Help a brotha out making videos

[reelaxin]

My name is Mike and I am a computer idiot: Had to get that out of the way first.
Now, I am into the process of trying and I stress “trying” to create some videos from footage shot on my camcorder. I have a Sony DVR recorder that uses the mini-DVD discs to record to. After doing some “googling” I believe that this was probably not the best choice in recording media to start out with but it is what I have to work with.
The Puter is a Dell about 2 years old – not sure what model. I started trying to just play the video from the camera on the computer and found I had no software to read DVD’s – so I downloaded (read purchased) that and could play some of my recorded DVD’s from the camera but not all.
Then I did some research here and determined I probably needed Pinnacle Studio to make this project fly – bought it and found I had no DVD drive in the Dell, only CD drive / burner. Off to the Geek shop again and now I have a Sony external DVD drive / burner. Loaded the Pinnacle DVD for software install and found out I needed a memory upgrade. Off to the Geek shop again and now I am 1 Meg of memory stronger and Pinnacle is happy. But……………
I am having one hell of a time getting the video to import to the program. It does not seem to want to recognize my camera – help section says to import digital video it must be done thru a fire wire connection but neither the camera or the computer have this capability. I was able to put the recorded DVD’s into the external drive and then go into Pinnacle > file > import clips and pull some clips from the DVD. Problem is it keeps locking up mid download and then it’s a bitch to get out of the program – most times it takes pulling the plug and re-booting. I messed around for several hours last night and managed to upload about 16 of 20 clips from a 25 minute DVD and never could get some of them to transfer without locking up my system.
Do any of y’all “video experts” have any suggestions to make this any easier / faster? I have a feeling I may be shopping a new camera soon but I need to get what I can off these mini- DVD’s if possible.
Any pointers on actually creating the movie in Pinnacle when I get the stuff imported would also be appreciated.

[gottaflylee]

Box and gradywhite are the Pinnacle pros around here. They should be able to get you on the right track soon...you my want to shoot them a PM if you don't hear from them...

[WAHOONBOX]

DUDE..........I AM LITERALLY LAUGHING MY ASS OFF HERE!!!! AND RINGING OUT A CRYING TOWEL FOR YA AT THE SAME TIME!

A FEW YEARS AGO I PURCHASED MY FIRST COPY OF PINNACLE STUDIO 7.....I THOUGHT BOY O BOY , I AM GOING TO HOLLYWOOD! ......................DUH UHHH....WRONG....


I TOO HAVE EXPERIENCED THE EXACT SAME LOCK DOWNS....MANY TRIPS BACK TO THE GEEK STORE.....I EVEN BOUGHT A NEW COMPUTER AND THAT WAS STILL NOT BIG ENOUGH TO HANDLE MOVIE MAKING...

1. YOUR VIDEO GRAPHICS CARD MUST ME VERY LARGE TO DO THIS

2. YOU SHOULD HAVE MUCHO MEMORY IN YOUR PC ( I HAVE 3 GBDDRZ DUAL CHANNEL

3. MY PROCESSOR IS AMD PHENOM 9600 AND I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS

4. I HAVE A 1,000 GIG HARD DRIVE TO STORE ALL MY HOLLYWOOD MESS



BUT................BUT.................


I AM NOW A GEEK MOVIE GOD....MORTAL MAN I AM NOT....FOR I AM "MOVIE BOX"........THATS RIGHT.....I AM
'MOVIE BOX"

PINNACLE MAKES A LITTLE OL CONTRAPTION CALLED A MOVIE BOX.......THEY STOLE MY USERNAME BUT THAT IS OKAY

ONE CAN BUY STUDIO PROGRAM WITH THE BOX INCLUDED (BEST BUY) ETC.....BUT ....DON'T BUY IT TILL YA TRY IT....I WILL LOAN YOU MY "BOX" TIL YOU SEE IF THIS WILL WORK.....I LIVE ON 24 AS YOU KNOW AND YOU SHOULD HOP IN DA TRUCK AND COME TO THE CRIB AND LET ME WALK YOU THRU IT ON MY NASABOX CONTROL CENTER STUDIO......MAYBE EVEN BRING YOUR PC TOWER, CAMERA, ETC WITH YA...


