Screencast: Import from a DV Tape
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1 Plug in Your DV Camcorder
Plug your DV camcorder into your computer via Firewire or USB 2.0.
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Power up and set the camcorder to VTR or VCR mode.
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Menus and Commands
Whenever you see a command, such as File > Save Project, it refers to commands in the menu bar (top of the screen).
Keyboard shortcuts are given in parenthesis; for example, (Ctrl + S) indicates that the control key should be held and the 'S' key should be pressed once.
2 Open WMM, Capture Video, Pick a Device
Open Windows Movie Maker and choose File > Capture Video (Ctrl + R).
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Select your DV Camcorder and click Next.
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Choose a file name for your videos and click Next.
3 Choose Video Recording Quality
If you choose Best quality for playback on my computer, it is like saving a digital photo on medium resolution setting (i.e. you can't make the photo bigger without pixelation).
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We recommend selecting Digital device format, as this will capture at the highest quality. However, this takes a lot of hard disk storage (roughly thirteen gigs per hour of video).
Select your DV Camcorder and click Next.
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If you are capturing high quality, you'll probably want to avoid capturing the entire tape.
4 Queue and Capture
Use the DV camera controls to queue up the tape to the section you want to record.
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Press Start Capture to begin recording footage onto your hard drive. Press Stop Capture once you've got the portion you want.
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Use the Start and Stop Capture buttons repeatedly, to record as many clips as you like and then click Finish to move on.
5 Videos Appear in My Collections
Now the footage should appear in the clips library.
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Single click on a clip and press F2 to rename it.
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