I have a video camera and several tapes with movies on them. I have always intended to take the movies off the tapes as they were recorded, and transfer them to my PC. Once on the PC, I want to edit the movies (delete scenes, add transitions, etc.) I also want to use the PC for either permanent archival (since disk is relatively cheap), or transfer the movies to CD / DVD for permanent storage. Actually, this is the biggest goal of all: turning my home movies into something on CD or DVD that I can easily watch and share. Starting the New Year off right, I decided I would take the plunge and finally do it. Here then is my tale.
Let's face it, watching home movies using your video camera and a collection of tapes is not too easy, nor too fun. It should be a lot easier, like popping in a CD or DVD into the DVD player, then sitting back on the sofa with the remote control.
The equipment: Panasonic MiniDV camcorder with 1394 (firewire) port IEEE 1394 (firewire) card for PC IEEE 1394 cable PC with over 68 GB of free space and 756MB of RAM (On my Debian system running the KDE desktop, I can get this information through the KDE Info Center)