I'm interested in buying this digicam: http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/4270...fichetechnique it comes with a USB cable and some kind of software.

I want to know how easy it will be to make a Video CD, do I need to convert the files and is there any free software I can use? Do I need a fast PC with a big hard-drive or would my Pentium 3 with 10GB hard-drive do the job?

Also how long would it take to transfer and burn a Video CD?

Cheers!

[MarkE19]

Well these are all very good questions to be asking as a noobie, but a little searching on this forum would answer most of them.

Well to start with, you really should use firewire to connect the cam to a PC. USB is only any good for transfering still images or perhaps webcam quality video.
The best free software for capture and editing video is only available as part of Windows XP, which I assume you are not running on a P3 . this software is Movie Maker and is very good for starters, but alas not any good for you.
A P3 is a bit old, but it can be done. You will need to search around for some old software that will work on the PC as modern programs will likly not run on such a PC.

Via firewire you will capture the footage as an AVI file. This will copy to the PC in real time, ie a 1 hour tape will take 1 hour to copy. It is then down to how long you spend editing it. Once that is done you are likely to need to leave it overnight to convert the files to smaller MPEG-1 files that will fit on a VCD.

My advice is get as much RAM as you can in the PC, and add a second hard disc - you will need both! But if you get the bug and want to go further you really will need to upgrade the PC.

Good luck,
Mark.

Thanks MarkE19 for answering those Qs so fast!

I actually have a laptop, so I guess I have to stick with USB transfer for now.

How big is a 90min video in GBs?

[MarkE19]

Nope! Firewire can be added to a laptop via a PCMCIA card that will cost about £20 online. That is assuming that the laptop does not already have firewire, as many do!

90 minutes of footage will take approx 21Gb, but you then need extra space for editing and file conversion etc. I normally work on a double the capture size requirement, so in this case I would recommend having around 40Gb of space to edit a 90 minute recording. If you don't have this amount of space (as many laptops don't!) you can add an external HDD via firewire, or perhaps even USB2.0 but firewire is better.

Mark.