Transferring Video / handycam onto PC

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OnceBitten

365 posts

Ultimate Geek

#56853 26-Jan-2010 11:38

I have the use of a fairly modern Sony Handycam (with no manual unfortunately) and want to take some footage of my band playing and download / transfer if from the camera to my PC, then upload it to a website.

I tried this once last year and unfortunately the size of the files that came from the camera were 200MB - 500MB MPG files and I couldn't reduce the size of them without reducing the sound and picture quality.

The camera also has a DVD burn function, and I remember last time when I plugged the camera in to the PC I pressed the DVD burn button on the camera base unit and it asked me to put in a blank DVD disc in the computer and it automatically burnt the files onto the DVD - then I copied the files from the camera to the PC. But as I mentioned the files were huge and I just couldn't e-mail them to anyone or upload them to a website.

is there a way I can download / transfer the files from the camera so they are not so 'huge' - or is there some way we can convert the files to another format so they are smaller but still retail the picture and audio quality?

any help would be appreciated

thanks

dklong

101 posts

Master Geek

#293119 26-Jan-2010 12:22

One Bitt'n

The reason the files from the camera are usually so large is that they are uncompressed. This means that each frame is complete and you can then edit the data at a frame-by-frame level without the editing software having to read all sorts of data in order to build up a complete picture of the frame.

Simply sucking the raw data into any video editing software and writing it back out as an MPEG-2 or some other 'compressed' format will immediately reduce the size significantly. While you are there you could even tidy the files up a bit. Even something as basic as Windows Movie Maker would do this.

Cheers

David

OnceBitten

365 posts

Ultimate Geek

#293143 26-Jan-2010 14:07

Thanks David,

I do have windows movie maker and I put some of the MPG files in there and shrunk them, but the quality was cr*p.
Next time I will try and transfer them straight to movie maker and play around with them from there.... I am still learning about movie maker....

the other option is to take it to a place that does all that video transfer / DVD editing...etc... and see if they can do it.

cheers
Nick a.k.a. Once Bitten

wellygary

4453 posts

Uber Geek

#293165 26-Jan-2010 15:46

OnceBitten: Thanks David,

I do have windows movie maker and I put some of the MPG files in there and shrunk them, but the quality was cr*p.
Next time I will try and transfer them straight to movie maker and play around with them from there.... I am still learning about movie maker....

the other option is to take it to a place that does all that video transfer / DVD editing...etc... and see if they can do it.

cheers
Nick a.k.a. Once Bitten

If you have them burnt to DVD, grab something like Handbrake http://handbrake.fr/ and have a go at transcoding into something a bit more efficent. (anything with H.264 is usually fairly good at crunching down file sizes, with out sacrificing to much quality)

dklong

101 posts

Master Geek

#293199 26-Jan-2010 21:14

Yep. If you go too small they can look bad but there are usually lots of options. Have a play at the output stage and you should be able to come up with a good compromise.

Good Luck!