Yesterday my wife needed to create and edit some videos for her class (she’s an art teacher) on how to work with water-color paints. We have a Sony DCR-DVD 105 camcorder that records to the mini DVDs. It doesn’t have a Firewire or USB connection on it so this presents a bit of a problem… How do you get the video onto your computer? Here’s what I do.

First you’ll need a bit of inexpensive software (sorry, not free this time) called AVS Video Converter. It is only $39.95 right now and it does a great job of converting the DVD files to almost any video format you would like. I usually choose .wmv, but the choice is up to you.

So here are the steps to converting the DVD video to any format you would like so you can edit your videos.

1. When you’re finished recording video, finalize the DVD.
2. After it is finalized, put the DVD into your computer’s DVD drive.
3. go to “My Computer” and Right-Click on the DVD drive.
4. Choose “Explore”.
5. A new window will be opened and you will see some files.
6. Copy the files that end in “.vob” to your desktop because AVS Video Converter can’t read directly from the DVD.
7. Start AVS Video Converter and choose the file format that you want to convert the DVD files to.
8. Click “Browse” to choose your .vob file.
9. Look under “Output File name” and you will see “… Profile” click on the box there to choose your exact output method within your video type.
10. Now you are almost finished. click on “Convert Now” and it will start it’s magic. Obviously the software will take longer to convert larger files but it will do it.

When the program is finished, you’ll be able to watch your video on your computer or edit it any way you want.

Happy video editing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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