What Video Capture Software can I use to capture video to my computer from my Mini DV camcorder?
I have a Sony camcorder that uses Mini DV for storage and I want to save my home videos to my computer. I have the USB cable for it, but I need a software to capture my videos to a standard MPG or MP4 format.
You can capture the video using Windows Movie Maker, but regardless of which app you use you should capture the video via firewire rather than USB – if your PC hasn’t already got one you’ll need to install a firewire card. They’re cheap, easy to install and readily available. You’ll also need a firewire cable.
Once everything’s connected you can capture and edit the video with Windows Movie Maker (it should already be on your PC) and save it as DV-AVI (it’s under Save on My Computer, Best quality show more choices, Other settings) before converting it to your final format.
“standard MPG or MP4 format” covers a lot of possibilities, from MPEG-1 to H. 264, but Super should be able to do what you want. Commercial editors will give you a better choice of output formats, so the conversion shouldn’t be necessary. If you want to make a DVD, have a look at DVD Flick.