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General Site Info => General Discussion => Topic started by: HAULIN IT on September 21, 2008, 09:49:11 am

Title: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: HAULIN IT on September 21, 2008, 09:49:11 am
Is there a way to take a video from the small camcorders to the computer by an average dummie without special equipment (or relativley inexpensive, that I should have anyway)? I've got some videos from this weekend that I wanted to post. I couldn't make my camera do the movie thing....back to the "dummie" part. Thanks, Lorne
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes?
Post by: Lt.Del on September 21, 2008, 10:08:55 am
Without buying something extra? No.  By buying an inexpensive gizzmo from the computer store or Ebay, Yep.  There is some gizzmo I bought a couple of years ago that hooks up to the USB plug on your computer.  The gizzmo has RCA female plug jacks that, with the cords, plug into your camcorder's RCA output (my sony had a 1/8 jack output, so I went to Radio Shack and bought a 1/8 jack male  to two RCA (red and white) male plugs).  plugged that into the device on the computer and saw my videos.  I clipped some time off the videos, made them into a Mpeg or WMA video file, i forget.  Posted them on my son's website--shows his first steps. The gizzmo comes with the software that lets you edit the video.
my son Andrew's website:  www.andrewdelbridge.com
Scroll down the main page of his site to see the little video clips.
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes?
Post by: VileZambonie on September 21, 2008, 12:14:30 pm
What kind of camcorder is it? Does it have a USB interface? There is plenty of free software on the web to convert analog to digital. You just need an interface.
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes?
Post by: HAULIN IT on September 21, 2008, 07:34:19 pm
Vile, It's a 5-6 year old Panasonic LV-550, I only see the A/V port (the one we use to hook it up to the TV) with Yellow/White cable ends. Sounds like I would need one of the "gizmos" Sgt. is talking about & my 11 year old newphew to operate it. Does anyone know what the "correct" name for the box is? Thanks Guys, Lorne
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes?
Post by: frogman68 on September 21, 2008, 07:46:12 pm
you got a DVR ? can do that too if your pc has a DVD player.
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes?
Post by: ccz145a on September 21, 2008, 10:59:07 pm
The Dazzle setup by Pinnacle is pretty cool and fairly cheap. http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/ (http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/)
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes?
Post by: Lt.Del on September 22, 2008, 12:21:20 am
yeah, that's what I have, a Dazzle.  I haven't used it in quite a while and it would be a chore to go the my basement to try and find it.
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: HAULIN IT on October 01, 2008, 08:35:42 pm
Guys, I got the video onto a DVD & have it working on my computer through Windows media player. Does anyone know how I can post this? I see a Video option on Photobucket, but don't know what to do....Any help? Thanks, Lorne
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: DnStClr on October 01, 2008, 11:03:25 pm
Photobucket has a tutorial for uploading videos. (Big help, huh?) ???

http://tutorials.photobucket.com/tutorial_188.html (http://tutorials.photobucket.com/tutorial_188.html)
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: HAULIN IT on October 02, 2008, 10:10:43 am
Don, Actually it is! I was on photobucket last evening but couldn't figure it out. I never got that screen. How did you get to it, just clicking the "video" box? I was getting a "Page not available" notice. I'll work on it some more, maybe my computer doesn't have the right things needed or I got the photos in the wrong area. This "being computer stupid" is very frustrating. Thanks allot, Lorne
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: Captkaos on October 02, 2008, 11:43:30 am
once you get it on your computer it would be saved at (moviename).wmv if it is Window media.  Just upload it like any other picture file.
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: eventhorizon66 on October 02, 2008, 11:50:52 am
This is agonizing.  LOL.  I want to see some vids.
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: HAULIN IT on October 02, 2008, 01:42:11 pm
Yes Chris the video is on the computer on "Windows media player" & I can watch & listen to it. I can't get it from there, I saw something that said "unnamed video" is this part of the problem? Can someone give me detailed instructions from.... Ok dummie, Once your in Photobucket.... Video's to come, I promise! Thanks guys, Lorne   
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: ccz145a on October 02, 2008, 02:19:37 pm
ok ok ok. I know the problem, you have a dvd, right. You save the recording straight to dvd disk? If so, browse the disk using windows explorer and look through all the directories until you find the biggest file on there, copy it and save it to your harddisk as a .wmv or a .mp4, then see if it will play from there.

