Sony DCRDVD105: How to get movie onto computer
 

A friend of mine is a new member but doesn't have rights to post yet so I'm asking the question for him at the moment. Here's the question:


I am trying to find out how to read a mini-DVD from my Sony Handycam (no digital output) into Adobe’s Premier Elements 3.

My problem is how do I get my video’s into Adobe Premier Elements 3?

This is a DVD camcorder with no digital outputs of any kind.

Have any suggestions as to how to get the movie so Elements can read it?

So far...ripping hasn't worked for him.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Hi Jaime, I had this problem with a Hi 8 model that i have. You have to have a converter that goes from analog to digital to get the footage into the system. Here is a link that might help your friend.

http://shopper.cnet.com/ADS_Pyro_A_V...ShoppingView=1

It's kind of stupid that they didn't just add the digital connection, but they are like that sometimes, I hope this helps with your friends problem.

Hi Jaime,
Unfortunately, the minidvd camcorder were not really designed with the intention that the content would be loaded into a post production editing system, so it is not easily condusive to this purpose, however it is most certainly possible without having to resort to an external analogue to digital converter as earlier mentioned.

Without getting too redundant, I might suggest using the search function in these forums and you will find this subject bandied about quite alot lately. A lot of folks have been buying these camcorders without really knowing much about the post production limitations and consequently feel 'duped' when they find that most NLEs are not able to 'recognize' the camcorder for video capturing.

For starters, read my post in this thread:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=84582

for some important basic info on using these camcorders (ignore the stuff about the NTSC/PAL issue as it is irrelevant for your purposes), and then run a search for some of the appropriate shareware or freeware apps that would be appropriate for your computing platform to use in extracting the dvd data for conversion to a format recognizable by the editing application.

Quicktip: Make sure the disc is correctly 'finalized' in the camcorder, place the disc into a tray load dvd drive in your computer system (not a slot load...drive go bye bye) , and then an extraction application (on a Mac these might include Handbrake, Cinematize, or Roxio's Popcorn - and countless options for Windows) can extract and convert the data into a quicktime movie file or avi that can be dropped into the editing application. For some, this stuff is more trouble than its worth and they rue the day they bought a minidvd camcorder.

-Jon