Best Software For DV Firewire Capture

[jennyandgreg]

I just put together a P4 4.0GHz, 1250 Mhz Bus dream PC. Now I need the capture software.

What does everyone recommend as the best software for digital video capture from a Sony camera via firewire??

[Pootie]

I capture and edit my home movies with adobe premeir. It has a big learning curve though.

[jennyandgreg]

I actually have Premier 6.5 but I thought Premier didn't let you capture, just process.

I capture and edit my home movies with adobe premeir. It has a big learning curve though.

[SLICK RICK]

Ulead MF2 works pretty good. Very simple.

SLICK RICK

[kazzer]

Very low end: Windows Movie Maker 2
Low end: Pinnacle Studio 8
Medium-high end: Vegas Video 4

[BJ_M]

he is asking advice on capture .. it really doesnt mater as DV is not capture but transfer of a data stream from one media to another -- the capturing (really should be called transfering software) software has no bearing on the quality ..

yes -- vegas 4 realy is a great NLE app .. better than avid dv in my opinion but the next version of final cut pro is also pretty good .

[ADS Ivan]

Premiere has a capture module built into it. Note that the Premiere has only been able to capture DV since Premiere 6.0 (6.5 works great as well).

Go to File > Capture > Movie Capture to open the capture window.

ADS Ivan

[SquirrelXss]

Lol, thanks JennyAndGreg, i was just going to ask the same question.... my prayers have been answered.

[doug1937@hotmail.com]

I use Pinnacle Studio 8 and it meets all my DV capture demands.

BJ_M,

I'm suprised to see you describe DV capture as not a process of "capturing", since it is nevertheless possible to drop frames. What's up with that? How can it not be capturing if frames can be dropped? That's data loss...

[jennyandgreg]

As I understand DV transfer you are really not capturing video at all, you are just transferring data very much like from one hard drive t another. Its much more a data transfer than a frame capture.

[BJ_M]

I use Pinnacle Studio 8 and it meets all my DV capture demands.

BJ_M,

I'm suprised to see you describe DV capture as not a process of "capturing", since it is nevertheless possible to drop frames. What's up with that? How can it not be capturing if frames can be dropped? That's data loss...

if you have a system/hard-drive not able to write less than 4meg per sec i suggest you have a more serious problem other than what software to use ..

the reason you could drop frames is that there is no error check -- its just a data flow - like a raw modem transfer .. if a bit is lost , no one could tell untill a program didnt work (or a frame is missing)

the same thing is used for stuffing 800megs on a 700meg cd -- there is no error check but the feeling is that if you loose a few bits playing pack a media stream .. who cares -- plus it ussually doesnt mater (in that case) ..


capturing invloves the conversion of one format to another -- sometimes yes, you can 'capture' a digital stream .. but in the case of DV , it is (if a firewire transfer is used) just transfering the digital data from the tape to the hard drive -- nothing gets changed in the proccess ..

[jennyandgreg]

Wont be much longer before digital camcorders dont have tapes, just harddrives that hold an hour of video. Once that happens it will truly be a simple drive to drive transfer.

[pharries]

www.scenalyzer.com
Cheap simple, great features.
So good I am surprized Adobe has not licenced it for Premiere!

[The village idiot]

Back to the original question...

DVio is a great no frills DV application. There are a couple of others in the tools section. There was a new one about a week ago.... called something like winDV or something. I replied to that post, but haven't tried the software yet, so you could search for my user name to find that one.

I also like EditStudio from http://www.puremotion.com. There is not to much learning curve involved, and it has great output, both DV and mpeg (with mpegXS plug-in). It is also fairly cheap (NOTE:free upgrade to v.4 later if you buy now!). Capture/transfer (gather), edit, etc. There is a free full 30 day demo for it and mpegXS, so it is worth a try. Customer support is second to NONE from them. They will answer questions on their forum even on the weekends. I have never had to contact support directly yet, the forum takes care of most questions.

Vegas Video 4 is great for more complex things where you might want to have 3d effects as plug-in modules to your editer, but haven't used it (just highly rated). Avid XpressDV might be worth the money when the free personal version comes out, otherwise more hype than performance. Priemere is also highly rated. As is Final cut pro (too bad not for PC users).

All in all DVio and Editstudio is what I use, and what I recommend for most users. And you only really need DVio when you are using an old slow computer to get your video to the disk (P266 laptop and firewire hard drive).

After that DVD movie factory for chapters and burning, though you can use it to "gather" and edit your DV.

[The village idiot]

Oh yeah, almost forgot...

Avid has had a hard disk recorder for "pro" cameras for many years. Panasonic just came out with a "pro" camera that uses a LARGE flash disk for recording. I haven't seen it yet, but one of the other stations in town has a demo of one right now. I'm sure I'll get the chance to see it soon though.

[BJ_M]

laird has a hard disk recorder also .. http://www.lairdtelemedia.com/products/ultraseries.html#CAPDIV

for HD video shooting - we shoot straight to a raid system, there are even backback mounted raid systems for this now ..

[phhoth]

Scenalyzer is a great progam just to capture. After taht use TMpGenc, MainConcept encoder, etc.
you can get a link to Scenalyzer on this forum

[lgare]

Hitachi have released a camera that records straitgh onto an 8cm DVD-R/RW
Just a bit of info...

[hoyboy]

I have Ulead VideoStudio5 that came with my firewire card. It is a fairly basic program but it seems to do the job ok. Some people may have different experiences with Ulead products, judging by some of the comments that have been posted previously.

[tommybs]

regarding scenalzyer: i have the registered version but it still adds a kind of watermark! every now and then it appears on the screen for a second. and i only transferred the movie from my dv cam to my pc nothing else...
???

[dcsos]

I use ADOBE PREMIERE 6.5 to capture DV

The best thing about capture application like this is it includes an
AUTO-NAMING feature (i hate typing)

as good as premier is , I will use ULEAD CAPTURE if I need to look carefully at the footage as I capture it.

This is because PREMIERE only shows the captured video in a TINY
window that afaik cannot be enlarged

Also AVID Discontinued the "CAM CUTTER" harddrive camera due to problems with hardrive cpture..
Now they have developed OPTICAL systems like that of HITACHI or the PANASON

The Panasonic Disc recording camera is HI-DEF and records to BLURAY disc it is a prototype shown at NAB and scheduled for release in 2004

Watch out with DV capture using PREMIERE 6 on a MAC,
as there seems to be a slider that degrades the DV quality if you don't leave it a HIGH or 100%
if its just a file transfer...how is a quality setting possible?

[BJ_M]

rarely would anyone use a mac w/ premiere 6 anyway (which was really poor w/ DV) -- they would be using FCP

on adobe web site - they have a a couple web pages which really blast using a mac for AE and Premiere and photoshop .

adobe doesnt seem to want to win any new mac fans -- at one time thier most loyal fan base ...