How to Transfer Your Video to Computer Easily

The favorite destination for digitized video recordings is undoubtedly DVD, although it's increasingly common for people to want to post snippets of home movies on their websites as well. Making a DVD recording of your cine films and analog video formats could be as easy as connecting a camcorder or AV converter into a standalone DVD recorder and simply pressing the Record button. However, for greater control and end user interactivity it's still better to import all of your movies into a computer where you'll have many more creative and technical options.

Computers designed to make the process of digital video editing and DVD creations have never been cheaper, with many systems now sold with this in mind. It doesn't matter whether you buy a Windows PC or Apple Mac computer, just check that the machine has a FireWire connection. This is also known as an i.Link or IEEE 1394 socket; other computer manufacturers call it a DV Link, but it's all the same thing.

Many digital camcorders now use USB 2.0 as the means to transfer video too, but almost all new computers will come with this connection. All modern Apple Mac computers, and most modern PCs, have both FireWire and USB 2.0 sockets, but it's worth double checking with the vendor before you purchase. You'll also need to acquire the right kind of FireWire cable with which to connect the camcorder to the computer's FireWire socket. Note that there are two types of connector, a 4-pin plug and a larger 6-pin plug, so check carefully before purchasing a cable, because they're rarely included with new camcorders.

Of course, an increasing number of camcorders don't use tape as the primary digital recording medium. DVD camcorders, for instance, are grabbing a large share of the market, as are cameras that use high capacity hard disk drives and also solid state flash media cards, like SD-Video cams. Although the latter two formats are limited in terms of their digital conversion capabilities, many new DVD camcorders have analog video and audio inputs. To import the clips into the computer, you'll be able to either pop the disk into the computer's DVD drive, or copy the files across using the USB 2.0 connection. The type of compressed video, called MPEG2 isn't quite as good as DV and Digital8 tape, but it's a quick and easy way of achieving your aims.

Assuming your computer has the requisite FireWire connections (for DV and Digitals tape camcorders, of course) and that you have the right FireWire cable, the job of transferring your movie clips is very simple once the connections have been made and tested.

With the camcorder in Play mode, connect the small FireWire plug into the camcorder (the socket will be called DV, i.Link, or FireWire) and the other end into the computer's FireWire socket. The latter will be one of two types, a small 4-pin connection like that found on the camcorder, or a larger 6-pin socket such as those found on most computers. Once you've done this, you should hear a "bing-bong" sound on the computer (Windows PC), or see a notification appearing on screen telling you that the camcorder has been connected. Often, the camcorder's LCD screen or viewfinder will display "DV-in" at this point, too.