downloading camcorder to computer

Ok, I've tried for the past 3 days to make it work but have given up. I bought a Sony camcorder last week. I tried installing the software in order to transfer the video from my camcorder to my harddrive. Every time I do it, I get a different error. The error seems to be with the software itself. I think the software is incomplete. I tried updating online with no success.

There have to be other software programs for this, not just the junk that came with my camera, right? I'm trying to download from my camera with a USB port. I'll be upgrading to firewire soon, but I don't think that will solve the problem I'm having now.

Any advice? Afanseh, Geoff you both helped in the past and seem to have good knowledge about this stuff. I'm frustrated b/c I'm usually pretty good w/computers but this software has reduced me to a screaming mess.

I had a software related issue some years back. After being unsuccessful with installing a new program I completely un-installed it, and tried installing it AGAIN. For whatever reason, it worked the second time.

Are you getting a message that the software loading is complete?

SC

I actually did un-install and re-load it again. Still having the same problems. It is loading and saying installation is complete. The main set of instructions is supposed to run off of Adobe Acrobat Reader, which I have. But when I open that up, it doesn't work. All the error messages say refer to the instructions, which are tied to the problem with them being Adobe.

The only camcorder I've worked with has been Panasonic. There must be two options on your camcorder, one to for shooting DV-AVI movies, another to take pictures, which is called "Card" on the one I use. When I put the option on "Card" I can take either pictures or shoot an Mpeg-4 movie, which is downloadable via USB and has a low resolution; otherwise I've not been able to download a DV-AVI movie via USB, which has a lot better resolution. Mind you, I do all this on my brother's computer, mine doesn't have a firewire port . If you upgrade to firewire, any movie editing software should have no problem for downloading the DV-AVI movie from camcorder. I couldn't do it and I think the only way to capture a DV-AVI movie from camcorder is via firewire connection.

I'm a screaming mess myself, where on the world all my offline download goes? I've bought a Visionplus satellite card for getting satellite TV and offline downloads and if I find out how to set this up I'll die happily!

Try these two softwares from http://www.download.com

Stoik Capturer 1.0
http://www.download.com/Stoik-Capturer/3000-2169_4-10285947.html?tag=lst-0-1


DVDCutter Stream and Mp3CDWav Converter 4.1
http://www.download.com/DVDCutter-Stream-and-Mp3CDWav-Converter/3000-7970_4-1045 0871.html?tag=lst-4-1

If these two dont work out, try this one

http://www.nero.com/nero7/eng/nero7-demo.php

It is 100 mb software, i dont know if this will solve your problem but its a very famous software.

If Nero works download the key from shareware programs like limewire or imesh. from download.com

Everyone:
Thanks for the input. I'll take all the advice given and post my results later this weekend. Many thanks!

Goombah

Ok, so I was able to figure out the software to some degree. One thing that is maddening is that it only allows me to save to cd. Which is odd b/c I have a dvd burner internally within my pc. In any event, the stuff is on a cd, but I can't view it. What am I doing wrong? Another thing, shouldn't I be able to download the software from my camcorder to my harddrive instead? That's how I copy dvd's normally and have never had a problem.

I have the following software and none have been able to allow me to view the video from my camcorder to my cd.

Windows Media Player
Sonic DVD now (came with computer but giving me constant error messages)
Fine Pix
DVD Shrink
DVD Decrypter
Roxio Easy DVD Copier

Have you tried calling the pc manufacturer?

No b/c I assumed they wouldn't do anything related to the software. But you bring up a good point - it's worth a call.

Goombah,

I don't know why it wouldn't let you download the movie into hard drive, but is your hard drive by any chance connected via a USB port? That could tie up the connection between your camcorder and hard dive. In addition you'd have to remove any device connected to your USBs even if they don't function at the time. They still keep some of bandwidth to themselves.

As I mentioned before you'll not be able to download Mpeg-2, which is suitable for burning on DVD as DV-AVI. The maximum resolution you'll get via USB would be Mpeg-1, which would be good enough to be burned as a VCD, on a normal CD.

Slowly but surely, I'm making progress. I finally was able to download to my hard drive. But Afanseh, thanks for the heads-up about not being able to burn to DVD with a USB. So am I then to assume that if I switch to firewire, I can burn to DVD?

I did a dump of my hard drive onto a dvd and the quality was not good. Visually it was fine, but the sound was not in sync with the original. That's a problem with USB transfer I presume.

And to answer your original question, my hard drive is not connected via USB - it's intennal. But are you saying that no other USB ports should be connected while I'm doing the camcorder download to the pc?

Thanks for all of your help - I really appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Yes, you should disconnect anything connected to your USB ports when capturing the movie via USB. If you upgrade to firewire you'll be able to download a format suitable for burning on DVD.

Also be advised, the raw format of the captured movie via firewire could take up to 20GB per hour at its best quality, so consider using a balk space in your hard drive. Then you can convert the formats to a lower capacity file. You'll get the best results if you reduce the resolution when converting the formats rather than the time of capturing the movie.