Canon XL2 Mini DV Digital Camcorder Video to Computer?

How would I transfer the data (video) I’ve recorded on the mini DV cassette onto my laptop, where it can be edited? FireWire? I don’t think the camcorder came with the necessary USB extensions.

Answer by Little Dog
ALL minDV tape camcorders use Firewire for video-to-computer.

All miniDV tape camcorder have a 4-pin DV port. Whether the other side of the cable needs to be 4-pin, 6-pin or 9-pin depends on the computer’s firewire port.

If your computer has no firewire port, hopefully it has an available expansion slot (PCI for desktop/tower; PCMCIA or ExpressCard for Laptop – if there is even a port). Since you only told us your computer is a laptop – but no manufacturer or model there is not much more we can do to assist.

If you read the manual, you will not find a USB port on the XL2 – so there won’t be any “extensions” or drivers to get.

Refer to page 101, Connecting to the computer using a DV (IEEE1394) cable.

In this context, DV, Firewire, IEEE1394 and i.LINK are all the same thing – and they are not USB. Even is the XL2 had a USB port, it wouldn’t work. USB-firewire cable/converter/adapter/hub things won’t work, either.

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Canon HV10


Image by robertnelson
HDV | 1080i

I have a Canon zr600 digital video camcorder and I understand that I can send footage recorded on the tape to my computer with a Firewire cable. I have the firewire, I just don’t know how to send it! When i plug it in, it doesn’t show up anywhere in Finder, and I’ve searched it and can’t seem to find an answer. Please help me out!

Answer by snowwillow20
You have to open your video editing program and then capture the video.

If you have a PC with Vista or XP your video editing program would be Windows Movie Maker. Your camcorder probably also came with some kind of video editing program.

OOPS, didn’t see MAC, you would use imovie.

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