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...or at least a suggestion. I'm in LA and I shot a bit of video for a friend. It turned out okay, now I want to burn it to a DVD and give it to her for her birthday, but so far, all of my attempts to get this done have fallen through. This morning, I schlepped out to a photo studio that advertised the service, just figuring I'd pay > retail, and have it done. The guy had crap gear - literally, a little $100 handicam-type thing that didn't even use full-sized DVDs, and the heads were so thrashed that it bunged up the tape!

It's about 34 minutes of DV footage on a MiniDV tape, and I need to make pretty much ONE copy, onto DVD. Can anybody point me in the right direction, or at least A direction? The day is fast approaching!
And yes, I know, I should just get a DVD burner installed in my own computer, but it's about $300 to do that, which is a wee bit more than I'm looking to spend a) on this particular gift and b) this close to Christmas.
Anybody?

Life Continues, Despite
My Tragic Luddite Nature
Steven

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]...or at least a suggestion. I'm in LA and I shot a bit of video for a friend. It turned out okay, now I want to burn it to a DVD and give it to her for her birthday, but so far, all of my attempts to get this done have fallen through. This morning, I schlepped out to a photo studio that advertised the service, just figuring I'd pay > retail, and have it done. The guy had **** gear - literally, a little $100 handicam-type thing that didn't even use full-sized DVDs, and the heads were so thrashed that it bunged up the tape! It's about 34 minutes of DV footage on a MiniDV tape, and I need to make pretty much ONE copy, onto DVD. Can anybody point me in the right direction, or at least A direction? The day is fast approaching! And yes, I know, I should just get a DVD burner installed in my own computer, but it's about $300 to do that, which is a wee bit more than I'm looking to spend a) on this particular gift and b) this close to Christmas. Anybody?[/nq]
What about daisy chaining to a home DVD burner player at about $100? If that's still a bit much, find a store with an easy return policy. Know anybody with a Costco account?

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]...or at least a suggestion. I'm in LA and I shot a bit of video for a friend. It turned ... wee bit more than I'm looking to spend a) on this particular gift and b) this close to Christmas. Anybody?[/nq]
http://tinyurl.com/yjwj5qe
New external MAC DVD burner on Ebay $42 including postage.

(Note: I know nothing about MACs.)

Paulo Joe Jingy
"I just couldn't live in a world without me."

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]...or at least a suggestion. I'm in LA and I ... this particular gift and b) this close to Christmas. Anybody?[/nq]
[nq:1] New external MAC DVD burner on Ebay $42 including postage. (Note: I know nothing about MACs.)[/nq]
Sorry, screwed that up it's a player not a writer.

Paulo Joe Jingy
"I just couldn't live in a world without me."

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]...or at least a suggestion. I'm in LA and I shot a bit of video for a friend. It turned out okay, now I want to burn it to a DVD and give it to her for her birthday, but so far, all of my attempts to get this done have fallen through. This morning, I schlepped out to a photo studio that advertised the service, just figuring I'd pay > retail, and have it done. The guy had **** gear - literally, a little $100 handicam-type thing that didn't even use full-sized DVDs, and the heads were so thrashed that it bunged up the tape! It's about 34 minutes of DV footage on a MiniDV tape, and I need to make pretty much ONE copy, onto DVD. Can anybody point me in the right direction, or at least A direction? The day is fast approaching! And yes, I know, I should just get a DVD burner installed in my own computer, but it's about $300 to do that, which is a wee bit more than I'm looking to spend a) on this particular gift and b) this close to Christmas. Anybody? Life Continues, Despite My Tragic Luddite Nature Steven[/nq]
Find a friend with a good Macintosh set-up that includes iMovie and iDVD, It should literally take a day, if you're stickling.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]...or at least a suggestion. I'm in LA and I ... this particular gift and b) this close to Christmas. Anybody?[/nq]
[nq:1]Find a friend with a good Macintosh set-up that includes iMovie and iDVD, It should literally take a day, if you're stickling.[/nq]
Thing is, I HAVE a good Mac set-up, with iMovie (it's what I cut the video on), but not iDVD, and didn't have anyone handy who had the necessary time and gear to burn it. A solution has been found, though - my brother has a stand-alone DVD recorder so I just sent him the tape and he'll knock one off and send it back.
And I've since checked online, and it looks like I can get myself a stand-alone DVD recorder for around $50-$60, or a VHS-to-DVD machine for around a hundred if I want to archive some of my old VHSs one of these days. We'll see how Christmas effects the ole' exchequer, and if the new year finds me a little less than broke I'll invest in either the machine or the upgrade, or maybe both if I'm feeling particularly frisky. Amazing that the corner drug store's photo department will burn a video to DVD but it costs $39.95 and takes three weeks. Forty bucks for one, or fifty bucks for the machine to do it yourself. The blank discs are, what, a few cents each?

Still kicking myself that I don't have the burner and iDVD in my PowerBook - it was just a mistake on my part when I ordered it. I literally ticked the wrong box on the order form, and got the DVD PLAYER rather than BURNER. That little lapse in attention will - eventually - cost me three hundred bones.

Life Continues, Despite
Evidence to the Contrary
Steven

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Find a friend with a good Macintosh set-up that includes iMovie and iDVD, It should literally take a day, if you're stickling.[/nq]
[nq:1]Thing is, I HAVE a good Mac set-up, with iMovie (it's what I cut the video on), but not iDVD, ... the DVD PLAYER rather than BURNER. That little lapse in attention will - eventually - cost me three hundred bones.[/nq]
If it's any consolation... I have about 6 hours of video recorded on my crash-hot new Canon HF S10 AVHCD video camera here in Australia, and my crash-hot new Mac Powerbook can't read it.I've pulled hours of video off the camera already, so I know the workflow, but something seems to have gone wrong on the camera, or in the connection to the laptop. Some stray bit of data is keeping Final Cut Pro from reading from it. So what do I do? Maybe... delete my 6 precious hours of video from this great vacation down the Great Ocean Road in Victoria which I'll probably never visit again? As I have no real choice, I'm still shooting more video onto the camera in the hopes that when I return home somebody will be able to help me figure out how to extract the video.

If they can't help me, then I guess I initialize the storage device and lose everything. At least you've got tape, Steven. I've just got a tangle of bad bits & bytes.
FWIW, SJW suggested to me that I turn my trip into a work of fiction, which was a great idea. But as I tried to do it I kept getting distracted by all the non-narrative stuff, so I'm back to shooting all the great sites. It's going to be a huge editing task when I return, to get it down to a 15 minute travelogue that family and selected friends might actually sit through if I ply them with alcohol. Or, if the camera fails me, I won't have any editing to worry about at all.
Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
Bad tape? We used
to DREAM of having
bad tape...
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