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General discussion

A software question

Nov 10, 2004 3:51AM PST

Hi,
I have a Canon ZR10 with can capture still photos. Canon is suggesting a FR100 to fetch the stills to a floppy disk, cost about $300.00. I was wandering if there was some type of software on the market that could let me use my DV (IEEE 1394) connection to let me fetch my stills on the camera to my hard drive. I can use my firewire to download the dv to capture.
Tks

Discussion is locked

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Re: A software question
Nov 10, 2004 4:36AM PST

I downloaded the Canon ZR10 camcorder manual.

As you stated, you need a FR100 to copy the still from the tape to a floppy.

It seems that Canon could have written some software that would permit you to download the stills directly to your hard drive. I don't know of any that will do that.

It certainly would not be worth $300 to capture a still from a camcorder. At best, it would be 640x480.
You can buy lots of digital still cameras with much better resolution for a lot less money.

You could also just download the video tape through firewire and turn it into a DVD.

Some computer DVD software will let you capture any part of the DVD movie as a still picture. It will be about the same quality as the one the camcorder can produce.

If you don't have a DVD burner, they are available for under $100.

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Re: A software question (to snapshot2)
Nov 10, 2004 4:17PM PST

i've been reading a lot of your (snapshot2) comments and advices and find it very precise and helpful. i also have a sony minidv camcorder. and im using a pinnacle studio9 via firewire to transfer/write it to dvd. but it takes a very long time(1hour tape=5hours transfer/write). is there another software/hardware in the market that can transfer minidv to dvd at 100% quality at a much shorter time? thanks.

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Re: A software question (to snapshot2)
Nov 10, 2004 11:32PM PST

I too have a Sony camcorder with firewire and use
Ulead Video Studio 7
for download from the camera, editing, and burning to the DVD.

I recently created a one hour wedding DVD, but did not time everything along the way.

The thing that takes the most processor time is after you finish editing and the computer renders the files into something that can be written onto the DVD.

It is very processor intensive and the faster the CPU, the better. I use a 2 gigahertz CPU and I believe the rendering and writing of my one hour DVD was a little over two hours.

The actual writing time depends upon the speed of your DVD burner. I used a 4X burner.

Two things: before starting the rendering of the data, disable any screensaver you have running. When it is rendering, do not try to use the computer for anything else (get up and walk away).

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Re: A software question (to snapshot2)
Nov 10, 2004 11:53PM PST

great! ill upgrade my cpu. my dvd writer is 8x.
thanks snapshot2

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Probably not. Most people who develop such things
Nov 10, 2004 9:50AM PST

know that you don't get photographs from a video camera. You also should not expect to get video from a still camera.

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For Kiddpeat
Nov 10, 2004 10:03AM PST

The video (what should I call it) from my DX6490 was surprisingly great stuff. I'm impressed.

Bob

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I assume you mean it does good 'video' for a still camera,
Nov 11, 2004 1:07AM PST

not that it's a substitute for a video camera. I guess these features have their place if one has very limited video needs.

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No, I it does great 'video' for a still camera.
Nov 11, 2004 1:23AM PST

I'm sure it's limited by the stick of memory, but if I play it back on the big screen TV and my DVcam they look very similar.

How odd! And great.

Bob