Hello i am trying to find out what i need to start making home movies. I have a sony dcr trv70 camcorder. and lost the wire to connect to the computer. What do I need I have a usb port. also do i need a micro phone what kind? Is there such a thing as a usb connector that has three usb slots?? thanks John

The Sony DCR-TRV70 is equipped with S-Video and A/V output.
You would need to equip your computer with a video capture card to run your data from the camcorder to the computer. You would also need capture software to process the transferred video from the Sony MiniDV tape.

If you lost your usb cable that came with your camcorder, you may have to order it from the manufacturer, or you might be able to find one at a computer store, but take the camera with you. Out of my 5 cameras, I have three different cable types. It isn't a one size fits all solution.

As for your usb ports, you have as many as are on your pc. You may have 2 - 4 on the back, and possbily some on the front. What you see, is what you get. You only need one available connection to transfer from your camera to your pc. You need to find out if your usb connection is USB 2.0 If not, you may want to see about a firewire connection. You only need a microphone if you want to dub sound onto your movies. If so, do a search here, and on www.dvdrhelp.com and you will get good information concerning which microphone(s) are good and how much they cost.

Grabek, I have a Sony DCR-TRV50 that I bought 4-5 years ago, looking at the specs your DCR-TRV70 is almost the same.

To make a home movies in DVD quality, you need the following:
1. MiniDV tapes
2. A Firewire 1394 card for your PC or laptop
3. A Firewire cable 4pin to 6 pin to connect your camcorder (with the 4pin) to your PC (6pin). You can search for a cheaper brand if you don't want the expensive Monster Cable.
4. A DVD Authoring software such as Pinnacle Studio 9 or Ulead DVDMovie Factory 4.

How to make a dvd movie:
1. Buy MiniDV tapes and record in camera mode. The camcorder will record Video/Audio into the tape. Do not record in Memory/Network mode as this one will create a low quality video in your memory stick card.
2. Connect your camcorder to the PC using firewire cable.
3. Capture the video from your camcorder with Pinnacle/Ulead. You need at least 12GB harddrive space for an hour of movie.
4. Author the movie, add menu, text, transition effects, special effects etc.
5. Burn to DVD

Another way is to capture the movie from your MiniDV tapes in analog format (not digital) to an analog capture card (more expensive than firewire card) or directly to VHS. You can buy a Mini AV to Composite Video and Audio or if your VHS/analog capture card have an S-Video input you can use a S-Video cable in exchange to the analog Video cable above.

The USB cable is good only to capture digital still images or low quality video (when you use the Memory mode) from your memory stick card.