Cannot view videos... PC gurus, c'mon in.
 

I have a Sony camcorder that takes mini DVD's to record clips, model number DCR-DVD505. It's awesome in every way except I'm having a single issue.

After I've recorded a dics full of clips, I put it into my PC and play it. Everything looks and sounds fine. However, on the Windows Media Player page that I watch the clips on, I cannot save it onto my PC.

Here's why -

On the Windows Media Player page, in the left hand corner under the "File" tab, the drop down menu that opens doesn't have the "Save As..." highlighted. Therefor, I cannot save it.

Any ideas? Is there a program I need to download? What am I missing?

This is pissing me off...

Just save it off of the DVD itself...

It'll be a .mpg file.

To do this, pull up My Computer, right click your DVD Rom, choose Explore, find the files, right click, copy, paste to your choice of locations.

Try Windows Movie Maker.

This is the best way. If for some reason you can't see a video you have pulled or converted, google "K-lite Codec Pack" and that'll have all the codecs you'll ever need. Don't forget to uncheck the Windows Media Player Classic install option so you can keep your current one if you do install the Codec Pack.

If you can view the videos, you already have the proper CODEC installed. The reason you can't save them is because they are probably in DVD format, you can tell by opening the DVD drive in My Computer, if you see a Video_TS folder, it's DVD format, if you see MPG or AVI files, you can just copy them from the DVD. If it's DVD format, go to www.videohelp.com and search for "DVD to AVI", it will list programs and tutorials for the conversion. You can convert to MPG for smaller files, but AVI will be the better quality.

Okay Rock, here's how far I get -

My Computer
Right click onto the DVD ROM
Click Explore
Then I get the below message -

"Windows cannot read from this disk.... The disk might be corrupt, or it may be using a format that is not compatible with Windows"

Any ideas?

How so?

How do I use Windows Movie Maker to view the mini discs I've recorded?

Can you, if you don't mind, give me a direct link on that URL, as to what exactly I need to download?

Right about now, as frustrated and as miserable as Janet Reno's blind-date would be, I'm open for all options.

Cheers.

You can play the DVD on your PC but can't see it in My Computer? That doesn't sound right.

This is about the simplest tool that will do what you want. DivX will give you the best quality and but if you want to give a video to other people to play on their PCs, they will need the DivX CODEC installed. It's free, and most people already have it, but choosing the AVI format will work for everyone.

What you want to do is is not like creating a text document or downloading a video from YouTube, it's much more complicated than you realize. The FairUse Wizard should do what you need.

No, I can see it under My Computer, however, when I right click it and click onto Explore, I get the message -

"Windows cannot read from this disk.... The disk might be corrupt, or it may be using a format that is not compatible with Windows"

I'll give that link a spin later this evening.

Appreciate it.

On the DVD camcorder, you must FINALIZE THE DISC.

By doing this, you make it so that no more 'stuff' can be added to the disc. Until you do this, it's not usable...

Okay, have no idea what that means Rock but I'll insert a full one back into the Cam and go thru the Menu settings and try it.

Cheers.

Still odd that it plays but isn't readable in My Computer, don't you think?

A disc that is not finalized will read from the device that's writing to it but not from other devices. Try burning something to a disc on your pc without finalizing it and see if it reads on another. Same thing.

Nah, just "finalized" it and made no difference....

:(

I bet its saving in UDF format, not ISO-9660. Just a guess....