Create great home movies with Windows

Both formats use a special camcorder-to-PC connection known variously as Firewire, iLink and IEEE-1394. Windows Movie Maker can automatically detect when you connect a miniDV camcorder using Firewire - the only drawback is that not all PCs come with a built-in Firewire socket.

If you can’t find one on your computer, you can buy a Firewire card, but you’ll need to open your PC and install it.

Owners of DVD-recordable camcorders are worst off when it comes to transferring footage. Some DVD-based camcorders provide a USB or Firewire link, but in many cases you’ll need to resort to converting your own recordings from a finalised disc.

Windows Movie Maker can’t do this, but free DVD ripping tools are available. Try DVDFab HD Decrypter.

Transferring footage
To transfer MiniDV footage, turn on your camcorder and switch it to Playback or VCR mode (or your model’s equivalent mode). Insert the tape you want to transfer and rewind it to the beginning. When you’re ready, connect the camcorder’s DV-out socket to the PC’s Firewire port using the correct Firewire cable.

Connecting a camcorder in this way for the first time should prompt Windows to install a driver for it, so wait a few seconds while it does so.

You should see a small message to this effect somewhere near the Windows Notification Area (found at the bottom-right of your display). Once this is done, an Autoplay window will appear and ask what you’d like to do next.

In Windows XP, highlight where it says ‘Capture Video using Windows Movie Maker’ and click OK. In Windows Vista, click the ‘Import video using Windows Import Video’ option.