Comments on: I need continual help

By: Simo

Simo — Thu, 03 May 2007 10:14:03 +0000

I am catching up with a couple of days blogs, I think most people have answered your problems but no-one seams to have gone into much detail on the cable issue. The scart adapter as mentioned will plug into most tv’s or videos and you can get from maplin fairly cheaply, as mentioned get a switchable one. The other option should be firewire, if you have a mini dv camera you will almost definitely have a firewire port (ieee as mentioned above) with this you can plug into your computer (you may need another adapter if it doesn’t have firewire built in but any computer from the last 4 years or so should have) this will then give you the option to edit your video and then burn to the newly purchased correct dvd’s!

By: Martin Eyles

Martin Eyles — Wed, 02 May 2007 23:13:29 +0000

The white plug is the left audio channel
The red plug is the right audio chennel

If you have something that plays music around, you may find that you can plug these into that instead of the tv, for better sound. (although you don’t have to – they will work in the tv)

The yellow plug is composite video
The black plug is s-video

Either of these can provide the video to your tv (via that adapter). Use whichever looks better (The black s-video will look better if your tv supports it properly (and you set it into the right mode), but worse if it doesn’t)

By: Christopher (not the Chris above)

Christopher (not the Chris above) — Wed, 02 May 2007 12:48:50 +0000

I do not know how to solve your problem. But I do find this post to be quite amusing.

By: Jill

Jill — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:02:00 +0000

I know nothing about DVDs but it seems that your problem has been solved.
I am extremely glad to hear you are feeling a bit better. When I’m blue I check out a great website http://www.cartoonchurch.com Perhaps you’ve heard of it

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:44:48 +0000

Just to say a huge thank you for all the replies. Seriously – brilliant. I was so pleased when I came back from being out.

Sorry that most of the messages were caught in the moderation queue which meant that you couldn’t see other people’s answers. But the replies all seem to match up, so that is marvellous.

By: Phillip Fayers

Phillip Fayers — Tue, 01 May 2007 21:06:15 +0000

On problem 1: The speed marked on the DVD media is the maximum at which it will work – there should be no problem in running at a lower speed.

The + verses – thing doesn’t matter too much in your case (apart, of course, from the fact that you need to buy + disks to record with a + drive). The main thing is that more home DVD players work with – disks than + disks, so if you want to record videos for other people to play on DVD players you may find they don’t work.

You’re lucky that its a relatively recent DVD drive. The really early ones from some companies would only write on disks they recognised. You see all DVD media (disks) have a manufacturer code and some of the early drives checked the code – if they didn’t recognise it they would refuse to right anything.

By: Chris Clark

Chris Clark — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:44:11 +0000

Yes wrong type of disc but speed not an issue if your DVD is writing slower than disc…a problem if it is writing faster.

Most camcorders now output to IEEE firewire. This is a digtal format. This doesn’t plug into a DVD which uses composite video or analogue. What does the camera say it has?

By: Ian M

Ian M — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:41:50 +0000

1. Yup. Wrong ones. Get DVD+W, or DVD+RW if you want to rewrite. I think it’ll be fine to write with a slower speed on a faster disk, but not the other way round.

2. SCART is probably the answer. The other answer is a new TV.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:39:35 +0000

P.S. I bought your book and my girlfriend thinks it’s very funny even though she’s an Irish Presbyterian and isn’t really all that familiar with the Anglican church, but I guess a lot of things are cross cultural and that.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 01 May 2007 20:37:25 +0000

Hello 1) Yes, you need DVD+R. However, the speed is broadly immaterial. All it means is that you can, if your drive is capable, write on them at speeds up to 16x. If your drive can't do that, it won't. If you've got a disc that's rated at 4x, and you try to write at it at 8x, /then/ you'll have a problem, but if the disc is faster than the drive, you're fine. 2) I assume your telly has SCART sockets on it. They look like this: a SCART socket. You can get an adapter that you plug the wires from your camera into that plugs into a SCART socket. Something like this, from Maplin will do you just fine and dandy. You'll be able to get them from Dixons or anywhere like that - if you're unsure, just take your cables along and pick the least expensive one that looks like it should work. Don't worry about getting expensive gold-plated oxygen-free superfancy things; unless your TV cost about the same as a small car, you won't see a difference.