If we cant get this to work you will need to capture again, not to dvd disk, but to the hard drive.
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: Captkaos on October 02, 2008, 02:49:01 pm
ditto on what CCZ said.
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: HAULIN IT on October 02, 2008, 04:00:01 pm
Ok, You guys are confusing me more than helping ;) Here's what I did...I taped this with a camcorder that takes the small camcorder tapes. Using the small-to-big VCR tape adapter, I "dubbed" it to a DVD using my VCR/DVD unit. Now I stuck the DVD in the computer & have the video that I can see & hear in "Windows media player". Is this making sense? Do I need to do something different with it as soon as the options box comes up? Is your suggestions still the same? Maybe I need someone that I can actually talk to while doing this, you know... saying "No dummie not that". Thanks for all the help, Lorne 
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: VileZambonie on October 02, 2008, 04:19:29 pm
You would have to rip that DVD movie into a movie file like an MP4 etc to make it viewable.
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: Captkaos on October 02, 2008, 04:31:57 pm
ditto, you need to convert the movie file to mp4 or mpeg or avi.

http://www.wikihow.com/Rip-a-DVD-to-an-AVI-or-MPG-File-Using-DVDx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW958i2Tfwk
http://www.dvdpe.com/DVD-to-AVI.html
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: ccz145a on October 02, 2008, 04:35:37 pm
if you navigate into the dvd just like it was a data disk, you might have a chance of copying the bigest file out and naming it a mp4 and it work. I have had it work and had it not work this way. Worth a try since it will save a lot of time.

Only other alternatives are to capture the vcr stream to disk or rip your dvd to disk. Either way what you need to have in the end is a file to load to photobucket.
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: HAULIN IT on October 02, 2008, 06:44:07 pm
Boy! This sure has turned into quite a project to show-off a few passes at the dragstrip! What do most of you guys do, go through all of this or use the video feature on a digital camera or something? Is there something I can do to make it easier next time? Lorne
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: frogman68 on October 02, 2008, 06:48:46 pm
Haulin it

What version of Windows are you using ? If Xp or Vista trying opening a program called Windows Movie Maker just go thru the Wizard with it.
Save it that file should be good to go then I have never uploaded a video to Photo Bucket I use You Tube

Ps If you are getting frustrated PM me you can send it to me and I will upload it for ya
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?
Post by: DnStClr on October 02, 2008, 11:43:56 pm
Lorne, at the bottom of Photobucket's home page there is a link called "site map". Click on it and one of the options in the large menu is videos.
Title: Re: Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help? Getting Closer!
Post by: HAULIN IT on October 15, 2008, 12:01:03 am
Ok Guys, With help I got the DVD converted, ripped, ect. It is now in my Photobucket...Two problems at this point. I see the "video", when I click on it, it comes up larger (like a photo does) but is all Black. In the bottom Left corner is Two vertical dashes (pause, I believe) When I push that square, the video pops up, but doesn't move, now the "play" arrow is in the lower left. If I push it, the screen goes back to Black, like it's backwards. When I push "full screen" in the bottom Right corner... a new "windows" box opens, but the same result. Once in a while during the clicking of buttons, the sound comes on for 3-5 seconds then shuts off. Any ideas what is going on?
 My other concern is: I've seen in other people's posts, the photobucket address makes all of the items in the album available for all to see. Is there some way to not have to share every picture/video in the album without creating a new photobucket album? Thanks to all who have helped & put up with my computer ignorance, the amount of hours spent trying to show-off less than a minute of racing  >:(   Lorne