Help Me Please

Ok so i just bought this dinky little mini hand cam. It only captures video to digital video cassetes and not a memory card. Nor did it come with a disc or wire that would allow me to hook it up to my computer.

What i was wondering is is there any type of hardware that i i stick the dvc [digital video cassete] into, and then hook that into a usb port on my computer and that would allow me to transfer?

Or is it possible, that even though the cam didnt come with any software nor cord, that i can buy a cord and generic software that would allow me to transfer in that manner?

Any help would be appreciated.

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Originally Posted by chestnut1643

Ok so i just bought this dinky little mini hand cam. It only captures video to digital video cassetes and not a memory card. Nor did it come with a disc or wire that would allow me to hook it up to my computer.

What i was wondering is is there any type of hardware that i i stick the dvc [digital video cassete] into, and then hook that into a usb port on my computer and that would allow me to transfer?

Or is it possible, that even though the cam didnt come with any software nor cord, that i can buy a cord and generic software that would allow me to transfer in that manner?

Any help would be appreciated.

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I don't know much about the dinky little mini hand cam model -- but my Canon Elura uses firewire (IEEE 1394) cables. Fairly generic if you have the firewire card on your computer.

It is a mini DV camera -- right? If not you need to get a video toaster type card in your computer to convert the analog signal to a digital.

Maybe you should Google your camera make and model and surf on over to the manufacturers website and look it up. If that doesn't work, maybe you could post the make and model here (or better yet in the video forum) and someone might be able to help you.

mbb

Can you go to the manufactors site? Most times they will have software downloads.

Its a Samsung Sc-D382 , I went to the official website and the only download available was the instruction manual. Thats why I really just wanted to know if there is any technology out there that you just plug into you computer and stick the digital video cassette into that and just transfer like that. And yes its a mini Dv Camcorder. It has a port on it that looks like the usb style one i use to hook up my cell phone, but it didnt come with anything to hook into it.

I have yet to see a mini dv camera that didn't come with a firewire port and the port you describe sounds like a 4 pin firewire port. the cameras normally don't come with this cable as your computer would normally come with it when you buy a firewire card. firewire is a standard similar to usb but faster (and munch more reliable for video transfer) you can buy firewire cards to go into your computer for less than $20 these days. they will also usually come with software to let you edit your videos, but if they don't windows movie maker will work nicely. you can buy mini dv vcr's but they are considered broadcast equipment and cost around $2,000 and they still need to be connected to the computer via a firewire port. Incidentally firewire also goes by the names iee1394 and i-link but they are all the same device. they come with 4pin and six pin plugs and you can plug a 4 pin device (which most video camera come with) into a 6 pin port with the right cable. the other advantage of firewire is that the device carries the drivers so you don't need to install any software to make your camera or another camera work. Video cameras aren't the only devices that can be connected to firewire, some high end scanners and printers also accept the standard. Happy editing Simon

According to your manual, the firewire jack is located on the back, top of the camera under the A/V cover. That is usually where a viewfinder would be. As Simon mentioned, there are stand alone decks available from JVC and Sony, but they are very expensive. The consumer versions are over $1200 each.