[timtheenchanter]

Please help, Im new to DV cams etc, see if I have this right.

for transfer from DV cassette to PC, I need to use firewire for best quality, the driver for the corder is either in XP already, or avaliable from sony.

The only software I Need for transfer is windows movie maker, and and appropriate DVD burner.

I, at this point only need to tranfer media from the DVcassette to DVD for archiving, I work in a school, and the camcorders are used for B-TEC evidence collecting, at the moment everything is recorded up to VHS, but our VHS machines are slowly dying, and we need an alternative.

Thanks in advance.

[redsox_mark]

For your first question; yes - for DV transfer to PC use Firewire; no additional drivers are needed, it is all in XP. Windows Movie Maker can be used to transfer to PC.

The second question isn't quite so straightforward. When you say transfer to DVD for archiving - this could mean a) copying the original DV files to a DVD data disc, or b) creating a DVD video. If you want to play the disc on a DVD player, then it needs to be b), create a DVD video. You need DVD authoring software for this; I don't believe the XP version of Movie Maker can do that. A cheap and easy DVD authoring package is Ulead DVD Movie Factory.

[senu]

It sounds to me that you would be better off getting a settop DVD recorder with HDD and firewire If it is just for archiving MiniDV tapes to DVD.

The idea of transferring to PC and creating a DVD suggests that editing may be desired
For simple editing ,ie trim ect, you can do that on the HDD of a settop recorder before burning to disc, if you want to.
Of course with a settop you can record directly to disc anyway even if it has an HDD

As Mark has stated , you can import with WMM ( taking care to record as DV AVI, NOT wmv; which it defaults to)
The XP version does not output to mpeg2 or have any DVD arthoring abilities.
The suggested MovieFactory ( for £29) is an elegant solution
However if you have Nero ( not Express or OEM) on your system, Nero Vision is also capable, The version that comes with Nero 7 and Nero 8 even more so.
See the FAQ on use of WMM if you would prefer to see how much you can do with it. I have linked to WMM enthusiast sites..

Depending on specific needs, You can have both a settop recorder and PC
I dont know how many tapes you have but be aware that DV takes 13Gb of space for one hour . Certainly you can wipe that off once you make your DVD .
Also there is an element of time involved in encoding DV AVI from the tape in the camcorder to mpeg2 which is the format in which it will be on a DVD. By using a settop recorder this will be done "on the fly" in real time

[redsox_mark]

Yes I agree; "set top" DVD recorder is the easiest.