Importing Video from Sony DV Video Camera using Windows Movie Maker

1. Connect camera using firewire.
2. Import video using Windows Movie Maker (Vista), use WMV setting.
3. Windows Movie Maker – Automatically Creates Clips based on DV time codes.
4. Publish as ‘Best for this computer 16×9’.

   

5. Although the record date is captured on import, when publishing this is lost, so the modified date is changed using a free tool like ‘AttributeMagic’.  This has to be done before opening Windows Photo Gallery to list the new file.

Converting home video dvd’s back to WMV movies

Now that I have all my photos organised using Windows Photo Gallery, I have decided to use it to organise all my home videos as well.  My goal is to have all the media in one place that is easily accessible and discoverable.  It is so nice to just click on a tag (e.g. XMAS) and bring up all the photos and videos of the kids opening their presents.  With the current availability of large and cheap hard disks this now becomes viable.

Creating new videos from my Sony DV Camera is a breeze with Windows Movie Maker in Vista, but I needed to get all the old home videos off DVD’s that I created with ULEAD software a some time ago.

1. First I copied the VIDEO_TS folder from the DVD’s to the PC.
2. Next I used a utility called VOB2MPG v2.5 to convert the DVD VOB files in the VIDEO_TS folder into an mpg file.  This takes a few minutes for a DVD.
3. Now the mpg file can be added to Windows Movie Maker.
4. The large mpg file can be split into clips by right clicking the image and selecting ‘Create Clips’.  This does take some time so be patient.

You can now create your movie(s) from the clips and then publish them to a WMV file(s).  I use the option ‘best quality for playback on my computer’ which works well.   Aspect ratio can be set to 4×3 or 16×9 in the options menu.

Windows Photo Gallery can now be used to tag your videos and you can also change the date so that it sorts correctly.

 

2009 Update

VOB2MPG version 3 is now available

Windows Movie Maker no longer comes bundled with Windows 7.  You have to install Windows Live Movie Maker instead.  The same concepts apply but it no longer has the ‘create clips’ option so you have to manually split the video before publishing.