New digital8 owner - 3 questions

[joedotcom]

Wondering whether someone could give me some advice on this - just bought a Sony Digital 8 and use the USB to stream (no capture card).

1).What is the best program to use for capture? I have Ulead VS7, Windows Movie Maker and Virtualdub. MM is by far the easiest for editing, but involves reconverting from WMV at the end. Virtualdub seems to drop a lot of frames but has the most options. VS7 is kind of clunky but has the best range of output formats.

2. What capture format should I use? AVI? DVAVI? MPEG2? WMV? The goal is to make high quality SVCDs, and use the least possible number of encoding steps after editing (I'm capturing to AVI now, editing in Movie Maker and then converting to MPG with TMPGenc). HD space isn't a problem.

3. Most programs give me a standard 320x240 res for output. That can't be right, can it? Shall i capture at 640x480 and then resize for SVCD? Or can my camera not produce anything better than VCD quality?

TIA for replies on any of the above.

JDC

[MachineMan]

I would use VideoStudio 7 becuase it has the most options and can do every thing you want with one software. Also I suggest picking up a cheap firewire card that comes with the cable(I-link). I bought a SIIG for $49 that came with card, cable, and VS6. Others are also availible. You will get the best quality this way becuase you are captureing exact DV and converting to MPEG2 rather then analog. Using the I-link is neat becuase you can control the camera from VS7. It will automatically stop captureing when the video is complete. You can then convert to SVCD format and burn or set up the capture at SVCD format to reduce the encoding steps. Windows Moviemaker is easy but limited. I have never used Virtualdub.

[joedotcom]

Great, thanks - any ideas regarding capture resolution? 640x480 for SVCD?

[MachineMan]

Nope, my DVD player doesn't play SVCD so I never made one. You can capture in VS7 at 640x480 but I never tried. Use the Capture - Options-advanced menu to set your capture settings. You may have to make a few to determine the best settings. Also check out the table at the end of the SVCD section (blue menu) in DVDrHelp.

[rsuave5]

well i capture using moviemaker and i find it does what i need 99% of the time. have you dwonloaded the new version 2.0? it has lots more effects,trans,and audio features.

any way i capture as dv-avi in 720x480, i then edit and add audio, trans, etc, i then save the movie as dv-avi 720x480 i then use tmpgenc to convert to svcd, i then use ulead moviefactory to add menu and chapters .

to me this has produced the best results in the surest of manners. but fork over the dough for a fire wire card and goto work.

power vcr 2 captures nice as well as premiere but moviemaker is fine!

[joedotcom]

Ok, thanks for the info. One last question: Can anyone tell me what the difference between a graphics card with VIVO and DVI capability and a capture card is? The obvious difference is that capture cards are 10 times more expensive, but do they basically do the same thing? TIA