Sony Handycams are the line of camcorders made by Sony, ranging from standard digital camcorders to professional-level 3CCD video cameras. While the process for downloading a video is roughly the same for any type of Sony Handycam, due to the broad range of Sony Handycam camcorders, the ports and cables used to connect it to a computer vary widely. To download a video from a Sony Handycam to a computer, you must find a way to utilize the ports provided on the camera and the ports available on your computer.
Instructions
1. Connect your Sony Handycam to your computer. Perform steps 2 to 4 to connect your Sony Handycam to your computer using a firewire. Skip to step 5 to connect by USB.
2. Use a firewire to connect the Sony Handycam to your computer if the camera and the computer both have firewire ports. All professional-level Sony Handycams and many of the consumer Handycams have firewire ports, though a firewire cord may not come with the camera. It is worth purchasing a firewire for your Sony Handycam if the port is provided on the camera. Video downloaded with a firewire is higher quality and is generally compatible with video-editing programs.
3. Plug the firewire into the firewire port on the camera. If you do not see a firewire port, open any panels on the camera, as the firewire port on Sony Handycams is often covered. The firewire port is a small rectangle, about 1/4-inch wide, with a slight dip in the top center.
4. Connect the other end of the firewire cord to the firewire port on the computer. Many computer systems are being made standard with firewire ports and all Sony Vaio's have them. Note that Sony refers to firewire ports and cords as "i-link." Once the Sony Handycam is connected to the computer, skip to step 6.
5. Attach the Sony Handycam to the computer using the provided USB cable. Attach one end of the USB cable to the USB port on the Sony Handycam, then attach the other end to a USB port on your computer. Note that this should only be done if the camcorder does not have a firewire port. USB is not an optimal video-transfer medium and USB-transferred video is always poorer quality than firewire-transferred video.
6. Open a video-editing software program on your computer. Ensure that you use a video-editing program that has video-capturing capabilities, such as iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Launch the capture feature on the video-editing program by going to the "File" menu and choosing "Import" or "Capture."
7. Turn on your Sony Handycam to the "VCR" or "Playback" mode and cue up the video that you would like to download. To cue the video, press the "Play" button and then use the "Rewind" and "Fast Forward" buttons as needed to go to the part of the video that you would like to begin downloading.
8. Press the "Start Import" button in the video-editing program and begin playing the video file on the Sony Handycam camcorder. When the part of the video you want to download to your computer is done playing, use the "Stop Import" button in the video-editing program to stop capturing.
9. Provide a name for the video file you captured from the Sony Handycam when prompted by the video-editing program. The downloaded file is stored on your computer's hard drive with the filename you provided.
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