How do I get video off my Cam Corder and on the pc?

How do I down load video from my cam corder to my PC?
I can do the pics, but I haven't been able to figure out the video. I can watch the video throught my vcr. Do I need a different patch cord? I am using a USB patch cord on the pc, and a video cord on the vcr, three color coded wires on one end. My pc doesn't accept the three pronged video plug. Other options?
 
Or could it be a software issue?

You can use microsoft movie maker and import it from there. its really easy.

When you plug the camera in, and you get your pics, does it do it through a special program?
 
Next time your camera is plugged in, see if it shows up in Windows Explorer, and if it does, it should read like a standard folder/drive and you should be able to copy straight from there... If not, your camera came with the software to get the video...

Seriously, it will get it off of moviemake. On the left side just click import for camera.

I never said it wouldn't, lol.

You can use that, and it'll automatically convert it to WMV for you, all you have to do is tell it what quality you want it in.
 
Personally, I'm not a fan of WMV's picture quality, but it's guaranteed to play on anyone who has windows 98 or higher...

What is the video camera you are workin' with Tim?

I know on my Digital Camera I can do video. My camera came with software, so When I plug the camera into the pc it automatically takes off anything that is on the Card. Puts it into a folder with the date. If I go into that folder it would show me all the pics and movies in there. That's mine though. 

Its a JVC DV camcorder. Model GR-D270.
I took teh camcorder to Circuit City, appearently I need a 4 pin connector (real small) on the camcorder side, and a fire wire connection on the pc side. Trouble is my pc doesn't have a fire wire connection. I only have USB ports, bunches of them.
 
When I hook the camcorder up and its set on the memory card, the pc sees the photos rightaway. It looks like I need a different wire to hook up the video then the memory card.
 
According to the guy at Circuit City they dont make a wire that goes from my camcorder to the pc via the USB port. He was saying video quality will suffer even if they did make one.
What are my options?

The fact that video quality would suffer is a total line of BS.

But you either need a firewire setup, or a good Video Capture device...

If I still had my firewire card, I'd donate that and the cable for ya, but, you should be able to get one for fairly cheap... I don't think they make USB > Firewire adaptors, so you'd need the card...
 
From what I can tell on the JVC website, the camera only transfers video through the firewire port... read the manual and double check what it says... it should have at least come with the cable for it...

Yeah, you can pick up a firewire card for under $15 that will do exactly what you require.  My laptop has built in firewire, but I added it to my desktop so I could do my video storage and editting there instead.  I think this is the one that I purchased: Firewire PCI card - Newegg.com You will then need to get the appropriate cable for your camcorder if the one supplied doesn't work.

And the CC guy is wrong in that it won't degrade the quality if using USB2.0, but the earlier USB1.0 couldn't support the speed necessary to transmit a live feed from the camcorder tape to the PC.   Most digital camcorders use firewire for their video transfer mode.  Firewire 1394a is a bit faster than even USB2.0.

Once you get the connections right, you can then just use the built-in movie-maker with Windows XP.  It's pretty straight forward.

Thanks guys. So my next mission is to find a Firewire card and get the cable.
That might take a couple days, the wife is having her addnodes removed today (outpatient surgery). She gets tons of sinus infections and this should stop that. Hopefully it'll stop her snoring too.  

Go through the box again, it should have come with the cable... Unless it was a display model... Everything except the firewire card itself should have come with the camera...

My Canon ZR85 came with the RCA video connections, but not the firewire cable.  Looking at some online documentation on the JVC model Tim has, it doesn't look like a firewire cable was included...

Dang, they're getting skimpy these days... My bros old Hitachi Hi8 came with the firewire cable... Ahh well, the cable needed should only be like $7 or so at most...
 
Should be the 6 pin to 4 pin cable needed... Most firewire cards only have 6 pin connectors... Laptops will sometimes have just a 4 pin, or both

Yeah, I had to buy a 4pin-4pin for my laptop, then buy another 4pin-6pin for my desktop.  But that way I just leave the 4pin-6pin plugged in all the time along with the power cord for the camcorder.

Is your lappy a sony?

Heck no!  LOL.  Dell Inspiron 8200.  I love this thing!

Good! I'd have had to whack ya with a stick if you had a Sony laptop, lol j/k
 
Generally, back in the day, the Sony's had the 4 pin firewire on all their laptops, most others that I saw had the 6 pin

About the only thing that I own that is a Sony is an alarm clock and my home theater system.  I am very happy with my home theater.  I've worked on a few sony computers and would rather use one for target practice than do pretty much anything else with it.  Such a pain in the arse to work with.

I've had my Inspiron 8200 for 4 years now and this thing is still going strong.  I'm thinking of a CPU upgrade with the current price of the P4-m processors dropping like a rock.  But even at 1.7Ghz, 1Gb DDR ram, 60gig 7200rpm HD, a ATI Radeon 9000 64mb AGP video card, and the UXGA screen, it is one heck of a laptop.  I"m able to play CS:S very well.

A lot of Dell laptops are actually able to upgrade the video too...

Yeah, if you can find the video cards...  The best video card was the NVIDIA Quadro4 500 GoGL from the Precision M50, but they are EXTREMELY expensive if you can find one.  The ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 and the NVIDIA GeForce4go both at 64Mb ram are about equal, however I wish I had the NVIDIA simply due to the drive support.  ATI sucks for OEM drive support.  Now I'm stuck at Catalyst v6 because they dropped the mobility line.

Try www.omegadrivers.net
Those are the drivers I used when I had a laptop with an ATI setup

That's what I use.  But I'm stuck now because ATI decided to stop covering the mobility line, nothing that the omega guys can redo if it just isn't there...

Ever since AMD took over ATI the driver support has gone down... Which is pretty bad, since they weren't that great to begin with, lol.