DV Codec Setup

[MI6]

How can I setup what codec to use when I capture video from my DV camera.
First I have instal Panasonic DV codec and when I was capture with "Scenaalyzer live", video was captured with this codec. Then I've install Canopus HQ codec but still Scenaalyzer was capture with Panasonic DV codec. Last day I was install Cedocida DV codec and now all captured material are with this codec.When I try to open DV AVI files captured with this codec TMPGEnc don't recognise this codec (black screen). I wonder, how I can manage which codec I want to use when I capture the video. In these capturing programs that I've tryed there is no option to choose which video codec to use like program for analog capturing.
Which of these three codec is best for capturing.Maybe some other codec I should use for best video quality.
Regards.

[redwudz]

Simple answer, you can't. The camera sets the codec in hardware and you can't change that. You are only transferring the DV to the computer.

The Panasonic DV codec (And other DV codecs) allows you to view it and lets you use editors like VirtualDub to work with the DV file. You can also use the codec to save other types of AVI to DV format.

There are two types of DV, Type 1 and Type 2. Type 2 is what TMPGEnc needs. It won't work with Type 1, AFAIK. You can set that with your transfer program. I use WinDV most of the time for transfers, but ScenalyzerLive has a few more options.

[edDV]

As redwudz says:
The camcoder video is encoded to DV in the camera. Windows XP includes a MS-DV codec that is widely used to decode the DV stream for monitoring purposes.

You need a codec to decode DV to YUV or RGB for editing or filtering. The codec is needed again to re-encode to DV format when you are done.

Many programs do this with internal DV codecs. Some need an external codec to work with DV format. This usually is related to license fee issues.

[Safesurfer]

You might be interested in an old program called DVC Switch

Here's a description of what it does from the help manual

What is the DV-Codec switch

The DV-Codec switch is a utility to easily switch between the Microsoft DV-codec,the Mainconcept DV-codec, SONY DV-codec and others.
DVCSwitch handles the DV-codec workaround fully automaticly and MOVIE-CAPTURE remains available!
DVCSwitch temporary deletes QCap.dll (or an other Dll if you want) from the system directory.
Starts Premiere (or other NLE like MediaStudio Pro).
After a delay (customizable, 1 second default), DVCSwitch copies back the QCap.dll to the system directory.

What DVCSwitch does more?

Creating an extra backup of QCap.dll.
DVCSwitch offer easy control of the System File Protection mechanism of Windows.
DVCSwitch supports Windows 2000, Windows XP and ME. (please let me know if it works for ME?)
When DVCSwitch is stopped, WFP/SFP is turned on again (if it was OFF ofcourse).
While Premiere is running it is no problem to stop (turning WFP/SFP on) DVCSwitch because Premiere is only checking for QCap.dll at startup.

DVCSwitch saves all your settings you made when clicking on start button with exception of the WFP/SFP setting. WFP/SFP is always turned on when stopped or started.
Control over Mainconcept DV-Codec (enable MS or MC DV-codec)

[guns1inger]

This makes no difference to the transfer process, as no encoding is done at this time. I might be useful when creating new footage at a later point however.