From camcorder to computer

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Hobbit_Girl
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From camcorder to computer

Post by Hobbit_Girl »

Alrighty, this might sound pretty wacky, but how do I get something from a video camera onto my computer? By "video camera", I mean "perchased-in-the-mid-90s-borderline-antique" camera. LOL. I've heard of people hooking these up and transfering the video onto the computer; how do you go about that? If anyone can help me, I'd be really grateful!

As off-topic as this may sound, there is relevance to it. Does anyone remember this post I made way-back-when?
http://forum.audiblebeauty.net/viewtopic.php?t=384

Well, I've had a tremendous stroke of luck. I was going through old home-video tapes last night, and what do you know, but on one of the tapes I have that song playing. Not only that, but it's brilliant quality (considering that it's done using the old "bootleg" method). So I've found my precious "lost song"; now I just want to know how to get it onto the computer. After I get it on the computer, I'll gladly post it here for everyone to listen to! :D
From the ashes a fire shall woken,
A light from the shadow shall spring,
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king
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Gina
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Post by Gina »

If just want the audio, it should not be too hard. You will need an audio/video cable (perhaps whatever you use to hook up the camera to watch on the TV). The most common would be red/white/yellow ("RCA"). The red and white connectors are your stereo audio. Now to get that into the computer, you might need to purchase an adapter that brings those two together into a "mini-plug" which can usually go into a computer sound card's Line In. Or you can simply obtain a cable that has RCA on one end and mini-plug on the other, aka a Y cable. Now you just need an audio editor program to record the sound input. You might need to adjust your OS's (i.e. Windows) volume/recording properties and to "select" Line In as the recording source.

Similar instructions: Digitize your LPs and tapes

If you want the video too, you need a separate video capture card installed or (like me) a stand alone DVD recorder hooked up to your VCR or camcorder.
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Hobbit_Girl
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Post by Hobbit_Girl »

Thanks soooo much for the info, Gina! I'll get to work on that straight away...... even though I'm going to have to take money out of my "iPod replacement svaings" to get the Y-cable. LOL. I'll post it as soon as I get some results. :D
From the ashes a fire shall woken,
A light from the shadow shall spring,
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king
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Hobbit_Girl
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Post by Hobbit_Girl »

Here it is at long last!!!!!!! :D :D :D (I titled it "imagination lives" because that was the tagline of the commercial.... obviously, I have no idea what its real title is)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/dapb3m (better quality, I *think*)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/2s1ojv

The only problem is that it got pretty distorted in the transfer. Does anyone know how to "clean it up"? I don't mean to sound ungrateful or whatever, because I'm glad just to have it! But I'd really like to take care of some of the fuzziness it aquired in the transfer. (when I put it on a video tape to play in my VCR, it wasn't this fuzzy.) I posted two different copies, because I recorded them on two different settings, and one might be better than the other.

Thanks soooooo much for helping me get this far, Gina! You have no idea how grateful I am!
From the ashes a fire shall woken,
A light from the shadow shall spring,
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king
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Gina
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Post by Gina »

That is nice music. Congrats for finally obtaining it!
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Hobbit_Girl
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Post by Hobbit_Girl »

Gina wrote:That is nice music. Congrats for finally obtaining it!
Thanks again! :D

Any ideas on how to "clean" it up?
From the ashes a fire shall woken,
A light from the shadow shall spring,
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king
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Gina
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Post by Gina »

Not sure if you have since converted it, but they are only 22khz/mono which is fairly low quality. "CD quality" is 44khz/16 bit stereo.

It also sounds like there were some problems with recording levels in that the fuller sounds are getting "clipped" because they were too loud coming into the recording program. These often need to be adjusted quite carefully before recording from an analog source. You need to adjust the sound coming out (though this depends on whether you are plugged in from a headphone jack or a line-out jack) and the recording level/volume on the computer.

There actually is not that much "noise" and so is not as much of a problem as the recording techniques themselves.

I would suggest searching for more online articles and guides to help you out. There really isn't much more I can do from a distance, you know? A lot of people are doing this very same activity so I'm sure you can find some good help somewhere.
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Hobbit_Girl
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Post by Hobbit_Girl »

Well, I've played around with it quite alot, and I've made some definite improvements! There's still room for improvement though.
Gina wrote:Not sure if you have since converted it, but they are only 22khz/mono which is fairly low quality. "CD quality" is 44khz/16 bit stereo.
How do I fix that? And if it makes any difference (and I fear it might), my camcorder only has one audio-output port. And sorry if I sound clueless.... I've never done anything like this before. :oops:
From the ashes a fire shall woken,
A light from the shadow shall spring,
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king
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