Virtualdub settings to capture DV

[magillagorilla]

Hello again,
I have been capping some miniDV tapes to HDD via FireWire using VirtualDub. It looks like the freeware app of choice is WinDV. I have already transferred a bunch of footage just using the default Virtualdub settings when I selected the Windows DV Directshow as my capture device.

I hope I'm not doing this wrong. The size is set at 720x480, I know this is OK, but the color space seems to allow for adjustment. I left it at the default option but what should I choose for a 1:1 DV to HDD copy. Are there other settings I should be concerned with? Is virtualdub a bad choice for transferring DV?

Thanks for any help.

[magillagorilla]

Update, I tried WinDV and it seems to work but it samples at 30558kbps where VirtualDub samples at 29811kbps. What gives? I thought MiniDV transfers were just a capture of the stream? Shouldn't the data rate be the same.

In Virtualdub I left all the settings default. Video format is 720x480 data format set to [Current: dvsd 24 bits per pixel]. Is this incorrect?

Whis is the best application to use here. I don't want to do anything fancy, I just want a 1:1 copy of the tapes.

Any help?

[jagabo]

I've never used VirtualDub to capture DV but I think you're just seeing the difference between type 1 and type 2 DV (type 2 has a second copy of the audio channel). Nothing to worry about unless your editing app doesn't like one or the other.

[magillagorilla]

Continuing on the archive project. I got to a DV tape where 2/3rds of the tape recorded in virtualdub without a problem. These tapes are all family video in 5-10 minute clips. I have copied about 5 DV tapes with seemingly no problem. I am stopping and starting a new file between each clip. The last 3rd of this particular tape seemed to record without error. When I went in to the folder to review the files, all of the last third recordings from the tape did not display a thumbnail like all of the other files created by the same method. I thought, weird, maybe its a windows refresh issue. However, when I played the files back, there was no audio. Same tape, same capping session, same "SP" recording setting on the entire tape but flawed cap results.

To troubleshoot, I recorded the same section of tape using WinDV. The video and audio captured fine and gave me a file with a thumbnail. Weirdness.

Also, I know DV is not a good codec for playback, but I was wondering if this is normal: when I play the DV AVI files back in WMP the entire file playes without error until the very end. At the end, like after the last frame, WMP throws an invalid file error. This happens on all of my DV AVI files on playback. Is this normal? It's like the container for the file is not closed properly or something.

I also noticed that virtualdub drops about 1 frame every 5 minutes. This is an acceptible loss to me but I wonder if it is normal.

Perhaps I should use WinDV to redo all of my captures......... hours of time........ ugggg

[jagabo]

I'm not sure if VirtualDub is simply saving the DV data that comes from the camera or if it is decompressing the video then recompressing it. You want to avoid the latter. I would just use WinDV or DVIO to capture DV from a camcorder.

WMP should not crash after playing a DV AVI. I've never seen it do that.

[Jim44]

Seconding what jagabo suggests - I've been using WinDV to transfer my MiniDV camera footage for years. Works great. It does have a minor bug - you should start the camera with the camera controls, then press the "Capture" button in WinDV. The camera controls within WinDV can sometimes cause there to be no audio transferred (bug confirmed by WinDV's developer). But if you follow that procedure - camera first then WinDV - you should have no problems. No dropped frames, and the DV-AVI files play just fine in WMP, and now MPC-HC.

[magillagorilla]

Thanks for the help. I kinda figured that would be peoples' advise, I was trying to avoid re-re-doing all the tapes I just did. But my archive project is all about doing it right and being done with it. It was bothering me that virtualdub was creating files at a different bitrate anyway. Almost like it was transcodeing the file or something. WinDV seems to be the preference here, any advantage to DVIO? I know DVIO is sans the preview screen.

Thanks for the tip on the capture start procedure. Does the controller work after the initial start or should I just not mess with it?

[Jim44]

Thanks for the tip on the capture start procedure. Does the controller work after the initial start or should I just not mess with it?

I think it works OK after the initial start, but I'm just in the habit now of controlling the camera with the camera buttons. Less chance of a mistake that way - BTDT

[magillagorilla]

Update,
WinDV has been working very well for my miniDV capping/transferring. No droped frames, audio seems good, and I am getting a consistant bit rate. Another thing I noticed is that when I was capping miniDV with virtualdub my CPU (2.33Ghz Core 2 Quad) was running at 14-20% usage during capture and 3-5% idle. Now when I am using WinDV my CPU is running at 2-4% during capture and 0-1% at idle. The difference in CPU usage plus the difference in bit rates leads me to assume that virtualdub is recodeing the data.

Any way to stop WinDV from automatically starting a new file when it detects changes in the time-stamp on the tape? This is just a minor annoyance when I have a 7 minute segment with 5 start/stops on the tape I get too many small files.

Thanks again for the help.

[Gavino]

Any way to stop WinDV from automatically starting a new file when it detects changes in the time-stamp on the tape?

In the configuration, set 'Discontinuity threshold' to zero.

[Jim44]

Any way to stop WinDV from automatically starting a new file when it detects changes in the time-stamp on the tape?

In the configuration, set 'Discontinuity threshold' to zero.

Yep. Additionally, the WinDV website has an interactive screenshot that pops up "tool-tip"-type explanations for the various configuration settings.

[magillagorilla]

Thanks for the tip. It is working as I wanted by setting 'Discontinuity threshold' to zero. Now..... to stitch the segments back together (from th eunwanted segmentation) without loosing anything, I can just use vdub with the "append contigious file name" trick using Direct Stream Copy on audio and video? Or should I just recap? I don't want to loose anything, but would like to avoid re-capping hours of video.

[Jim44]

Now..... to stitch the segments back together (from th eunwanted segmentation) without loosing anything, I can just use vdub with the "append contigious file name" trick using Direct Stream Copy on audio and video? Or should I just recap? I don't want to loose anything, but would like to avoid re-capping hours of video.

I haven't used it in a while, but appending should work. If for some reason it doesn't, re-transferring would.