"Capturing" DV footage - does software matter?

[spup345]

My goal is to transfer my camcorder's DV tape footage to my computer, edit it, then burn it to DVD while keeping max quality all the way but not going to crazy lengths to do so.

Does it matter what program I use to "capture" (or "transfer" as I learned from digitalfaq) the DV footage to my PC to then edit & author later?

Currently I use Pinnacle 12 to "capture" the footage to AVI and it results in around 13gb per hour. I know VirtualDub does capture to AVI, but is there any difference if it's just a "transfer" of footage in my case?

[edDV]

My goal is to transfer my camcorder's DV tape footage to my computer, edit it, then burn it to DVD while keeping max quality all the way but not going to crazy lengths to do so.

Does it matter what program I use to "capture" (or "transfer" as I learned from digitalfaq) the DV footage to my PC to then edit & author later?

Currently I use Pinnacle 12 to "capture" the footage to AVI and it results in around 13gb per hour. I know VirtualDub does capture to AVI, but is there any difference if it's just a "transfer" of footage in my case?

DV capture over IEEE-1394 is usually a stream capture to a DV-AVI file. When done correctly (without lost frames) the data in the DV-AVI file are identical to the DV tape (i.e. still first generation).

In that case, all DV capture is the same although other features differ. I like WinDV for basic capture. It is the most foolproof and has a buffer and frame loss warning.

Virtualdub is a different story. It decodes DV into RGB or Y,Cr,Cb using a DV codec (e.g. Cedodica DV codec ).

That is lossy.

[ron spencer]

WinDV and use nothing else for cature....works ALL the time

[spup345]

Thanks. That takes care of that.

[lordsmurf]

You can also prevent/avoid frame drops by following this advice: http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/vid...ped-frames.htm