Television Forum - Mini dv to PC - Page 1

There is no 'quick' way.
You have to plug the camcorder into the PC and capture the video. It will only do this at the same rate as normal playback (ie not 2x speed or anything like that).

Then you would need to convert it into an MPEG2 format and then compile into a DVD.
There are quite a few pieces of software that will do this, and I think there was a thread on them recently in the PCs & Mobiles section - so worth taking a look there.

Miles

"Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
-Terry Pratchett.

As Miles says, there is no quick way of doing it. 20 minutes of video would capture in 20 minutes, add on an extra half hour to compile your dvd then burn it.

If you need it quick to show someone i'd suggest hooking the camera up to a tv and displaying it that way.

Regards
Bryan

As said above, mini dv is transferred at real time speed over firewire/IEEE1394.

If you want the fastest camcorder to DVD solution you could always use one of the camcorders which record directly to DVD.

The next fastest solution is to use a camcorder which records directly to MPEG2 format, such as the JVC Everio range. This eliminates the transcoding and allows for faster transfers. You will either transfer to PC via USB, or, if you record to removable media such as CF or SD card, you can put the card into a reader on the PC. Then load the clips into an authoring program such as TMPGenc DVD Author, add your menu structure and burn. Quick, simple and painless. (I have an Everio GZ-MC500)