In an effort to transfer video of my daughter's recent
school performance from my Sony mini-DVD camcorder to a full-sized DVD I went
on a long, long journey.
At first, I thought I could simply plug my camcorder into my
laptop via the included USB 2.0 to mini USB cable. That didn't work, and I
soon found out that a) USB is too slow to transfer video, b) audio usually
doesn't make it over with the video if it makes it at all and c) you really
need a FireWire cable to accomplish this.
Then I learned that there are both 4 and 6 pin FireWire
cables available and that I could buy a cable with adapters, but the only
problem is my Sony camcorder doesn't have a FireWire port!
That left me with looking for a USB to FireWire cable, but
these are a) hard to find and b) rather expensive and not reliable, so finally
I thought I would try to use my old Play Incorporated Dazzle.
Dazzle, in case, you never heard of it, is a hub. You plug
your camera in one side via RCA jacks for audio and video or supervideo, and
then you plug your PC in the other side. Then with the aid of some simple
software, you can edit, import, convert, and burn DVDs to your heart's
content. Except for one little proble. Dazzle stopped working with Windows 98
operating systems, and Play Incorporated was eventually acquired by Pinnacle
Systems, the AVID video people.
I tell you all this so you'll know how I ended up at Office
Depot buying my third Play Incorporated video converter. First Snappy stopped
working after Windows 95, then Dazzle with Windows 98 and so I had to buy
their newest version called MovieBox with Studio 11 software.
I rushed open, unboxed everything, plugged in the converted,
and installed the software -- except the software did not like the serial
number which accompanied the CD! So I had to wait on hold for Pinnacle Systems
support, who to their credit, eventually generated a new serial number for me
which worked fine.
Thereafter, it was exceptionally easy to capture the video
from the DVD camcorder, re-order and edit and burn the DVD, which by the way
played fine on the old DVD recorder.
So if you want to transfer and burn full-sized DVDs from your
DVD camcorder, don't go the route I did. Just go buy this Pinnacle Systems
product. Click the banner for more information.
Pinnacle Systems Visual 11
