Video Capturing

Ok so I got a digital video camera for christmas, and I really was not expecting it so I do not know a whole lot. I am firmiliar with how to use the memory card, simple enough, but I am going to need to capture from the cassettes aswell.

I took a quick look at capture cards, but am not usre what i need, or want. I think that my current video card could capture the video, as it has a tv in/out -0 but of course I wiould need to do it in two steps to get the audio aswell, so i think something designed for that would be better.

So in short, what is the best, and cheapest way to capture from a video camera (from the old school cassetts)

BTW the camera is a canon ZR 70 MC.

Thanks guys,

i'd think you should just be able to dump the video straight onto your hard drive via Firewire, without needing to capture it. if your DV camera has a Firewire connection (also known as 1394), then you just need to have a Firewire card-- certain audio controllers like the ones on Soundblaster Audigy soundcards or Nforce motherboards have Firewire built-in, and it's standard issue on Apple Mac computers. but you can get a Firewire card separately, as well. http://www.dvcentral.org/Firewire.html

Very thoughtful post, brainiac. Merry christmas and happy new year, old pal! :D

whoops. i just edited my post, 'cause i thought he meant he wanted to capture from an analogue camcorder as well. i'm pretty sure that since this is a digital camcorder, he just needs a firewire card. :P

edit: okay, "The ZR70MC is designed for the transfer of digital video and audio to and from either a PC or another IEEE 1394 terminal-equipped camcorder or professional DV VCR. The DV terminal allows high-quality transfer with virtually no deterioration in quality of images. You can edit and process images by connecting the camera to a PC with the IEEE 1394 terminal."

you just need a Firewire card, and some editing/converting software, to turn it into whatever format you prefer (DivX, VCD, DVD, etc). transferring from a DV camera is a lot more simple (and cheap) than capturing from really old-fashioned video sources, because the DV camera already has a PC connection built into it. just understand that the DV cassettes are a digital format (unlike VHS tapes), and the PC will treat them as such when you connect it with Firewire.

That is what I was hopping.

Thanks, that little snippet was about 400X more helpful than the manual.