Importing DV with Windows Movie Maker

[rusty]

Hi - dumb question time. So I have just started the project that I first got a digital video camera for 9 years ago: capturing video on the computer. Back then, the software was not intuitive, computers were slow, etc. so I never go on with it. Since then, I am on to a new camera (Canon HF10) and about my third new computer, and I have met all you nice Muvipix folks. My Canon ZR10 camera died after getting wet in a rainstorm in Paris two years ago, so I recently borrowed a friend's and have captured the raw footage from half a dozen of my 30 or so MiniDV tapes. The first five I just used the Windows Movie Maker (WMM) utility that pops up as part of the AutoPlay menu when I connected the camera - a couple of clicks and the footage captured as a one hour'ish AVI file to a folder in my video library folder on my D:/ drive. I then brought that file into PE7, split it up into several shorter clips, renamed the clips and saved them back to my video library folder. It's fairly time consuming, but not too bad - I have only done one of the five tapes so far. With the sixth tape, I opened WMM first, and imported the video using the command on the File drop-down menu. When the capture was complete, WMM was open and it turned out there are individual clips created already for each time I stopped and started recording. They are visible when WMM is open, but when I go to my video library where the capture was saved, all I see is a single icon for a large AVI file. Just to check, I imported one of the previous five files into WMM and it showed individual clips already existing - again, they aren't visible in my video library (it only shows an icon for one big AVI file), only when I have the file open in WMM. Can someone tell me how can I save those individual clips as separate AVI files to my video library as it would be a major time saved as opposed to splitting and resaving in PE7 - I didn't see any export or save commands on any of the menus that would allow me to do this. Sorry - no doubt this is extremely elementary.

Of course, I also have about the same number of Video 8 tapes and no working camera...that'll be the next thing...

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Rusty,
The best way to do that is to capture with Premiere Elements and set the scene detection to Timecode.
You can also use WinDV and that will split the scenes by timecode as well, the program is free.
Windows Movie maker may do the same thing but you have an extra step to export as AVI.
With Premiere Elements or WinDV the captured video is already AVI and makes thing easy for editing.
Hope that helps

[rusty]

Thanks. With Premiere Elements, I seem to have to open a project to capture video. I don't really want to bring it into a project right from the tapes. I just want it off the tapes and on to my computer, so I can bring in what I want when I want it for a PE project in the future. It's seems I'd have to open a new project, import the video from the camera and save to the appropriate folder location, and then delete all the PE temp project files etc. it isn't really a project. Do I have that right, or is there an easier way? I'll bet the farm it's the latter and I'm just dense.

[Chuck Engels]

Just because you start a project doesn't mean you have to do anything with it Rusty.
You can just use the project to capture. But the better option is probably WinDV, download it and give it a shot, I'm sure you'll like it

http://windv.mourek.cz/

[hpharley90]

t's seems I'd have to open a new project, import the video from the camera and save to the appropriate folder location, and then delete all the PE temp project files etc. it isn't really a project. Do I have that right, or is there an easier way? I'll bet the farm it's the latter and I'm just dense.

Rusty just capture with PE. Yes you will capture from camera and open a new project. So what. Everything is together in one spot. You don't have to work in PE if you don't want to but you will have captured the individual clips that you want. Those clips can be imported into other software if that is your goal. And if not they are right there in PE for you to use. That is the well organized way to do it.

Each video capture should have its own, named, separate project folder with all the different files (DV-AVI clips) in it including .prel file, media cache folder, preview folder and an Encoded folder.

Just because you start a new project with a capture of video tape doesn't mean you have to work on it per say. A project is only as big as you want it to be. Just think of it as being a way to organize your captures of video tape and keep each tape it's own project.

If you want to combine clips, you start a new project and import the various clips from different projects to make a new one.
Am I making myself clear?
I hope this helps.

[rusty]

Many thanks for the elementary video-capture 101 lesson. Works like a charm. The reason the concept of a new project to capture video from the camera was foreign is because I have captured all my AVCHD video from my Canon HF10 with the software that came with it. It worked well, and I saved everything to the folders I wanted. Then when I wanted to do a project in PE, I would just Get Media from the folders as needed. Using PE to capture the MiniDV video works nicely because the Split Scenes by Timecode option saves all the individual clips rather than a monster 13 GB one like the first few tapes I did with Windows Movie Maker (I have now re-captured them). However, once the clips are saved to the proper folders (my library is organized with folders for each year, and then by month), I just delete the media from the PE project because I don't need it there. And then I use the same project to capture the next tape, etc. Seems to work well. Thanks again.

[hpharley90]

Your quite welcome.

[Clayton]

Rusty I do all my capturing with Scenalyzer. It is a great program that will make indexes of what is on you tapes. You can use it to name each clip and it captures the timecode for each clip. http://www.scenalyzer.com/ You can download a trial and it is $34 to purchase (I think).

[rusty]

Thanks Clayton. I'll probably give the trial a trial! Thanks.