Converting Camcorder tapes? A little more help?

[HAULIN IT]

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

[Lt.Del]

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.

[VileZambonie]

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.

[HAULIN IT]

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

[frogman68]

you got a DVR ? can do that too if your pc has a DVD player.

[ccz145a]

The Dazzle setup by Pinnacle is pretty cool and fairly cheap. http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Dazzle/

[Lt.Del]

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.

[HAULIN IT]

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

[DnStClr]

Photobucket has a tutorial for uploading videos. (Big help, huh?)

http://tutorials.photobucket.com/tutorial_188.html

[HAULIN IT]

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

[Captkaos]

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.

[eventhorizon66]

This is agonizing.  LOL.  I want to see some vids.

[HAULIN IT]

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   

[ccz145a]

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.

[Captkaos]

ditto on what CCZ said.