How To Copy Home Movies to a PC or DVD

Once you shoot a home movie, you'll want to save it and share it with family and friends. That might mean copying the movie to your PC for editing, or burning the movie onto a recordable DVD. How you do this depends on the type of camcorder you have, and precisely what it is you want to do.

The easiest approach with the highest quality result is to use a completely digital chain of equipment. Start with digital video shot on a MiniDV camcorder, edit the video digitally with Windows Movie Maker or a similar program on your PC and then output the completed movie to a DVD in WMV format.

Connecting a Digital Camcorder to Your PC

To transfer your home movies from your camcorder to your PC, you need to connect your camcorder to your PC. This task is sometimes easy and sometimes a little tricky. If you have a digital camcorder in either the Digital8 or MiniDV formats, connecting your camcorder to your PC is simple. All you need is an IE1394 FireWire port on your PC. This type of connection is fast enough to handle the huge stream of digital data pouring from your DV recorder into your PC. Using any other type of connection, including USB 2.0, is not only slower but might result in some degree of frame loss. If your PC doesn't have a FireWire port, you can add one via an external device or by installing a FireWire card in your system unit.

Transferring a movie from your camcorder to your PC is typically as easy as pushing a button on your camcorder. Each movie is stored in a separate digital file, so when you transfer the movie, you're actually copying the digital file from your camcorder to your PC, just as you would any other digital file from a storage device. Once the file's copied to your PC's hard drive, you can edit the movie or burn it to DVD.

Connecting an Analog Camcorder to Your PC

If you have an older VHS, VHS-C, SVHS, 8mm or Hi8 recorder, the connection isn't as simple. That's because you have to convert the analog video from your camcorder to the digital format used by your PC. To do this, you'll need to purchase and install an analog-to-digital video capture card, available at most computer stores, for your PC. You'll plug your camcorder into the jacks in this card (typically using standard RCA connectors), and the card will convert the analog signals from your recorder into the digital audio and video your computer understands. If you don't want to install a new card in your PC, you can get the same functionality from an external video capture device, such as Pinnacle System's Dazzle DVC units. These devices have standard audio and video input jacks to connect to your camcorder, and then connect to your PC with a USB cable.

To transfer a movie from your analog camcorder to your PC, you actually play the movie on your camcorder and then record it on your PC. This means that the transfer takes place in real time, as the movie plays. This is a lot slower than simply copying a file from a digital camcorder. For example, if you're using the Windows Movie Maker program to edit movies on your PC, you start by connecting your camcorder to your PC using the video capture card or device and turning it on. In Windows Movie Maker, you select File > Capture Video, which launches the Video Capture Wizard. Follow the onscreen instructions to select the capture device you want to use, specify where you want the file to be saved and choose the video setting (the level of recording quality).

After you click the Record button in the wizard, press the Play button on your camcorder. Windows Movie Maker now automatically records the playback from your camcorder. Recording will stop when you press the Stop button or after two hours, whichever comes first. The new clips you create will now appear in the Collections area of the Movie Maker window, where you can edit them as you wish.

Transferring Your Movies to DVD

Once your movies are stored on your PC in digital format, you can then edit them or burn them to DVD to share with family and friends. You'll need to have a recordable DVD drive installed in your PC, or connect an external DVD burner device. Burning a DVD is a lot like burning a CD, but with movies instead of music. Chances are, your DVD burner came with some DVD creation software pre-installed. If so, you can use this software to burn your movie files to DVD. You can also use a third-party programs to burn your own DVDs, such as Easy Media Creator, Sonic MyDVD or Ulead DVD MovieFactory.

All of these programs work in pretty much the same fashion. The movie files on your PC's hard drive are converted to standard DVD-format files, which can then be copied to a blank DVD. You can insert chapter stops if you want, and select the menus and backgrounds to appear on the DVD. Once you've configured all the options, the program builds and burns the new DVD, which might take up to an hour or more. When it's finished, your new DVD will be ready to play. When you burn a home movie to DVD, you can use a blank DVD in either the DVD-R or DVD+R formats. Which format you use depends on which format your DVD player can read. Most players today can read discs recorded in either format, but some older players aren't as versatile. If in doubt, check the player's specifications to see which format is preferred.

Transferring Directly to DVD -- No PC Required

Alternately, you can use an external DVD recorder device to record video directly from your camcorder to a blank DVD. These units, such as the Dazzle DVD Recorder, bypass the PC entirely -- you transfer your analog videotape as-is to a recordable DVD. There aren't many, if any, editing options, but it's a cheap (under $100) and easy solution.

Michael Miller is a writer and commentator on technology and digital lifestyle topics.