Connecting handy cam to Computer?

Hi, this may seem like a stupid question. I just bought a seconhand sony handy cam and was told I could connect it to a computer to transfer footage. Do I need special software or hardware to do this.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Do you have firewire?

 

Which OS?

 

Hi, xp2000 not sure if I have firewire? How can I find out.

Thanks for the help Kadavill

 

If you want to transfer stills you can use the usb port,and if you want to transfer video you can use the firewire port.Check your motherboard manual to know which ports you have.The firewire is also known as IEEE1394 and i.LINK.Did you get a cord with it to connect?If you dont have firewire try usb?You might have to download drivers for usb feauture.If you dont have firewire allready you can buy a pci firewire card,look for OHCI compliant cards.What is the model no. of the cam?
I recently has trouble connecting canon ZR80to a win98SE machine via firewire.But on XP there was no software needed and no problems?

 

To check if you have Firewire then look in Device Manager for a listing that says "IEE 1394 Bus Host Controllers" or similar.

Your motherboard manual may also help.

For XP, you don't need drivers and the camera will be installed and seen as a "Removable Storage Device" and assigned a drive letter.

This is only done when the unit is plugged in and switched on otherwise it won't be displayed or detected.

If it's switched off it will disappear from your computer and won't be displayed nor detected.

Most video cameras, with a couple of minor exceptions, use USB 2.0 to transfer stills and Firewire, also known as DVI, to transfer video.

To capture and edit this video on XP you can just use Movie Maker 2 which is already included.

Standard XP only comes with Movie Maker 1 which is nowhere near as good, but it updates to 2 if you have SP2 installed.

If not you can get an update from Micro$$oft's site.

 

The most important thing is whether your camera has a digital output,if it doesnt you will need a converter to convert the video signal into one your computer can understand,these can be bought as PCI cards or external usb or firewire boxes but the PCI cards are usually the cheapest.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Products.ASP?CatID=53&Category=Multimedia/TV&Thumbnails=yes
Look in video editing at the bottom of the page it should give you an idea of what to look for.

 

Thanks heaps, got it working, can downlaod stills. I just need to get a pci firewire card now. Thanks again.