I've got several MiniDV tapes and I'd like to record them to DVD. I know there are shops out there that will do it for me but I'd like to do it myself. Does anyone know what sort of equipment I'm going to need, other than a PC and a DVD writer obviously.

My video camera is nearly four years old now. the manual doesn't explain any method of extracting video to a PC, just grabbing stills. From memory the camera has Svideo and audio out connectors. It also has what looks like a firewire connector (4-pin) but I've not managed to get that to work with a firewire cable I have at work.

any ideas?

My SONY camcorder has a firewire connector that I use to connect to my PC at home. My PC is running XP PRO.

I have a SWANN PCI firewire card installed in the PC - XP recognised it without any additional drivers.

I bought a Belkin 4 to 6 pin firewire cable from Amazon to connect my camcorder.

As soon as I connect the camcorder and switch it on, XP instantly recognises the camera and adds it to My Computer.

I use Adobe Premiere 6.5 for transfering the MiniDV to the PC and editing the files. I can operate the camera from within Adobe Premiere. Depending on whether the camera is in Playback or Record mode alters the way that Premiere operates.

I haven't yet got a DVD writer, but Adobe Premiere has the codecs for creating DVD files.

Hope this helps

Mark

It certainly does help, yes.

I take it you only needed the Belkin because the firewire card has a six pin connector? My laptop has a 4 pin firewire connector and I'm sure the camera has aswell. I take a 6-pin is not a prerequisite? Incidentally, what's the difference between 4 and 6 pin firewire?

I'll have another go with the cable and hoping Media Player or something will recognise the camera. Even if I don't have any s/w that will actually load the video, if XP recognises the camera I'm up and running.

Thanks again.