capturing hd mini dv papes

[devdev]

hi

I have a mini dv hd camcorder from which ive recorded some hd footage. now I'd like to capture a hd avi file

my only previous experience of capturing is via premiere 6 as avis at circa 15gb per hr

what software would one recommend to capture this footage now as a hd avi in decent non lossy quality?

thanks

[hech54]

Capture or Transfer?

[smrpix]

Mini DV HD is called HDV. Premiere or any other basic NLE can handle this. You can also use HDVsplit.

Connect by firewire and make sure your camera and software are in HDV, not DV mode. You will get .mts or .m2t files, not .avi. The filesize will be the same per hour as DV, but higher resolution (1440x1080 anamorphic.)

After capture you can convert to avi if you must. What is your final goal?

[devdev]

hello

to capture footage in a quality format that one day I can edit and create a movie

[aedipuss]

like smrpix said. firewire to computer and use HDVsplit (it's free and easy to use)

[devdev]

part of my thinking is that as I have a ton old sd footage in dv-avi, when I get round to editing something, if I were to want to create something that included my old footage as well my new DD footage - it would make sense to have them both as avi. is that logical?

and also what is the difference between .mts or .m2t files?

[smrpix]

part of my thinking is that as I have a ton old sd footage in dv-avi, when I get round to editing something, if I were to want to create something that included my old footage as well my new DD footage - it would make sense to have them both as avi. is that logical?

Not really. If you want to do editing, you want the material in as pristine a form as possible. Most editing systems easily mix-and-match DV and HDV footage on the timeline.

and also what is the difference between .mts or .m2t files?

Generally, just the letters .m2t is a little more specific as to what it can contain.

[turk690]

and also what is the difference between .mts or .m2t files?

With regards to HD capture, in general, *.mts are AVCHD (a type of MPEG-4), and *.m2t and *.m2ts are MPEG-2 (such as HDV is).

[devdev]

thanks and out of mpeg4 and mpeg2, which format is less compressed or is that not a relevant question?

[turk690]

thanks and out of mpeg4 and mpeg2, which format is less compressed or is that not a relevant question?

MPEG-2 is less compressed and is an older format compared with MPEG-4. The idea and trend here is the pursuit of ever higher quality with the same, or lower bit rates. It's relevant in the sense that the less compressed a format is, the less processing power is required to play back or edit the file. Certain formats with MPEG-2 at its core (like HDV) can be subjected to NLE after capture if your computer is powerful enough. But all told, both MPEG-2 (like HDV) and MPEG-4 (like AVCHD) are still too compressed to be efficiently edited on the fly in most cases, so they are converted to intermediate formats (say, some form of *.avi, VfW and otherwise). In your post #6 above, if you mix DV and HDV in a project, a question you have to ask is what resolution the end product will be; this will determine if you have to upconvert SD clips to HD, or vv. If you choose HD you will probably have to get an intermediate codec, convert HDV clips to *.avi with it, then uprez DV-AVI clips with some exquisite avisynth script, before also converting to *.avi. If SD, you can leave DV clips alone, then downrez HDV, again with the appropriate avisynth script before converting to DV avi.

[Cornucopia]

I prefer to use the terms, "efficient & intelligent". DV & MJPEG ~< MPEG1 < MPEG2 < MPEG4 SP < MPEG4 ASP < AVC < HEVC. Of course, intelligence & efficiency come at the cost of PC horsepower, and latency. Most all those codecs can be More or Less compressed, depending on filesize/bitrate/bandwidth limitations and quality needs.

Scott

[devdev]

thank you all -most helpful