noob needs help transferring video
 

I am a strictly point-and-shoot level videographer. Just bought the Sony DCRHC20 ... quite happy with it so far, the low light performance is better than I would have expectedd from such a small CCD.

My problem is that the Picture Package software that came with the camera is not working. The utility for transferring the video from tape to PC is called AutoVideo - every time is starts, it crashes. I haven't been able to move a single frame of video from tape to PC.

Are there any other utilities that I can download (maybe something with a free trial?) that can transfer video from the Sony DCRHC20 to PC via USB? No firewire on my PC.

Thanks,
Barry

USB isn't very good for transferring video.

The least expensive option is to buy a Firewire card. They cost from about $20 to $50 U.S.

You haven't said anything about the PC. OS, hardware, etc. It is possible that the Sony software expects something you don't have installed. Check that out and make certain that your software is up to date. Another gotcha is that the drivers for your display adapter may not be up to date and that too can cause problems.

Welcome to the wonderful world of editing video on a computer.

right - using XP Pro, on a Gateway 3.06GHz P4 w/ 512 MB RAM

XP is recognizing the camera - I can stream live video via USB np. I want to transfer video from miniDV tape to PC via USB. I know the quality would be dramatically limited due to slow USB1.1 thruput, but is it impossible?

Depending on your video card you might be able to transfer something via the AV outs but for DV25 you need to keep up with a 3.6 MBps data rate and as you know, USB1 can't.

David Hurdon