How to Capture DV camcorder with USB ?

[SingSing]

There are quite a few DV camcorder has both firewire and
USB port. Are their capture method different ?

I want to buy a DV camcorder, and like to make VCD.
How do I do DV to VCD conversion ?

[BKL]

I bought an el cheapo Firewire card thjat came with Ulead VideoStudio 4. SE, which supports capturing from the camcorder and then processing into VCD. Very simple. Ulead had, and probably still does have, a trial download of their VideoStudio version 5, which supports DVD, VCD and SVCD creation.

[BKL]

Forgot the URL http://www.ulead.com

[ItsMe]

Firewire is for capturing the video from the camcorder, USB is for capturing stills only as USB 1.x is not fast enough to capture DV.

[SingSing]

Thank for the information, I have ulead video studio, because it come with my ATI AIW128 card.
I though ulead does not support SVCD format.

Do you means the DV is stream into the Computer as mpeg files ? I though DV is none mpeg, that the reason some Dv camcorder use memory card to hold mpeg short.

[Tommy]

DV from a camcorder is in the DV format, not mpeg. Some cameras can create a short mpeg file and store them to a memory card. Those files are normally transfered via USB. If you have a firewire card it should come with a program to use with it. I also have a ATI AIW 128 and the version of Ulead that came with it does not do DV.

As for DV conversion, I normally just capture and save the video to AVI and use tpmg. If your using fat 16 or 32 your going to reach the 4gb limit in about 18 minutes.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Tommy on 2001-10-09 12:04:50 ]</font>

[SingSing]

Hi, I maneaged to capture "XVCD compatible" mpeg2
with my ATI 128AIW, so analog capture is not a probelm.
The problem is the color and the clarity from analog capture is not great. I have quite a few DVD's analog
capture that proved that.

So, The mpeg on DV cam is just like those on digicam :
A 5FPS low res mpeg movie.

Sound like they are treated like digotacam and
get transfer via USB.

Er, look like the only real mpeg camcorder is those from
Hitachi.

[gNOMEintheRedHat]

SingSing,

If it is truly a DV camcorder you will not transfer VIDEO through USB only STILL SHOTS are transfered throug USB and they are stored on a MEMORY CARD, not on the tape.

Hitachi does sell a MPEG camcorder, though I was not impressed by the quality.

If you have or are purchasing a DV camcorder, you will want to purchase a IEEE 1394 (iLINK, FireWire) card. This will transfer the DV files to the computer.

Some cameras WILL record SHORT, 5fps MPEG files To the MEMORY CARD that will (again) be transfered through USB.

hope this helps.
gNOME

[SingSing]

So, is the video file transfer from DV camera AVI file ?
If it is an AVI, then what are the value of the following ?
Frame Rate
Resolution HxV
Audo bit rate....

When using Ulead video studio 5 or mediastudio, they are good for capturing the DV to the hardisk. But the quality is extremely poor when converting the AVI to VCD or SVCD. Use TMPGenc, the quality is so much better, a blind man could see the difference.(especially for VCD)

[gNOMEintheRedHat]

SingSing,

Yes the files from DV are DV format with an .AVI extention

They are 720 X 480 resolution.

Audio is recorded in 16bit PCM just like CDs.
My Panasonic Palmcorder is selectable audio of either 16bit or 12bit stereo audio @ 48kHz

You can buy a fire wire IEEE1394 card thas has Ulead DV Studio software that will allow you to convert the AVI's to VCD or you can use TMPGenc and follow the guides here a VCDHelp.

I just bought my camcorder from Half.com it is AWSOME. it has 20x optical zoom and ANALOG INPUT, I plug my VCR into it and record TV directly to it and then transfer to the PC.

It has USB too, but as I said before, it is used ONLY to transfer the photographs from the 8MB Memory card.
All video is recorded to DV tape and can ONLY be transfered through IEEE1394 (firewire)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: gNOMEintheRedHat on 2001-10-11 10:05:20 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: gNOMEintheRedHat on 2001-10-11 10:06:17 ]</font>

[SingSing]

Which panasonic model did you get ?
What price did you paid for it ?