newbie with some capture and format questions

[LSGproductions]

Hi, Im sorry if these are already on the board somewhere but I could not find it with a search. I just signed up here and I have a few questions. I would greatly appreciate it if someone can help me out. Thanks


Is it best to capture my video and save using teh DV-AVI format. Then opening it up to edit and saving again to DV-AVI format and then the final burn process should be converted over to a .TS? or are their other formats to convert over to the dvd burn that will work on regular DVD players just as .TS does? I noticed .TS seems to be the most compatible here in the US.


If im sending my dvd to another country such as Germany does this mean I have to burn it to DVD using PAL instead of NTSC in order for it to work in their country? And does it only need to be converted to this during the final process of burning?


Does Using a USB capture device opposed to a firewire capture device effect the quality of the video?



Is it better to buy a video capture card rather then having a cable that connects to my camcordia to my usb and sound in? Im not sure if I loose quality through the cable

[redwudz]

Where are you getting your video from? You mention camcorder. If it's from a camcorder and it's DV you just transfer it to your computer with a Firewire cable and card. It doesn't capture.

My method with DV: Transfer to computer using WinDV. Edit and filter with VirtualDub Mod. Frameserve the VDM output to an encoder, I use TMPGEnc encoder, encode to DVD compliant MPEG-2 video. Mux out audio or save it as a WAV with VDM and convert it to AC3 with ffmpeggui. Take the new MPEG-2 video and the AC3 audio and put them into an DVD authoring program such as TMPGEnc DVD Author. Burn the resulting DVD files to DVD.

Most newer European DVD players can handle NTSC (US type) videos. Conversion to or from PAL is a little complicated, so avoid it if you can.

USB video, at least from a camcorder is low quality for stills and web video. Use Firewire instead.

If you are not using a DV camcorder, then you will need a capture card.

Back to the original question, where are you getting your video from?

[LSGproductions]

Hi, thanks for the great response! My camcordia is a HI8 and uses 8mm tapes so I dont believe its DV which is Digital Video?

Also is it safe to say that burning a video in mpeg2 format will work on most players?


I guess I will stay away from PAL and just burn the dvds using NTSC. I will probably use the compatability sections here on the website if someone from Germany wants a DVD and Im sending it in NTSC format

Also my current editing software I can use is AVS , windows movie maker, Ulead video studio, and Nero which came with my burner. Theres differnt options on each so I tend to get confused of which program I should stick with.

Do you think is ok to stay with my current procedure such as capturing the video to the computer using AVS software as a .avi, then editing in windows movie maker and saving as a .avi and then using AVS to change it to a .ts and burn.

Whats weird is that when I open up the new .avi file in windows movie maker and save it after editing, the file size ends up being smaller then oriningally. So I wasnt sure if I was loosing quality somehow because the file is being saved as the same format

[redwudz]

I'm not familiar with AVS and I rarely use WMM, but your process sounds OK. It depends if you are happy with the output.

DV is a good format to work with for editing. If you are using the USB output from the camera to the computer, a capture card would likely be better quality.

In that case you would use the composite and audio out from the camera to your capture card or device.

I'm guessing your Hi-8 camera doesn't have Firewire output.

If you are using DV, the file size shouldn't change that much after editing and saving, minus what you have edited out. DV usually takes up about 13.5Gb per hour of video.

[LSGproductions]

ok thanks, Do you know of a good firewire capture card you could recommend? My camcordia has a s video and the red, white and yellow cable outputs so the card cable would need to have this on 1 end and a firewire on the other.

Im not sure if the capture card comes with the cable to connect the camcordia or is that sold seperate?

I looked on ebay and saw a bunch of differnt capture cards but I wasnt sure what is the best.

[TheFamilyMan]

For analog video/audio capture, its pretty much either an external capture device or an internal capture card. The external capture device connects to you computer via firewire or usb (depending on the make/model, most consider firewire better but it may not be in all cases). Internal capture cards are installed in your computer. Your camcorder output cables will easily connect to either type of these devices. Which type or device is the best? Depends on how much money you are willing to spend. Each device has its camp of zealots who are willing to defend its virtues to their death (well...almost). A good place for device specific advice and info is to browse the capture card list, whose link can be found on the left edge of the screen. Good Luck!

Also..there is yet another option which is a dvd recorder, though editing captured footage from a DVD can be problematic.