I've made several, short movies now, and I'd like to upload them to my computer for editing and so I can show them to people. I have a digital camera from around 2000, I think, (here's a pic)



and I have Windows 98. Is it possible to hook it up to my PC and upload the Hi8 movies straight to the hard-drive. I don't have a CD-Burner, but I do have a DVD drive. What cable do I need to use, where do I insert it, and will this work with Win98? If not, I do have a laptop in the house which is XP and has Microsoft Home Movie Maker on it. I've heard moviemaker isn't very good though, so I've considered
this. Anyone who has any input, ideas, or suggestions, I would appreciate it very much if you explained. Thanks.

Download the Adobe Premiere tryout so you can do this job right. Your work is only as good as your tools. Adobe Tryouts will last for 30 days, which is probably more than enough time you need to do this one thing. (It lets you export video and is fully functional.)


Premiere pro will not work with win98, try Premiere 6.

Thankyou, but how do I actually get the footage on my harddrive?

the camera should have some sort of connector cable. Probably an S Video cable. In that case, youd need to hace a videocard that has an svideo in.

Most cameras are FireWire capable, so if you have a FireWire port, you can simply connect the two with a cable, then use any video capturing softaware to record to an MPEG or AVI..

Otherwise, you'll have to get a capture card and hook up the component out (a 1/8" jack, usually yellow) to the capture ports of the card.

Hmmm, looks like I'm probably going to have to buy a cable before I can get this working.

Last night, I found a small section in my camcorder booklet, which reads as following:



I'm not very literate with a lot of these terms, anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

Alright, is the camera Hi-8 or Digital-8? The camera in the picture looks like it's digital, so if that's the case, here's what you can do to upload movies to your disk.

First, you have to go buy a firewire cable, which can be found at any Radioshack for relatively cheap. Make sure you have a firewire port in your computer, then be sure to get a 6-pin to 4-pin cable, or else it won't fit into the camera. Once you've got everything plugged in, turn on the camera onto the play/edit mode (the mode when you playback your movies). The computer should recognize the camera when you turn it on, and will automatically install drivers.

As for capturing the video, you'll need a program. Don't get Adobe Premiere... that's a professional program that is crazy hard for newbies, and IMO not that great of an editor. If you're using Windows, Windows Movie Maker will work fine for capturing video. The only problem is I think Movie Maker only works for XP... I suggest Vegas Movie Studio, which is an entry editor to the great Vegas Video program. It's the program I use, and it's easy and powerful. Download the trial, and after you get the editor set up, it's a cinch to capture the video.

You have to remember that capturing video takes up tons of hard drive space. For one minute of footage, it's roughly a gig of AVI files. Be sure you have the resources before you start editing. Movie editing is great fun (it's what I do for a living!), so I hope this helps you out!

/me stabs Vegas Video

Sorry dude, but Adobe Premiere smacks the pants off that program. And yeah, it is easy to use. Check any of the guides out at [url]www.animemusicvideos.org[/url]

(Oh, and try some of the videos too. 95% are made in Adobe Premiere, including all the ones on the top 10% list. Yeah, they are awesome :D)

Premiere is great for assembing videos, but if you want eye candy in your video, be sure to download After Effects too.

just get an iMac or an iBook and use iMovie. If your camcorder is worth anything it'll already have a firewire port on it. It's the easiest amateur video software to use.

Otherwise, Final Cut is fun and is available for both windows and mac.

/me stabs Cool Matty

I can't stand Adobe Premiere... how can you pick that over Vegas? Just.... ugh, the interface is horrible, you have to render to preview, it's slow... I guess it's personal preference, but I can edit any movie as well as any Premiere user.

Trust me Daft, use Vegas. :p

uhm, it's slow if your compter is slow. (also, change video quality to low and most of the stuff you can just watch without rendering, and its barely choppy). the interface is hot as hell! pretty much any adobe product has a great interface.

Criminy, people, make up your minds.

The tools don't create something. The person using the tools create it. This argument has gone on before, and I won when I laid the smack down on a photoshop by using paint shop pro. And this was at the time when the programs weren't the same.

And the adobe interfaces have gotten nothing but worse. The only reason I made the switch from photoshop 5.5 to photoshop 8 is because of a couple of features, even though I still hate the interface.

If you're going to try and help a guy out people, give him facts. Don't give him your bat **** insane opinions.

And yes, I realize that the second point in my post is an opinion. I'm not telling him to use something, I'm arguing what Cazor said.

Have you used Adobe PageMaker? Ugh... I have to use it in my Multimedia Design class everyday, and it's garbage. I might give Adobe Premiere another shot though...