It is possible to capture into Quicktime Dv codec on WinXP

[Trollmar]

First of all I have to explain that the cutting of the footage will be made with FinalCutPro on Mac.
We have a lot of DV source material to capture ... so it would be great
if the captureing could be done on diffrent machines.
But finally the project goes on an Mac with FCP using Quicktime DV codec. so me question is simple...

It is possible to capture into Quicktime DV codec on WinXP?? ..so that no further converting is needed! Which editing software or only capture tool could do this??? There has to be an option which DV codec should be used
for capturing!!
greetz
troll

[pianoman719]

First of all I have to explain that the cutting of the footage will be made with FinalCutPro on Mac.
We have a lot of DV source material to capture ... so it would be great
if the captureing could be done on diffrent machines.
But finally the project goes on an Mac with FCP using Quicktime DV codec. so me question is simple...

It is possible to capture into Quicktime DV codec on WinXP?? ..so that no further converting is needed! Which editing software or only capture tool could do this??? There has to be an option which DV codec should be used
for capturing!!
greetz
troll

I'm no expert, but If I understand you correctly, you just want to take "DV source material" from a camcorder or DV converter box, and use a PC to store it to a hard drive for later use on a Mac. Since DV camcorder footage (or converter box footage) has already been compresssed using a generic DV codec, you don't need to apply any new codec when transferring to PC. You just want to pack it into a file container and store it on a hard drive. That's roughly all the "capture" software should do with incoming DV source material. So the codec per se should not be an issue. The Mac will probably know how to read the DV codec used by the camcorder or converter box.

What may be an issue is that the PC and Mac typically use different file containers: .avi on PC, .mov or .dv stream on Mac. Maybe there's a PC capture utility that will let you bring in DV footage directly to a .mov container instead of an .avi container. Maybe Quicktime For Windows Pro would do the job. It's a $30 download from the Apple Store. Research first!

Otherwise, you can bring the DV footage into an .avi file on the PC, and then export it to a .mov container once you get it over to the Mac side - but that's an extra step.

There's probably some workflow that will let you do roughly what you're asking, but the question is: does it save you time and money, or is it eaiser to just wait and transfer the footage directly to the Mac edit station in the first place?

Another approach would be to try using a cheap used blue & white G3 Mac for transferring the DV footage to FireWire drives. The advantage is that you wouldn't need to convert from .avi, and you could keep all your FireWire drives Mac formatted.

Test your workflow carefully before committing to it, and do a cost/benefit analysis.

-Pianoman

[Trollmar]

What may be an issue is that the PC and Mac typically use different file containers: .avi on PC, .mov or .dv stream on Mac. Maybe there's a PC capture utility that will let you bring in DV footage directly to a .mov container instead of an .avi container. Maybe Quicktime For Windows Pro would do the job. It's a $30 download from the Apple Store. Research first!

Thx for your quick response...
your right with this generic DV stream!
And QT Pro could do this ..but only with start/stop option!
So its possibble to "capture" the whole Tape at once.
But we have so much source material that we have to log the clips into pieces for the editing process!
Avid free dv only has OMFI wrapper!
So I guess I have to take alook at the Windows Movie maker!
its a non Pro application ..but if it has an option for logging the clips before capturing and could use the .mov containers ..would be great!!
I dont have a PC's with Xp on it any longer...
as anybody experience with this App?
greetz

[pianoman719]

I'm not convinced that a mixed PC/Mac workflow is the way to go, but let's say you want to do it. One approach would be:

On the PC, use the best shot-logging application you can find (new topic?), so that you get all the DV clips nicely sorted out and ready for later editing on the Mac. The shot-logger will probably save the DV streams to .avi containers. Windows Movie Maker doesn't save to .mov and may not be the best shot-logger. But anyway, here are forums and tutorials for WMM.

Once you have your DV footage logged, then use some type of conversion utility - ideally still on the PC side - that will export those .avi files to .mov files. Make sure whatever you use does NOT transcode or recompress the DV video - just "pours" the existing DV footage from an .avi container to a .mov container. If the utility does batch processing, all the better! (Keep in mind that exporting from .avi to .mov will probably mean creating a *copy* in .mov format - so you'll need more disk space.)

Whatever workflow you choose, please test carefully before you commit to it. Nothing could be worse than logging hours of footage on the PC only to find you can't massage it into a format that Final Cut Pro is happy with. You gotta ask yourself how much extra time you'll spend converting files, how much more disk space you'll need, and whether it's really worth it. -Pianoman

P.S. Mind if I ask what sort of project this is?

[Cornucopia]

It's easier than you think.

FCP prefers DV-compressed Quicktime files, but I just checked, and FCP (from v2 up at least) will directly import/read any files that quicktime can import/read. This includes DV-AVI files. Make sure they're Type2 (the kind with the separate muxed audio).

WinDV can capture and export to DV-AVI, as can WMM (and also has the neat feature of saving as separate "clips" as per tape timecode discontinuity), and probably VirtualDub as well. I'm pretty sure they can all do Type2. Obviously, heftier editing apps (Vegas, Premiere, etc) can do this as well. AVID Xpress or AVID DV use the QT DV file wrapped inside an OMF container for cross-industry compatibility, but this file can be re-wrapped to be QT, or AVID can export to QT-DV. I understand you wanting to skip a step, though.
Logging is another matter. None of these do a great job of logging to any "compatibility standard". How much of your job needs to be logged on the PC(s) vs. the Mac(s)? Do you want to be able to log directly from tape, with tape control, or do you just need to log the file once captured? These kinds of things will determine you logging needs. BTW, AVID has a (sometimes free) cross-platform logging app.

Scott

[pianoman719]

Thanks, Scott! Will FCP work as easily with DV .avi as it does with DV .mov? Or will life be harder if you base an entire FCP project around DV .avi? I would want to give FCP what it prefers. Anyway, something to test before committing to a workflow.

Thanks for the other great info. I've read that Windows Movie Maker can only export to DV-AVI Type 1, not Type 2. Is that only an issue if you edit in WMM, or would that affect shot-logging as well? -Pianoman

[Cornucopia]

As easily? Probably not. You should do some tests to see if it has to render or (hopefully not) pre-render anything.

Yes, I found the same technote on MS site that said WMM only exports to type1 when doing DV-AVI. This would be a problem, as QT ONLY supports Type2. There are some Type converters out there, but then that's another step. If you're capturing in WMM-that's what it's saving it as also (type1). If the Auto-clip segmenting feature of WMM is what you're looking for, maybe it's worth the additional conversion step.
But look into WinDV, it may have a similar auto-clip segmenting feature, and I'm pretty sure you can specify Type1 or Type2. (Don't really use it as I have Vegas, Premiere, AVIDs, FCP here).

Scott