Mini DV Tapes are used by most consumer camcorders to record video. While most camcorders come with a cord so that you can hook up the camcorder to your TV to play the video, that is not the most optimal solution. In fact, you can easily take the recorded video on your Mini DV tape and transfer it to a DVD if you have a DVD recorder. Then you will be able to watch the video you recorded on your DVD player or on a computer that plays DVDs.
Instructions
1. Power on your DVD recorder, your TV and your camcorder. For best results, plug in your camcorder instead of relying on battery power.
2. Put the Mini DV tape you want to copy into the camcorder and put the camcorder on 'playback' mode.
3. Connect your camcorder to your DVD recorder with a Firewire cable. Depending on your brand of camcorder, it may have come packaged with a Firewire cable from the manufacturer. Sometimes a Firewire cable is called an i.Link cable. Be sure to put the cable in the correct input on the DVD recorder, which would be the 'DV' input for this scenario.
4. Change the input on your TV so that you can view what you will be recording. On some televisions your options will be "Input 1" and "Input 2" while others will be "A/V 1" and "A/V 2".
5. Test your connection by pressing play on your camcorder. You should have the video and audio from the Mini DV tape on your television. If not, check your Firewire connections as it is likely in the wrong input.
6. Put a recordable DVD in your DVD recorder and rewind your Mini DV tape to the point you want to start recording. Once everything is in place; press "play" on your camcorder while pressing "record" on your DVD recorder to record to DVD. Your Mini DVD tape will record in real-time to your DVD.
Tags: your camcorder, your recorder, Firewire cable, Mini tape, camcorder your, Mini tape