THIS WILL ALSO HELP KEEP SANITY IN YOUR HOME AS I AM CERTAIN YOUR BRIDE IS ABOUT SICK OF YOU PLAYING CECILLE B de REELAXIN ..........AM I CORRECT HERE? I THOUGHT SO...

252 808 0156 HM

IF YOU WATCH ME DO THIS ONE ITTY BITTY TIME....IT WILL KEEP 10 YRS ON YOUR LIFE

[WAHOONBOX]

YOU MAY ALSO NEED TO DOWNLOAD A DRIVER INTO YOUR COMPUTER FOR YOUR CAMERA...


YOU CAN TO THE WEBSITE OF YOUR CAMERA MANUFACTURER AND GET THIS DRIVER FREE AS A DOWNLOAD......MOST CAMERAS COME WITH THE SOFTWARE FOR THIS

[WAHOONBOX]

THE MINI DVD'S

...................GEEZZZUS H MUTHER OF ALL CAMERA ENGINEERING IDIOTS WHO CAME OUT WITH THIS STUPID IDEA.....THAT PERSON SHOULD BE SHOT AT SUNRISE AND FED TO A PACK OF MANGY COYOTES.........

I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF ONE THING GOOD ABOUT THE MINI DVD CAMERAS

THATS THE FIRST THING I WOULD DO......GET A NEW CAMERA BRO....SONY HAS A BAD ASS ONE.....ITS A HARD DRIVE CAMERA......IT EVEN DOES DISHES ON WEEKENDS

[WAHOONBOX]

I ASSUME THAT YOUR CAMERA HAS A USB CONNECTION-INPUT ? IF SO....A MOVIE BOX WILL SOLVE THIS I THINK...

WE CAN ALSO TGRY TO INSTALL YOUR MINI DVD IN MY COMPUTER....LET ME SEE IF I CAN BURN YOU A DVD....












I ACTUALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL I AM DOING EITHER.......

[reelaxin]

You darn sure hit that nail on the head - I am about as befuddled as I have ever been.

I do have the USB connection on the camera - and I am going to do a "camera upgrade" soon - this 4 min video has cost me a fortune already.

Let me sort out the schedule and maby I'll point the truck north in a couple of days. I will definately call for the phone tutorial.

Thanks,

CECILLE B de REELAXIN

[Riptide Charters]

This HD video stuff can be a major PIA. It's taken me all summer (with some help from Box) to get to the point where I can pump out a video in fairly short order.

If your going to upgrade I've been using a Canon HG10 (saves everything to aa 40GB HD) so no tapes or DVDs.

I've been using Ulead 11.5 for the editing.

I upgraded to a Quadcore machine with 4G of RAM. But the thing that makes this setup work the best is Ulead lets you "proxy" the raw footage and edit it in a lower resolution. Then once your done editing, you render the video w/ the changes in HD. The low res stuff flies through the machine when editing then all the changes are transfered to the HD video. Fast easy and so far it works well.

Ulead is pretty intuitive also.

If you have any questions PM or email me I'll be happy to try to help.

[gradywhite273]

when you hook up your camera to the computer, does it recognize it, if so, go thru my computer, and see if it shows up there, click on it, find the movie files, make that window smaller , then try to drag and drop from that window onto your desktop. thats what i still have to do.

[reelaxin]

Originally Posted by gradywhite273

when you hook up your camera to the computer, does it recognize it, if so, go thru my computer, and see if it shows up there, click on it, find the movie files, make that window smaller , then try to drag and drop from that window onto your desktop. thats what i still have to do.

I will give that a shot - the only way I could import the files into Pinnacle was to open Pinnacle then go to file - then import titles - and load one clip at a time. About half the time something would lock up.

I may have to give Marty's Movie Box a try this weekend.

I spent 4 hours in movie hell again last night and think I have put together about 25 min of video and managed to burn it to a DVD - will have to wait till later to see if it plays. The Geek Squad was at the crib yesterday to hook up a new Plazma TV / home theater system and did not have everything they needed to finish the job (thats a surprise) so I am left with no DVD player for a while.

SWMBO is off to the mountains for a few days so I get a repreive from the "what the heck are you still doing on that computer" speech for a while. I will either beat this thing by the end of the weekend or be creating the new Dell / Panasonic offshore reef just outside Topsail inlet.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Mike