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.

Plug in DV Camcorder

Power up and set the camcorder to VTR or VCR mode.

Menu Commands

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).

Select Device

Select your DV Camcorder and click Next.

Select Device

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).

Select Device

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.

Select Device

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.

Camera Connected

Press Start Capture to begin recording footage onto your hard drive. Press Stop Capture once you've got the portion you want.

Import a File

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.

Files are in Collections

Single click on a clip and press F2 to rename it.


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