Transfer mpg2 video to Camcorder – no Firewire

[John Rofrano]

[John Gregoriades] “What is the best way (maintain quality) to give him my edited video, so he can copy it onto mini-dv casettes & then work on editing it (adding other clips) with his system?”

Is he working with SD or HD? SD is not MPEG2, it is DV. Only HD is MPEG2 so be sure he is working in HDV before you give him an MPEG2 file.

You can give him the file on a USB stick but I don’t see how he’s going to get it to a miniDV tape without software that can print it to tape on his end. This is built into most NLE’s but without NLE software he won’t have this capability. He may have to purchase something inexpensive like Movie Studio to use the Print To Tape function unless you can find some freeware program that does this.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Mike Kujbida]

Buy an external hard drive and give him your entire project, media and all.
That way he’s free to make any changes he deems necessary and quality loss won’t be an issue.

[John Rofrano]

[Mike Kujbida] “Buy an external hard drive and give him your entire project, media and all. That way he’s free to make any changes he deems necessary and quality loss won’t be an issue.”

Hey Mike, did you read the original post?

He edits a final 2-hour program for TV, using mini-DV casettes & two editing decks, ultimately converting his final product to 3/4″ tape

This man works with physical tape and not a computer. Two editing decks, no computer. Outputs to 3/4″ tape without a computer. …and did I mention “he doesn’t use a computer“? (at least not for editing video)

lol 😀

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Mike Kujbida]

[John Rofrano] “Hey Mike, did you read the original post?”

Sorry John and John.
Must remember to fully wake up and have a coffee first before responding to any posts 🙁

[John Gregoriades]

Thanks, Mike and John.
I was sorry to hear the answer (but expected it.) Incidentally, you may wonder why is anyone using 20-yr old technology? Well…he’s a sprightly 90-year old “young at heart”, still at it after 28+ years broadcasting on radio & TV, currently delivering a 2-hour program on TV every single week, all by himself! (in the Philadelphia & NY area, on public “Mind” TV.) I’d love to convert him to computers and Vegas, because the TV station techs would prefer raw mpg2 they told me, but…
Many thanks again
John

John23GR

[Mike Kujbida]

John G, if his old computer is running XP, he has Windows Movie Maker on it and that can be used to do a print to DV tape after getting the file(s) from you (preferably DV to avoid quality loss).

p.s. kudos to him for staying “young at heart” after all these years.

Here are the instructions I found on one web site.

To record a movie back to tape:

Switch your DV camera on and verify that it is in playback mode (often labeled VCR on the camera).
On the File menu, click Save Movie File, and then click DV camera.
Or
In the Movie Tasks pane, under Finish Movie, click Send to DV camera.
If you have more than one DV device powered on and detected by Windows Movie Maker, on the DV Camera page, choose the DV device that contains the tape you want to record your movie to.
On the Cue Your Tape page, using the transport controls on your camera, rewind or fast-forward the tape to the point where you want your movie to be recorded.
NOTE: You should verify that you are not overwriting a portion of the tape that contains content you want to keep.
In the Windows Movie Maker dialog box, click Yes to continue in the wizard.
Wait for your movie to be created and recorded to tape. The time it takes to create and record the movie to tape depends on the length of the movie and the system resources on your computer. You can preview the movie in the LCD display of your DV camera as your movie is recorded to tape.
On the Completing the Save Movie Wizard page, click Finish.

[John Gregoriades]

Thank you, Mike, I sure appreciate the effort!!! He has a fairly new computer (not very fast) a gift which he does not really know how to use, with Windows 7 on it. So he does have Windows Movie Maker.
My (last?) question is: What is the format that I should render my video (with Vegas) to then copy into his PC, so that he can then, via WMM, send to his DV casette? (Should I render to mpg2 or something else?)

John23GR

[Mike Kujbida]

My pleasure John. After my ill-informed comment this morning, it’s the least I can do 🙂
Since he uses miniDV tapes, I’d render it out in NTSC DV-AVI format.
WMM can handle that type of file and there would be little if any quality loss from your editing.
Microsoft has a page on doing a print to tape (they call it “publishing”) with W7.
https://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows-vista/publish-a-movie-in-windows-movie-maker

[John Gregoriades]

Many thanks again!
John

John23GR

[John Rofrano]

[Mike Kujbida] “WMM can handle that type of file and there would be little if any quality loss from your editing. Microsoft has a page on doing a print to tape (they call it “publishing”) with W7.”

Great info Mike. I had no idea that Windows Movie Maker worked with DV cameras having never used it myself. You learn something new every day! 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com