I have a real cheapo laptop that I run everything off…but I want to put some video on there from my camcorder…
Now, there’s no firewire and no PCMCIA or whatever it is slot. Just USB…is there any way of popping video on here without it looking like a slideshow?
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Well, you can pickup a composite video to USB device like the one Dazzle makes. Dazzle Product Info here.
I used to use a product from them called a Dazzle 80 - seems to be about the same as described above. I found the audio inputs didn’t work at all so I routed the Audio to my soundcard input and that worked fine.
You lose a generation, of course, but if the source video is good quality the captured video is quite watchable.
An alternative might be to get a VCR/DVD combo and assuming you have a camera that can output ‘composite video’ - record to VCR and transfer to DVD. Then you could get the video onto your lappy with the DVD. Then you would just need video software for the lappy.
I know they were selling a VCR/DVD combo here in the US for about $150 - probably less on Ebay.
Eyup!
I have an analogue video input card for my computer, but the results are disappointing.
The method I use is to plug my camcorder into my dvd recorder and record the output onto dvd.
Then I copy the dvd onto my computer for editing. Works well.
Steve
Thanks guys. 
I think I’ll try the DVD recorder. I’m sure we have one somewhere…