MiniDV 'Pass Through'

[thewdawg]

I transferred (converted) a 2hr VHS tape from VCR to MiniDV cam (actually pass through) via WinDV to PC (type 2). I was pleasantly surprised at the ease, quality and audio/video synch. I have been trying this recently from VCR thru ATI AIW capture card and haven't been able to obtain a suitable result, plus the myriad of settings gets totally confusing.
What is the downside to the pass through? Am I missing something with the pass through that would be a benefit by going the capture card route, assuming I could figure out the proper settings?
Also, in VirtualDub, when using ‘direct stream copy’ to save edits (not re-encode), how do you ‘save’ the current file? Or, must you just use ‘Save as AVI’ and re-name the file. Just trying to see if there is a way around ending up with (2) 26Gig files temporarily.

Thanks Again!

[MOVIEGEEK]

There is no downside to using DV-AVI via firewire(unless you use FAT32 and have a 20GB HDD) that's why I gave up using analog.

[stantheman1976]

When saving in VitualDub if you use Direct Stream Copy it will not save the edits yo've made. You need to use Full Processing Mode, but make sure you check the Compression tab and use the same codec that the video was done in.

[lenti_75]

there is no downside, this is the best way, unless you have a real good capture card, which is really expensive.