I was wondering would it be possible to do this at home with a consumer based camcorder? Will the quality be the same? Its a Canon mini dv camcorder, was $399.00 not one of the higher end ones.

Thanks.

[lowellriggsiam]

I am on a Vista PC and my camcorder outputs by either composite (red / white /yellow cables) or firewire (which is the best). What connections does yours have?

[yoda313]

Will the quality be the same?

Well I don't have dv cameras but I'm assuming it will still all be digital in the end upon transferring (assuming you use firewire to transfer of course).

Your main concern at this point is not quality but compatibility. I would try doing a net search to see what type of compatibility the pro cam has with consumer equipment. If it is a "regular" dv camera tape than you should be able to simply pop it in your camera and do the transfer.

[aedipuss]

you have a DVavi cam, correct? and i'd assume from the quoted price the tapes were recorded in HDV? then they won't play on your cam even though they are on the same type of tape, but you can try one just to be sure. it won't hurt the tape. that price is about $1000 more than i'd charge for the HDV capture, but you'd have to supply/purchase a hard drive as they would be about 65GB of files. pm if you want.

[Clevo89]

It probabaly won't work with your camcorder but what you can do is take one tape to a camcoder shop and find one that works with that miniDV tape. If you find one that works you can probably rent one for a day or two and save on costs.

Capture through firewire only... and I mean only